...Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960. As an early graffiti artist, he expressed his frustration at his environment and surroundings in his graffiti and also the poor circumstances and neighborhood in which he lived. However, by the power of his art, he was able to emerge from being just a graffiti artist to one of the most celebrated artists of this century. Described as Neo-Expressionist, Basquiat’s work is based on American Punk which reflected the emerging “hip-hop” scene of the time. His graffiti and later his paintings reflected his submersion in counter-culture and he described frustrations about the ghettos of New York in his art. His frustration at the narrow streets and their citizens living in dark places, together with the potential threats that he saw living in...
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...don’t give it. Because of that, they either go to a means of substance abuse to momentarily get away from it all, or they just give up. In Jean-Michel Basquiat’s case, he did both. An artist’s major fault, I believe, is forgetting who they are and where they came from once they reach that fame stage; sometimes they want to win it all, and that is what ultimately ruins their life. Winning is not worth any price at all, because you could end up losing everything you worked so hard for in the beginning. Friendships, relationships, family; all of that can be gone in an instant and you believe that what you gained as an outcome is far better than what you had before. Personally, I would never choose fame over my friends or family because fame is momentarily, but friends are almost forever. If I ever did become famous off of something I’m great at doing, I wouldn’t become someone I wouldn’t like myself. I would stay humble just because of the fact that I came from humble beginnings, just like Basquiat did. But, fame does have a way of changing people into something they were better off not being. As I said before, it’s a daily struggle for artists to fight the urge to let fame and fortune consume them. Some don’t; but others, like Basquiat, do. Once you change, you end up leaving behind those are you care for most. I personally feel that Basquiat wasn’t justified in how he treated his...
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