Basquiat, Basquiat, Basquiat! — #vesticonversations

by Mariana Custodio

Veni, Vidi, Vici... I mean Basquiat.

To start my art criticism, I decided to choose the artist of 2017. You haven't heard about Jean-Michel Basquiat yet? So, something is wrong.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, the sweet boy of the contemporary art world was born on 1960 in New York. Even though he only lived 27 years, that was enough for him to achieve what we denominate as SUCCESS. I mean, being able to develop an anti-artistic movement, in this case Neo-Expressionism, getting it to become a new artistic movement is the same as spitting in the face of the government and leading to its fall. It looks impossible but Basquiat did it.

His fame is not new but during 2017 Basquiat was 'on fire' again because of the price that one of his pieces achieved at a Sotheby's auction. On 18 of May 2017, his 'Untitled' piece set a new world record by being sold for £83 million, making him the most expensive American artist ever. You might be thinking that this is an exuberant value, but if we go back a few centuries, even Adam Smith would defend that the exuberant rewards of the artists were fair because the rarity and beauty of the talents, and the discredit of the artists was unfortunately perceived (and still) has public prostitution.

More than an art genius, Basquiat was a marketing genius. If today his pieces are sold for millions, the same started selling postcards on the streets for 1 dollar. Doing graffitis in downtown Manhattan signing as SAMO, was what attracted mysteriously art dealers and galleries. Annina Nosei was the gallerist that got the artist in 1981 on her gallery in a non-tragic apotheosis that ended up selling out the artist's pieces in one night.

Soon arrived partnerships with Andy Warhol and a beautiful romance of friendship between the two ending in their deaths in the same year. Basquiat was able to show the world that art does not need intrinsically to be beautiful thus putting us in touch with the most human visceral emotions- waking us of a rotten peace to a reality that we ignore in order to fall asleep.

A Basquiat painting is a poem without words; and if a picture is worth a thousand words, a Basquiat painting is the best example of it.

Do Not Revenge, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1982) — *Do Not Revenge*, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1982)