This is a selected list of books, articles, videos, and websites pertaining to Jean-Michel Basquiat. A good full bibliography and exhibition listing up to 2004 is available in Meyer, Basquiat, 2005 (below). For a very extensive listing of catalogs and books, many out of print, see the African-American Visual Artists Database: http://aavad.com/artistbibliog.cfm?id=23. BOOKS ON BASQUIAT
Buchhart, Dieter. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Fondation Beyeler, Hatje Cantz, May, 2010.(Catalog of the current Basquiat exhibition in Switzerland, with essays by Buchhart, Glenn O'Brien, Jean-Louis Prat and Robert Storr. Also includes a transcript of the Becky Johnson / Tamra Davis interview with Basquiat that was the basis for The Radiant Child movie, and another version of the often reprinted chronology by M. Franklin Sirmans.) Chiappini, Rudy (ed.). Jean-Michel Basquiat, Milan: Skira, 2005. (Catalog of an exhibition at the Museo d'Arte Modern, Lugano, Italy in 2005. Includes an interesting essay "Jean-Michel Basquiat: speaking in tongues" by Richard Marshall, and Bruno Bischofberger's recollections of the Warhol / Basquiat collaborations, but some of the other essays are less reliable.) Clement, Jennifer. The Widow Basquiat. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2001. (An intimate and poetic account of Suzanne Mallouk's time with Jean-Michel Basquiat. See http://www.amazon.com/Widow-Basquiat-Jennifer-Clement/dp/184195165X#reader_184195165X. Out of print for years, a new edition has been released by Shearsman Books in 2010.) Emmerling, Leonhard. Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960-1988. Köln: Taschen Art Album, 2003. (A short, accessible and affordable paperback about the artist and his work, with color reproductions. http://books.google.com/books?id=ildOSz1bKuMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Emmerling&ei=9mcrSqXaD4mkzATxsMyfBw) Fretz, Eric. Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography, Greenwood Press, 2010. (A new biography following the artist's life and times, but also describing his work and its importance. Accessible for the young adult (high school) audience, it also serves a jargon-free, well researched source of information on Basquiat, and an introduction to his art based on a critical respect. Available from Amazon). Hoban, Phoebe. Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art (2nd ed.), New York: Penguin Books, 2004. (Detailed journalistic biography based on many interviews by the author with people in Basquiat's life. Uses the artist to describe the New York art world of the 1980s.) Mayer, Marc; Hoffman, Fred, et al. Basquiat, New York: Merrell Publishers / Brooklyn Museum, 2005. (Great catalog of the 2005 Brooklyn Museum exhibition. Several important essays by Fred Hoffman, Kellie Jones, Marc Mayer, and Franklin Sirmans.and many pages of color reproductions.) Marshall, Richard. Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York: Abrams / Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992. (Another great catalog, of the 1992 Whitney retrospective exhibition. Contains Marshall's ground-breaking essay on the artist, and Franklin Sirmans classic "Chronology," along with essays by Rene Ricard, Greg Tate, Robert Farris Thompson, Dick Hebdige, and Klaus Kertess and others. Out of Print, but still to be found in many libraries with large art sections. Partial text may be read at Amazon's "look inside"). Marshall, Richard. Jean-Michel Basquiat: Works on Paper. Paris: Galerie Enrico Navarra, 1999. (The catalogue raisonné of Basquiat's known drawings, and companion to Pfeffer-Levy et al 2000, below. Out of print.) Marenzi, Luca. Basquiat, Milan: Charta, 1999. (A catalog of an Italian exhibition in Civico museo Revlotella,Trieste in 1999. Includes English translations of most existing interviews with Jean-Michel Basquiat.) Mercurio, Gianni; O’Brien, Glenn; et al. The Jean-Michel Basquiat Show, Milan: Skira International, 2007. (A lavishly produced hardcover catalog, containing photographs of Basquiat and his times as well as reproductions of the many works in the exhibition. Three essays, including one by Glenn O'Brien on Basquiat and music.) O’Brien, Glenn; Cortez,
Diego, et al. Jean-Michel Basquiat 1981: the Studio of the Street, Milan:
Charta / New York: Deitch Projects, 2007. (A large well-produced catalog
concentrating on Basquiat's works of 1981, when he moved from graffiti
writer to neo-expressionist painter. Includes reminiscences by Diego
Cortez, Glenn O'Brien, Gerard Basquiat, Arto Lindsay, Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Jeffrey Deitch, Suzanne Mallouk, Annina Nosei, and Michael
Holman.) Pfeffer-Lévy, Géraldine (ed); Prat, Jean-Louis; Marshall, Richard, et al. (contrib). Jean-Michel Basquiat, (3rd edition, two volumes), Paris: Galerie Enrico Navarra, 2000. (Out of Print. This is the latest edition of the catalogue raisonné reproducing in color all of Basquiat's known paintings, with several added essays. Hard to get a hold of, but the complete illustrations are essential for serious post-graduate research into the artist).
OTHER BOOKS Angelou, Maya. Life Doesn't Frighten Me. New York:
Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1993. (Edited by Sara Jane Boyers. A picture book for young children featuring poems by Maya Angelou and illustrated with paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat. Gruen, John, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, New York: Prentice Hall, 1991. (Interviews with Keith Haring, and other people about Haring, but includes several stories about Basquiat.) Haden-Guest, Anthony. True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998. (Includes a section on Basquiat, and quotes from Haden-Guest's late interview with the artist. http://books.google.com/books?id=ACMbY9yahNsC&printsec=frontcover) Hager, Steve. Art After Midnight: The East Village Scene. St. Matins Press, 1986. (Out of Print contemporary exploration of the Downtown art scene. The informative chapter on Basquiat has been reprinted in Hager, Steve. Adventures in the Counterculture: From Hip Hop to High Times. High Times Books, 2002. http://www.amazon.com/reader/1893010147?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sib_dp_ptu#reader)
Pearlman, Alison. Unpackaging Art of the 1980s. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2003. (Book on visual art of the 1980s includes interesting chapter: “Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and the Art of Subcultural Distinction”) http://www.amazon.com/Unpackaging-Art-1980s-Alison-Pearlman/dp/0226651452#reader Warhol, Andy; Hackett, Pat (ed.). The Andy Warhol Diaries.
New York: Warner Books, 1989. (Andy Warhol's diaries, as told to Pat
Hackett, are filled with references to Basquiat, and the daily dating
helps confirm a chronology for him.) http://www.amazon.com/Andy-Warhol-Diaries/dp/0446391387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275417223&sr=1-1#reader_0446391387 Weinberg, Jonathan. Ambition and love in modern American art Yale University Press, 2001. (includes chapter “The Bombing of Basquiat” on the Basquiat / Warhol collaborations and gay subtext to their relationship.) Young, Kevin. To Repel Ghosts: Five Sides in B Minor. South Royalton, VT.: Zoland Books, 2001. (A book of hip poems all touching on aspects of Basquiat's life and work).
SELLECTED ARTICLES Armand, Louis. “Jean-Michel Basquiat©: Identity and the Art of (Dis)Empowerment” Litteraria Pragensia 11.21 (2001): p 94-106. (An analysis focusing on Basquiat’s themes of authority, black history, and identity, and the distorting critical interpretation of “neo-primitivism"). http://members.tripod.com/~louis_armand/basquiat.html Danto, Arthur. "Flyboy in the Buttermilk," The Nation, 9 May 2005, p. 28. (A thoughtful article on Basquiat, and how his "brilliant, daring, impulsive" work transcended the fevered 1980s, written at the time of the 2005 Brooklyn Museum retrospective.) http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050509/danto Davvetas, Demosthenes. "Lines, Chapters, and Verses: the Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat." Artforum 25 (8), April 1987: p 116-20. Decker, Andrew. "The Price of Fame: the Turbulent Life and Art of Jean Michel Basquiat." Art News 88, January 1989: p 96-101. Faflick, Philip. “The SAMO Graffiti… Boosh-Wah or CIA?” Village Voice, 11 December 1978: p 41. Fairbrother, Trevor. "Double feature: collaborative paintings, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, traveling exhibition." Art in America September 1996. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n9_v84/ai_18664212 Hoban, Phoebe. “SAMO IS DEAD: The Fall of Jean-Michel Basquiat.” New York Magazine. 26 Sept 1988. pp 36-44. hooks, bell. “Altars of Sacrifice: Re-membering Basquiat” (originally published Art In America, June 1993. Reprinted in hooks, bell. Outlaw Culture, London: Routledge, 1994: p. 25-38; and in hooks, bell. Art on My Mind: Visual Politics, The New Press, 1995: p. 35-48.) http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_n6_v81/ai_13917784/
Hughes, Robert. "The Purple Haze of Hype" Time. 16 November 1992: p.88. (A negative review the 1992 Whitney Basquiat retrospective, rating the artist as an over hyped limited talent) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,977017,00.html McGuigan, Cathleen. "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of American Artist", New York Times Magazine, 10 February 1985: pp 20-28, 32-35, 74. (article reprinted by the visual poets society at wordpress.com and in The New York Times guide to the Arts) O’Grady, Lorraine. “A day at the races: Basquiat and the Black Art World.” Artforum International, 31(8), April 1993: pp 10-12. (Perceptive article by this Haitian-American artist on her interactions with Basquiat, how he was limited by a lack of connection to a Black audience and art world, and the problems with the white art world's primitivist interpretation of his art.) http://lorraineogrady.com/sites/default/files/wr203_basquiatfull.pdf Raynor, Vivien. "Art: Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Boone," New York Times, 11 May 1984: p 26. http://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/11/arts/art-paintings-by-jean-michel-basquiat-at-boone.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Raynor, Vivien. "Art: A Basquiat-Warhol Pas de Deuy," New York Times, 20 Sept. 1985, p 85. (The negative review of the Basquiat/Warhol collaborations that helped cause the split between the two artists) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02EFD91739F933A1575AC0A963948260 Ricard, René. "The Radiant Child," Artforum, December 1981: p 35-43. (Discursive article by the poet on Basquiat and other graffiti and young new imagist painters that helped launch Basquiat's carrier. Text re-published on Ricard's blog.) Schjeldahl, Peter. "Young Fun," The New Yorker, April 4, 2005: p 100. (A review of the 2005 Brooklyn Museum Basquiat retrospective. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/04/04/050404craw_artworld ) Silverthorne, Jeane. “Jean Michel Basquiat” (review of Annina Nosei gallery exhibition) Artforum 20 (Summer 1982): p. 82-83. Smith, Roberta. "Basquiat: Man for His Decade," New York Times, 23 October 1992: p C1ff. (review the 1992 Whitney Basquiat retrospective) http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/23/arts/review-art-basquiat-man-for-his-decade.html?ref=jeanmichelbasquiat&pagewanted=print Smith, Roberta. “Collisions on Canvas that still make noise,” New York Times, March 11, 2005: p. E38. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DD173CF932A25750C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 FILM & VIDEOS Bertoglio, Edo (director). Downtown ’81. 72 mins. Written by Glenn O’Brien; produced by Maripol, USA. 2000. Distributed Zeitgeist Films, NY. (A fictional film originally shot in New York 1980-81 and staring Basquiat in the role of a homeless artist, featuring some of his earliest paintings and performances by several of the downtown bands of the time). Davis, Tamra (director). Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radient Child. Feature documentary film, 88 mins. USA, 2010. Distributed Arthouse Films, NY. (An excellent documentary on the artist. Opening sequence and more info at http://www.jean-michelbasquiattheradiantchild.com.) DVD distributed by New Video Group, 2010. Davis, Tamra (director). A Conversation with Basquiat, (interviewer Becky Johnstone) documentary short film, 21 mins, USA. 2006. Arthouse Films, NY. Trailer Clip.(no longer in circulation). Dunlop, Geoff (director). State of the art: ideas and images in the 1980s. Great Britain: Chanel Four / Arts Council of Great Britain, 1987. DVD video distributed by Illuminations, London, 2006. (Features one segment on Basquiat with short interview from the mid 80s. A clip is available on You Tube.) Schnabel, Julian (director). Basquiat. 106 mins. Miramax Films, 1996. (A fictionalized feature biopic freely adapted from Basquiat's life.) DVD distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, 2002. Torton, Stephen. One Day on Crosby Street, 1982, 22 mins. (A film shot and edited by Stephen Torton, then Basquiat’s assistant. It revealingly shows Basquiat painting several works in his Crosby Street loft in September 1982. The film is unreleased commercially, the has been shown publicly at a few special events, such as film festivals and museum retrospectives.) Tschinkel, Paul (producer). Jean-Michel Basquiat: an Interview, (interviewer Marc Miller), video tape, ART / New York No. 30A, 1998. DVD distributed Inner Tube Video, NY. (A very early interview, by turns embarrassing and revealing. A clip is available on You Tube)
See "Links" for recommended websites.
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