A facsimile edition of the artist's fascinating working notebooks
Brooklyn-born Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88) was one of the most important artists of the 1980s. A key figure in the New York art scene, he inventively explored the interplay between words and images throughout his career, first as a member of SAMO, a graffiti group active on the Lower East Side in the late 1970s, and then as a painter acclaimed for his unmistakable Neoexpressionist style. From 1980 to 1987, he filled numerous working notebooks with drawings and handwritten texts. This facsimile edition reproduces the pages of eight of these fascinating and rarely seen notebooks for the first time.
 The notebooks are filled with images and words that recur in Basquiat's paintings and other works. Iconic drawings and pictograms of crowns, teepees, and hatch-marked hearts share space with handwritten texts, including notes, observations, and poems that often touch on culture, race, class, and life in New York. Like his other work, the notebooks vividly demonstrate Basquiat’s deep interests in comic, street, and pop art, hip-hop, politics, and the ephemera of urban life. They also provide an intimate look at the working process of one of the most creative forces in contemporary American art.

The Notebooks (The Sketchbooks)

Arts & Photography

Basquiat, Jean-Michel

History & Criticism

Princeton University Press

A collection of essential quotations and other writings from artist and icon Jean-Michel Basquiat
One of the most important artists of the late twentieth century, Jean-Michel Basquiat explored the interplay of words and images throughout his career as a celebrated painter with an instantly recognizable style. In his paintings, notebooks, and interviews, he showed himself to be a powerful and creative writer and speaker as well as image-maker. Basquiat-isms is a collection of essential quotations from this godfather of urban culture. In these brief, compelling, and memorable selections, taken from his interviews as well as his visual and written works, Basquiat writes and speaks about culture, his artistic persona, the art world, artistic influence, race, urban life, and many other subjects. Concise, direct, forceful, poetic, and enigmatic, Basquiat’s words, like his art, continue to resonate.
Select quotations from the book:
<ul>
<li>"I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them." 
</li>
<li>"I think there are a lot of people that are neglected in art, I don’t know if it’s because of who made the paintings or what, but, um . . . black people are never really portrayed realistically or I mean not even portrayed in modern art." 
</li>
<li>"Since I was 17, I thought I might be a star." 
</li>
<li>"The more I paint the more I like everything." 
</li>
<li>"I think I make art for myself, but ultimately I think I make it for the world." 
</li>
</ul>

Basquiat-isms

Jean Michel Basquiat died in 1988 at the age of 27 after a decade spent in frantic pursuit of life and art. During his brief, but productive reign as "enfant terrible" and prodigious deity, Basquiat impacted contemporary art with an unsettling mixture of artistic resources and a personal mastery of the social nuances of his era. Collaborator with other artists such as Andy Warhol and Francesco Clemente and an influence on their work, Basquiat remains today a controversial artist of significance and excitement. The drawings in this book, published to coincide with The Whitney Museum of American Art's major retrospective of Basquiat's painting, capture all the energy, excess and conflict of the 1980s. An essential link between his street art and his painting, Basquiat's drawings provide insight into his artistic imagination and explore the entire range of his diverse interests.

Basquiat: Drawings

Bulfinch Pr

A collection of the work of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), whose meteoric and often controversial career lasted for only eight years until his death at the age of twenty-seven. Features exceptional reproductions of Basquiat's work, including many rarely exhibited pieces from private collections. Offers fresh new perspectives on Basquiat's achievements, explored in the contexts of the key influences on his work, including Picasso, Matisse and Twombly; the development of hip-hop culture; and the emergence of a multicultural society Explores many of Basquiat's individual works in detail, with particular reference to his working methods and techniques. Accompanies a major travelling exhibition.

Basquiat

Hoffman, Fred

Mayer, Marc

Brooklyn Museum Bookshop

This is a survey of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), a key member of a group of New York artists who used the powerful images of graffiti to create a new expressive language. Published to accompany an exhibition held at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1992-93, the book contains illustrations reproducing paintings, drawings, collages, silkscreens, and constructions, many previously unpublished. The text includes essays by Dick Hebdige, Klaus Kertess, Richard Marshall, Rene Ricard, Greg Tate and Robert Farris Thompson. They explore Basquiat's artistic contributions from several perspectives.

Jean Michel Basquiat

Pellizzi, Francesco

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Vrej Baghoomian

Shadows on the wallNoises down the hallLife doesn't frighten me at all Maya Angelou's brave, defiant poem celebrates the courage within each of us, young and old. From the scary thought of panthers in the park to the unsettling scene of a new classroom, fearsome images are summoned and dispelled by the power of faith in ourselves.Angelou's strong words are matched by the daring vision of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose childlike style reveals the powerful emotions and fanciful imaginings of childhood. Together, Angelou's words and Basquiat's paintings create a place where every child, indeed every person, may experience his or her own fearlessness.Celebrating its successful 25 years in print, this brilliant introduction to poetry and contemporary art features brief, updated biographies of Angelou and Basquiat, an afterword from the editor, and a fresh new look. A selected bibliography of Angelou's books and a selected museum listing of Basquiat's works open the door to further inspiration through the fine arts.

Life Doesn't Frighten Me: A Poetry Picture Book

Children's Books

Angelou, Maya.

Boyers, Sara Jane

Literature & Fiction

Harry N. Abrams

One of the best-known urban artists from the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jean-Michel Basquiat is celebrated for his groundbreaking style, which combined street art with a distinctive iconography sourced from global history, politics, and pop culture. This 16-month calendar features 13 of Basquiat’s most iconic works, recognized for their edgy and raw lines paired with a strong sense of color and balance.

Jean-Michel Basquiat 2020 Wall Calendar

Abrams Calendars

Jean-Michel Basquiat's raw and colorful graffiti style artwork is reproduced here for our museum quality notecard collection. Our best-selling QuickNotes are smaller than notecards but large enough to convey personal greetings, thank-yous and invitations. 20 notecards, 5 each of 4 images. 20 envelopes. Magnetic closure. Sturdy, reuseable box, ideal for keepsakes.

teNeues - QuickNotes: Jean-Michel Basquiat Crown Untitled, Notecards with Box, Blank Inside, 20 Full Color Notecards with 20 Classic White Envelopes, ... 20 Notecards in a box with Magnetic Closure

teNeues Stationery

Jean-Michel Basquiat's raw and colorful graffiti style artwork is reproduced here for our museum quality notecard collection. Our FlipTop Notecard box notecards are full color and large enough to convey personal greetings, thank-yous and invitations. 20 notecards, 4 each of 5 images 20 envelopes Magnetic closure Sturdy, reusable box, ideal for keepsakes

teNeues - FlipTop: Jean-Michel Basquiat Notecards, 20 Full Color Notecards, 20 Classic White Envelopes, Keepsake Box, FlipTop Magnet Enclosure, The ... Notecards and Envelopes in a Keepsake Box

Jean-Michel Basquiat's raw and colorful graffiti style artwork is reproduced here for our museum quality notecard collection. Our new Mini FlipTop Notecard box notecards are full color and large enough to convey personal greetings, thank-yous and invitations. 
• 16 notecards, 8 each of 2 images 16 envelopes 
• Magnetic closure 
• Sturdy, reuseable box, ideal for keepsakes 
• Box measures 3 7/10 x 3 7/10 x 1 3/10 in.

teNeues - Mini FlipTop Notecard Box: Jean-Michel Basquiat Mini Notecards, 16 Full Color Notecards, 16 Classic White Envelopes, 8 Each of 2 Images, ... Full Color Mini Cards and Envelopes

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