Dear Jean-Michel Basquiat,
I write this to you as I am staring at your exhibit. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks. This exhibit has people flocking to PAMM as if they were giving out free money. Visitors of all ages, are admiring your art, some witnessing their first ever Basquiat piece, and others, veterans in the game when it comes to all things SAMO. I like to think I fall under the category of a vet, even though at the ripe age of 20, I could possibly know nothing. After countless readings of different books on your life, watching your interview from the 80's, and researching all your friends like Warhol, Madonna and more, I like to think I'm versed in all things Basquiat, or at least a little.
Staring at these sheets of papers from your composition book, I know one thing, you were never crazy. People like to think that an artist in his 20's with a drug abuse was nothing more than a kid in his 20's with a drug abuse and a cool paint set. I like to think you were a Genius Child, just like Langston Hughes said, ahead of your time and changing the game one painting at a time. And as your exhibit in the sunny cit of Miami, Florida inspires us all. They did you no justice. They did not show to any of us who you were as a person, simply displayed your pieces, just like all the other artists that came and left through the museum.
People ask why I say this, when I was in love with the art but hated the exhibit itself. Besides the fact that the exhibit did not include key parts of your life, the exhibit did not allow us viewers to immerse ourself in your art work. Pieces of notebooks spread out, with your penmanship and some collected pieces sporadically spread out, and of course an entire section dedicated to an interview of yours from the mid 80's. It was dead, the art, that had so much life, was taken away. With beauty came a plaque next to it "Basquiat, 198X, Composition notebook." Is that all the explanation we get?
Why do we not learn about your pieces, individually, about the time they were made, the influences that inspired them. That untitled piece that has the French Revolution history on it, where is the explanation for it? Or how about the piece collaborated with Warhol, nothing. Why are we not informed that your favorite artist was Twombly, or that La Guernica by Picasso was the most beautiful thing you had ever seen. How come the exhibit did not even mention your drug abuse? As terrible as it was, the majority of your art was created under the influence. We were not informed that you would blast the TV while painting and then write whatever words stuck out to you from the speaker.
All we got was, "made by Basquiat." They did not tell us how you started, how graffiti and SAMO made you who you are, or the message you were trying to teach to fans. How you were political, how you wanted to be the first African American artist to break free of the chains. Did they tell us that artists like Jay-Z own two of your pieces and includes you in so many of his songs? They did not tell us that you were a DJ with your best friend. We got nothing.
As a member of the museum that I frequent and respect, I expected more from your exhibit. Although I am ecstatic to see so many of your pieces on display at once, I wonder, why did the people behind the scenes not seem as excited to display as I was to see it? Why is it just another artist, with just another temporary exhibit. Why were the discussions about you subjective. Who is Jean-Michel Basquiat? We will not know, unless we try to find out for ourselves.
I apologize Basquiat, for instead of making you proud and using your art to create emotion and provoke thought, all we got was an exhibit to make money - just like you would say SAMO, same old s**t. And that is exactly why most young kings get their heads cut off.
