Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn and died just across the river in Manhattan too young an age. In his short life, he filled many notebooks with poetic fragments, wordplay, drawings, and observations. The subject matter was a blender-full of pop culture, race, class, and the history of the world. His work sells at auction for millions and he’s become one of the most popular and valued artist of his day. He was influenced by cartoons, advertising, Pop art, street culture, politics –which is to say pretty much everything. This show gives insight into the importance of writing in the his process and the notebook pages on display contain gestation of his iconic imagery –tepees, crowns, skeletal figures, and expressivefaces— that makes appearances throughout his big paintings, as well as early drawings that relate to his series called Famous Negro Athletes. This is the first major exhibition of the his notebooks. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks features 160 pages, along with related works on paper and large-scale paintings. The exhibit runs through August 23, 2015 at the Brooklyn Museum.
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