Art history presentation created for high school students to introduce concept of identity, using Basquiat as a case study. Sources cited.

1. identity
case study: Jean Michel Basquiat
1960-1988
American Neo-Expressionism
Untitled, 1982
This painting sold for $110.5
million at Sotheby’s this year,
making it the 6th most expensive
work ever sold at auction.

2. Charles the First, 1982/2005, 1982/2005
Limited Edition Screenprint/ Edition of 85
61 × 48 in
154.9 × 121.9 cm
Exhibited his Neo Expressionist
paintings in galleries and
museums in the 1980s.!
Explored wealth vs poverty,
integration vs
segregation, inner vs
outer experience.!

3. Six Crimee, 1982
Acrylic and oil paintstick on masonite
72 × 144 in
182.9 × 365.8 cm

4. – John-Michel Basquiat, “State of the Art- Andy Warhol
and Jean-Michel Basquiat” 1986.
“I think there’s a lot of people who are neglected in
art; I don’t know if it’s who made the paintings or
what, but um, black people are never portrayed
realistically in or ever portrayed in modern art
enough. Just um, for a change, you know?”

5. Identity can be…
What you believe to be true about yourself.
Changes a lot throughout the course of one’s life.
(Example: who you are as a child, teenager, young adult,
middle aged adult, elder)

6. Music and
Identity
“Nobody gets over anything; time doesn’t heal
any wounds; if he stopped loving her today, as
one of George Jones’s most famous songs has
it, it’s because he’s dead. The landscape in
which identity is supposed to be grounded is not
solid stuff; it’s made out of memory and desire,
rather than rock and soil, as are the songs.”
!
Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost,
p. 121

7. -Filmmaker Tamra Davis, from “Basquiat: Through the Eyes of a Friend”
“Jean-Michel looked at how music was transforming
using samples, and he was like, well, if the musicians
can borrow from James Brown, why can’t I borrow
from Cy Twombly? He’s referencing Rouchenburg, or
Twombly; he wants you to see that he’s referencing
African art, bu he’s also referencing his Haitian
background, and when I did the film, I would look at
the paintings and I could see what books he was
reading at that time or what cartoon he was watching
or what movie he might be looking at. Everything he
was influenced by made a little appearance in his
paintings.”

8. Identity can be defined by:
-culture(s) of origin!
-ethnicity/ethnicities!
-gender/ sexual orientation!
-family reputation/parent’s social standing!
-home life/ neighborhood!
-immigration status/ownership of property!
-religious practice!
-political affiliation/standing with the law!
-finances/how we spend our money!
-education/ job(s)!
-access to technology!
-beliefs about the world!
-life choices!
-health/ability!
-altruism/how we treat others!
-clubs, sports, activities, hobbies!
-the clothes we wear (uniform?)!
-the places where and the people with whom !
we spend the most time.!
-how you spend your free time!
-where/ where you are not allowed access.
What is easier or harder to see?
How would you describe yourself?
Is any one person summed up by these definition
Why or why not?
What would you add to this list?

9. New York City in the 1980’s.
Listen to: Gray (Shades of), a recording
by Basquiat's band.
American from Brooklyn, NYC,
Basquiat began tagging with
friends in a collective called
SAMO in Lower Manhattan.
This work came out of the
desire to fight for a voice while
on the margins of society in
1980s America.
Influenced by early hip-hop,
post-punk and street art.!

10. Every life that is
lived on this Earth
is limited by a
unit of time, the
length of which
we can’t predict.
Warhol and Basquiat shared a short space in time together. The friendship and approval of an art
icon still thriving and creating work gave Basquiat access to a new level of fame and exposure.
!
Warhol died at 58 years of age from complications from a gall bladder surgery. He had survived
decades of drug use, fast living, and a murder attempt.
!
Basquiat died from a drug overdose in his art studio when he was 27 years old.
If he had lived a longer life, how do you think his identity could have changed?!

11. Bibliography
How Basquiat became a Muse for so Many Artists
http://basquiat.com/
Basquiat Reigns Supreme at Evening Sale
Did You Know That?
Gray (shades of) Discography
SAMO as new form of Art
Artsy- Jean Michel Basquiat
Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. New York: Viking, 2005. Print.
State of the Art- Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat 1986