One of my goals in 2020 is to read more. See other books I've read or listened to here.
I remember seeing Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art by Phoebe Hoban on my tbr in at least 2 of my last houses. So that means I’ve had it for at least 10 years.
Born in 1960, Jean -Michel Basquiat was determined to become a famous artist. He accomplished his goal before his untimely death in 1988.
Jean-Michel, by all accounts made his own career using his talents and tenacity. This book follows his life from birth to death, but not in a linear fashion. It was very interesting to learn about his early life as Basquiat was notorious for distorting his own story and keeping people guessing about his origins. However the man was born, the artist was born from Basquiat’s shear will, prolific artistic drive and, having seen his works in real like I feel, his extraordinary talent as an artist. The majority of this book is devoted to his most active years as an artist, his various galleries, managers, art friends, and the art scene during that time. A large portion is devoted to his lifestyle, his work, but also his excessive alcohol and drug use. Similarly to his birth, childhood, schooling, and actual work, there is less of this book devoted to his relationship with Warhol, then there is about the art scene, the gallery owners, and the many many deals that were made at the time. Basquiat often gets into ridiculous detail about these topics, leaving out any pictures of his actual work. Much of this book could have been edited for content as well as context. Much of it was boring and repetitive. Overall it did give a good sense of how Basquiat was a shooting star of a person, whom no one in his orbit could ignore, how his work was a sort of unschooled magic that flowed from him at basically all times, and how his demise and death was irrifrutably tragic, but also completely self imposed and self realized. I found this book very interesting but I cannot recommend it due to poor writing and poor editing and lack of examples of Basquiat’s work.
Have you read this book? What did you think? Are you a fan of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art?
This book was mentioned in my November Wrap Up.