All posts tagged: Street Art

Civic Dialogue & “Fake Walls” : A New Interview With Gaia

January 12, 2017 Artists, Interview

He calls them “fake walls”; these mockups of murals in Baltimore that feature adorable pets. With these clever photoshopped pieces of mural fiction the Street Artist Gaia is perhaps skewering the coy shallowness of mural festivals that encourage a content-free decorative approach, rather than a substantive historically/socially/politically rooted one.

If Street Art has been hi-jacked by mural festivals from some of it’s higher minded origins, the New York born, Baltimore based Gaia has raced quickly on hot feet in the opposite direction during the last five years – preferring to immerse himself in local history, sociopolitical developments, and the implied cultural ramifications of his work.

Partially as critique to one increasingly commercial trend in Urban Art “festivals” that contorts murals as vehicles for brand and lifestyle messaging or aims only to prettify and sanitize public space, Gaia keeps assigning himself homework when he’s asked to paint in a new city, and he wishes he had more time to study.

Today we would like to share with BSA readers a recent interview he did with Shelly Clay-Robison, an adjunct faculty at York College of Pennsylvania and at the University of Baltimore who teaches peace and conflict studies and anthropology – with the hope of furthering the discussion on some of the points he raises and which we similarly have been discussing over the last few years with you.

In the interview Gaia speaks to the trivialization of the mural as meaningful expression in public space, a frequent lack of community engagement in Urban Art festivals, and his own sensitivity to what he may describe as the overwhelming whiteness and educated privilege in a scene that in many ways evolved from lower income communities of color. We’re pleased that Gaia and Ms. Clay-Robison have allowed us to share the interview with you.

From STREET ART AND CIVIC DIALOGUE: AN INTERVIEW WITH GAIA

Shelly Clay-Robison: Should we call the work you have made outside and on architecture street art, mural art, or graffiti and why would terminology matter?
Gaia: I would like to make a distinction that may seem insignificant, but is very important. Street Art, as I personally define it, is an umbrella term that seeks to explain any intervention understood as an artistic gesture, in a shared space, and must necessarily be illegal. The purview of Street Art entails anything under the rubric of contemplation or performance; tactical urbanism, painting, sculpture, etc. Murals on the other hand, are legal, sanctioned and are much more stringently understood as painting. Finally graffiti, as a tradition where the scrawling of a name becomes stylized, is a more pure action that is self-identified by its various participants as “writing” and not in fact “art.” Hence the continued relevance of the Street Art distinction.

SCR: So is it just an issue of legality then? Or are their social implications behind which type of work or medium is chosen?
Gaia: I stress these distinctions so firmly because we are at an extremely problematic crossroads within this rhizomatic movement, where the mural in the Americas, traditionally understood as within the realm of celebration, especially of colonized and oppressed peoples, has been wrested from the control of community art, by the spirit of Street Art. What I mean to say is that the production of a mural in the United States has traditionally been a multilateral, consensus-based process, but now control is being wrested from civic groups and representatives.

Instead, the procedure of creating a mural is increasingly being determined by property owners with the power and means to circumvent community, and thus, facilitate work that speaks to an imagined, future audience. I call this a liberalization of the mural: international, highly skilled individuals, who have transitioned from illegal, singular authorship to unilateral, sanctioned mural production have created a race to the bottom that defies the old Works Progress Administration model of full employment and is instead more aligned with the 10-99 subcontractor economy.

Click the link below and automatically download a PDF of the full interview here:

Clay-Robison, Shelly and Gaia. “Street art and Civic Dialogue: an interview with Gaia.” Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory vol 16 no 1 (2016): 89-93.

Selina Miles : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 29, 2016 Artists

As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Australian filmmaker and nomad Selina Miles specializes in street art and graffiti, and is also in love with music video, documentary, and most people she meets. First making her mark with a series of mind-baking action videos with Sofles a few years ago, Ms. Miles is now a dynamic storyteller. She is just as likely to be shooting artists as she is plundering their histories and connecting the dots of their influences, aspirations. Willing to take creative risks and to push her own limits, look out in 2017 for Selina to craft a piece on one of the biggest documentary subjects whom she’s profiled yet – in a way that only Selina can do.

Image of Charles and Janine Williams
Papeete, Tahiti
October 2016

Photo by Selina Miles

I love this photo because Charles and Janine Williams really embody my hope for the future street artist. I still love graffiti, the more ignorant/illegal the better, but if artists are entering into a community and putting up a huge mural in the context of street art, this is the right way to do it in my opinion.

They worked together on this wall in Papeete, Tahiti as part of a series they are working on, painting different species of birds native to a particular area, particularly focusing on endangered species. The CR on this painting of a Tahitian Monarch means the bird is critically endangered. They collaborated with the local bird watching group, who provided the photos and also attended a blessing when the wall was finished, where Charles and Janine sung a traditional Māori song as thanks.

In my opinion, this kind of deep, genuine engagement with people and place is the future of street art, in contrary to the commercialisation and trivialisation we see from sponsored / branded events. As a film maker, these are the kinds of stories I look forward to documenting in the future.

TOR STÅLE MOEN : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 24, 2016 Artists

Tor Ståle Moen is a Norwegian executive turned passionately engaged Street Art fan and photographer whom we first met in Stavanger during the Nuart Festival a few years ago. Donating his vacation time to volunteer with the artists at Nuart, the atmosphere is charged with Tor’s enthusiasm and knowledge about Street Art, artists, and the history of the people and Norway. Today Mr. Moen shares with us one of his photos from this year of art on a very quiet Norwegian island.

Artists: Ella & Pitr from Saint Etienne, France
Location: Utsira Island on the west coast of Norway
Date: August 27, 2016.
Photograph by Tor Ståle Moen

The beautiful island Utsira was the first public financed port in Norway. Since it was finished in 1870, it has provided safe shelter for lobstermen and merchant ships in the harshest part of the North Sea.

Today there are only 200 residents left on the tiny island – a vibrant mix of people of all ages and different corners of the world who share the love of nature and the windy life on an island far at sea.

Even though the community is tiny and isolated, their living tradition of welcoming strangers in distress sets an example to us all. In a time when world leaders calls for protective walls against foreign trade, religion and people escaping war and poverty – the people of Utsira reflects the opposite. They are known for their philanthropic engagement and heartfelt empathy.

Also when it comes to art, they have open-mindedly welcomed a number of street artists to work on their tiny island. The inhabitants are very proud of the art and memories the artists have left behind. The artists visiting have been struck for life by the beauty of the place and the warm, safe and welcoming atmosphere they experienced here.

This person, painted by the french artists Ella & Pitr on a roof top on Utsira, has obviously found his own peaceful and safe haven – and together with him I wish all BSA friends a relaxing festive season and a tolerant and peaceful 2017

Emil Walker : Hopes & Wishes for 2017

December 20, 2016 Artists

London filmmaker Emil Walker just crossed the US twice from Brooklyn to LA to Miami and many points in between with two buddies – artist Louis Masai and his co-filmer Tee. They were capturing and documenting Masai’s “Art of Beeing” tour to raise awareness of endangered species and the era of extinction we are in right now. Emil shares with us one of his favorite shots of 2016 of his friend Tee – and tells us why it resonates for him.

Tee
Brooklyn, New York USA
Date: October 2016
Photograph by Emil Walker

This year has been insanely epic! I’ve met so many people, developed skills and experienced some amazing new places. I took this photo a little over a month ago in Brooklyn, NYC, at the beginning of a project I’m currently working on in North America.

The subject is Tee, one of my oldest friends, a fellow filmmaker and also one my biggest inspirations. His attitude towards taking his own pathway and staying clear of trends or what is ‘cool’ is something that so many people sadly lack but is such a vital component to creating that original work we all strive to make.

I’m looking forward to the new year, continuing to figure out what the hell I’m doing on this planet and hopefully spending some more time out of rainy London!

Pedro H. Alonzo : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 16, 2016 Artists

Pedro Alonzo is a Boston-based independent curator, writer, art advisor and recognized authority on Street Art who has worked with museums, private collections, and such artists as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, JR, Swoon, and Os Gemeos among others. This year Pedro looks at images from his travels and tells us that the simplest joys are sometimes the best ones.

Guarulhos, Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil
February 3, 2016

Photo by Pedro H. Alonzo

I stumbled upon this mural while looking for parking in Guarhulos, Brazil, the home of Sao Paulo’s international airport. Due to difficulty finding parking and traffic congestion, I was able to take the photo on our fourth trip around the block.

In a city that boasts kilometer after kilometer of roadside murals, it was refreshing to find this image painted on the side of a laundromat. It is direct, funny and simple. I often think about how much I enjoyed being surprised by superheroes in their underwear.

I love coming across informal forms of expression such as this. No permits, no copyright, just do it.

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.27.16

March 27, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Happy Easter to the folks who are celebrating this day of Christ’s rise from the dead. The rest of ya’ll can just enjoy the Sunday roast dinner we made for you. Cousin Charlemagne has already eaten both the ears off his chocolate bunny and there are two eggs that have not been found during the hunt. Let’s look for them after we eat. Pass the scalloped potatoes please.

Here’s our our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Visual Bliss, Bang Bang Errol, Cash Cash RFC Crew, Chupa, CJ Fly, Dasic Fernandez, Geoffrey Carran, Jay Shells, Jesse A. Edwards, Joseph Acker, KLOPS, Kuma, LMNOPI, Lunge Box, Myth, Papoose, Rocko, Rowena Martinich, Sorick 21, Trifer, Wallplay, Willow, and Zimers.

Our top image: Rocko and Zimer painted this tribute to King Biggie Smalls back in October of 2015 for Spread Art NYC. We just hadn’t been able to flick it. So here it is. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And speaking of Biggie Smalls, urban artist and lyric lover Jay Shells left this plaque just across the street recently. His unique campaign of placing original rap lyrics at the geographical spot they refer to has taken him to cities across the country. These new platters have just popped up like spring tulips. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jay Shells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI brings the street a new portrait of “a Haitian girl I met when I was in Port Au Prince in 2010.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sorick21 . Trifer . Chupa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kuma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klops(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic Fernandez (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash Cash RFC Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Geoffrey Carran . Rowena Martinich (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lunge Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jesse A Edwards and RAMBO Memorial for @bang_bang_errol at Wallplay. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth “A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Visual Bliss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Koch Brothers. Portrait by Joseph Acker – Prision ID #15967538. Mural by Willow. The Captured Project in conjuction with The L.I. S.A. Project. People in prison drawing people who should be. More information here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Good Friday 2016. Williamsburg. March 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Film Friday: 03.25.16

March 25, 2016 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. Seve Garza Paints Homeless People in Austin
2. Stik: London Street Artist by Ben Hanratty
3. Chris Dyer’s Artventure: Florida Art Road Trip
4. Time Travel Subway Car

BSA Special Feature: Seve Garza Paints Homeless People in Austin

It only takes one person to make a difference.

You.

Never mind the hype and all those things that make you forget what Street Art can do. Artist Seve Garza is not going to change the world but he may change a couple of people’s world with his personal brand of art activism. It’s better than smugly commenting on an Internet forum.

Stik: London Street Artist by Ben Hanratty

“That was my first documentary film, but definitely hope to make more. He was a really interesting man, very intelligent,” says 18 year old film maker Ben Hanratty, who is just completing his first year studying film and television at University of the Arts in London. He’s done a splendid job and we all learn a great deal about the artist and the man, Stik, thanks to Mr. Hanratty.

Chris Dyer’s Artventure: Florida Art Road Trip

Painter Chris Dyer is often on an artventure with his work, interacting with people at festivals who are celebrating spirituality and positivity and advocating for an enlightened approach to heavy issues. Here’s the latest installment that follows Chris and many “LIVE” painters to the Zen Awakening Festival in Orlando, Florida to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and the Moksha Family party in Miami while the Basel madness is happening.

Basically we really just want to ride that giant slide at the Zen Awakening Festival!! With this fresh new video Chris sends positive vibes out to the BSA family for this holiday weekend.

Time Travel Subway Car

Because, you know, what seeds you plant today will grow….

A Community Mural Festival in NYC, Highlights From Welling Court 2015

June 17, 2015 Artists

An annual mural tradition of non-pretense, New York hosted the 6th Annual Welling Court mural festival this weekend in a working class neighborhood in Queens, thanks to a grassroots couple who hustle to match artists with walls and opportunity. More than a hundred artists, whose styles span the graffiti-urban art-street art spectrum, participate every year in this community event that eschews the creeping fingers of commercial interests and the pontificating tongues of the art critics.

That is not the point here. That’s not why you fell in love with Street Art and the unvarnished expression of the creative spirit.

LMNOPI. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thanks to hearty and big-hearted organizers Alison and Garrison Buxton, the selection is as varied as the participants and the neighbors who come out to share home made dishes, music, and personal stories. Invariably the kids are racing around on their bikes and skates, people are meeting artists and posing for selfies, and some of the kids get to try their hand at painting.

So if you want to see what some of the organic art work is on the scene at the moment, walk through this unassuming Queens neighborhood with us and enjoy the real beat of New York. It’s a small selection, but you can get the flavor.

LMNOPI. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Fekner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XO. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415 . Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too Fly. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Too Fly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peace (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WANE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C. Cardinale. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C. Cardinale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea . Mick La Rock. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea . Mick La Rock (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SHIRO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andy Golub . Leif G. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andy Golub . Leif G. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Lee Quinones : The NYC Graffiti Train Storyteller Tells His Own Story

June 10, 2015 Artists

Never Seen Notebook Drawings and Recent Paintings Span 1975-2015

“It was an identity crisis for youth in NYC in the 1970s,” explains Lee Quinones, the whole subway car “bomber” who claims the mantel of aerosol story teller for NYC’s rolling gallery of public art during that nearly dystopian decade. He is sitting on a folding chair before a small crowd of gallery visitors with Glenn O’Brien talking about his youthful creative process during a time when New York was seething with raw emotion, roiling in an identity crisis of its own with social, political, and economic issues all contributing to a perception of pending anarchy.

The occasion is the end of his current show that includes work from two distinct periods: now and 40 years ago. Witnessing one clearly informs your understanding of the other.

Lee Quinones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I’m a recovering graffiti artist,” the dynamo LEE likes to say with a wink, and signs of his addiction are framed around the unpolished Chinatown pop-up space to help you see how deep the scars are. Pulled directly from home sketchbooks done in 1975 at the age of 15, these original drawings, some nearly four feet across, belie the level of manic dedication and wizardry his illegal storytelling required in those rusted screeching halcyon days when graffiti tags began to metamorphose into the representational and a certain wilder style.

Lee Quinones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With personal graffiti influencers on the street like the expressionistic Cliff 159 and the pop-painting Blade lighting his way, LEE says he was searching for a way to break out of the “alphabet soup” of the prevailing lettering and tagging that was enveloping trains and subway stations and burning city walls.

“The small umbrella we were under was too small,” he says as he describes the way he tapped into a superheroes’ courage to fly from the housing projects of Lower Manhattan into social and political themes that took him up and down the number 5 subway line; his own publishing platform that reached thousands, probably millions.

Lee Quinones. Silent Thunder. Whole Car. Detail. 1984 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I wanted to create storytelling on the subway. Why not address the civil rights movement?,” he asks and you think immediately of the photos and film you’ve seen of the hand sprayed images and text addressing the Vietnam War, economic inequality, environmental degradation, nuclear annihilation, love, death, longing, community, brotherhood, and Donald Duck. A ninja in the train yards, LEE also was a conscience on the rails.

“I wanted to sarcastically address the doctrine that was being thrown at me,” and he did, often collaboratively with four other writers, forming The Fabulous Five. Over that time he estimates he painted many more than a hundred complete subway cars with characters, scenes and public speeches questioning accepted truths and advocating at least a reexamination of them.

Lee Quinones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The show is a rare opportunity to see these works in person, an illuminating collection of detailed sketches, marker drawings, possible titles, poetry, crossed out ideas, musings, and paint lists. Even in his youth LEE was showing his undying commitment to his art and it’s expression, wherever it lead.

“I feel comfortable being uncomfortable,” he says of the winding route over four decades that now includes a very strong studio practice and shows in major institutions and work in significant collections. He says it has brought a desire to simplify. “On canvasses now I want to say more with less.”

Lee Quinones. Subway Car Montage. Study #2 1980-1983. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coupled with a smaller collection of recent works, one large monochrome stylized wall tag, and his newest painting, Golpe de Suerte that includes his mother’s hand-written recipe cards and lists collaged and spelling out “amor”, this is a personal show not likely to be seen again.

Including his mother and her lettering style completes a cycle; that’s the same ‘mom’ to whom he dedicated in aerosol many of his trains in the late 1970s and early 80s. Considered as a whole, this show captures a passionate imagination that is still on fire, tempered by experience. Looking at it all, free from the hype, this is the kid who you hoped you would find.

Lee Quinones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Crossing Delancy (Basquiat at the Clarinet). 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. The Fabulous 5. 1976. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. In The Yards. Color palette list. 1982. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Untitled. 1980 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Golpe de Suerte. 2013-2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Golpe de Suerte. Detail. 2013-2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information please contact Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Film Friday: 05.29.15

May 29, 2015 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. Kiwie and Zabou in Cyprus
2. Pol Corona in Vicente Lopez (Buenos Aires)
3. Clemens Behr at ALT!rove Street Festival 2015
4. Alberonero at ALT!rove Street Festival 2015.

BSA Special Feature: Kiwie and Zabou in Cyprus

We don’t often get to post Street Art from Cyprus, but here is an entertaining look at the recent Street Life Festival in Limassol. Mainly we posted it because Kiwie from Latvia is a ham in front of the camera and Friday is a perfect time to get up and dance!

Pol Corona in Vicente Lopez (Buenos Aires) at Nai’s house

It’s barbecue and painting season bro. Come on over.

Clemens Behr at ALT!rove Street Festival 2015

Two murals in a row from this years ALT!rove – Street Art Festival in Italy, both videos from Blind Eye Factory. Going with this years theme of Abstractism, ALT!rove brought artist including 108, Alberonero, Giorgio Bartocci, Clemens Behr, Ciredz, Erosie, Graphic Surgery, Sbagliato, Sten Lex and Tellas.

Alberonero at ALT!rove Street Festival 2015.

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.15

May 17, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Shout out to all the great Swoon fans we met last night during the artists talk with her. All the seats were filled so it was standing room only in the back but yet it felt so intimate. Ya’ll are stupendous and smart and handsome and beautiful and we were honored to be with you.

Shout out to the family of American blues institution BB King who passed on this week. His music and talent influenced so many. Sending love and condolences to his family and friends.

Let’s see what Jeffery Deitch has in store for Smorgasburg Coney Island starting this week in preparation for the Memorial Day weekend opening – published reports have the roster of street artists at 15 but we’re hearing closer to 25 will be hitting up temporary concrete walls in this outdoor gallery he is doing in partnership with a large real estate firm to promote the new Coney Island. Some names you’ll recognize are old skool 70s-80s train writers like Lee Quinones, Crash, Daze, Lady Pink, Futura, and new people he has been reaching out to from the 2000s and 2010s scene who we bring you regularly like How & Nosm, Skewville, Steve Powers, possibly even ROA . This list will surely grow as word gets out and artists besiege Mr. Deitch to participate. The full installation is to last a month and will be surely caught on film and timelapse video.

Meanwhile, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alexis Diaz, Alka Murat, Appleton, Marco Berta, Blaqk Blaqk, City Kitty, Creepy Creep, Dain, Dasic Fernandez, Duke A. Barnstable, Elsa Sauguet, Eva & Adele, Ever, Goldman Rats, Ines Maas, JR, Penny Gaff, Robert Janz, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas, Seikon Stav6, and Swoon.

A scene from Nicolas Romero AKA Ever in Buenos Aires, Argentina in collaboration with performers Elsa Sauguet, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas y Ines Maas and sculptor Marcos Berta (photo © Ever)

About the show, from Ever:

” ‘头部 (The Head)’ is an art installation based on the analysis of Chinese Communist posters. When the posters represent the ‘idea’, people are always down the picture and the Mao Tse Tung portrait always floating in heaven, protecting that theory founded in the Russian winters. When they want to describe the pragmatics, Mao is cultivating flowers, going to visit schools, etc.

The idea with ‘The Head’ is to think why the “communist theory” fails in its application to reality, and this is because many times the idea has to be corresponded o taken through a body, a body that exercises the idea, that exercises power. That’s why, part of the installation that we present here, invites people to get into the head, so we all can have the feeling that we are not loyal to the theory; the idealization is as dangerous as it is obsessive.”

Penny Gaff must be warming up for the Faile arcade show coming to Brooklyn Museum in July. War games…lethal. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Goldman Rats already has selected the next president. You may now return to your regular scheduled programming. Enjoy! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Art in the streets as Berlin based performance artists and fine artists Eva & Adele are seen here “performing” some last minute ensemble adjustments before hitting the art fairs – as is their wont. Chelsea, New York City. May 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Basquiat’s Notebooks Open at The Brooklyn Museum

April 1, 2015 Artists, Interview

As lines continue to blur in fields of art and technology (and everything else) it is easier to see Street Art as an online/on-street diary, a forum for speech making, a laboratory for testing ideas, a publishing platform for the dispersing of truths and lies and theories and maxims and slogans and aphorisms. A timely new exhibition of personal notebooks by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat further affirms the direct relationship between the personal and the public voice of one New York expressionist, revealing lesser-known aspects of him as artist and individual.

A teenage poet on New York streets, Basquiat used his own brand of graffiti to pursue his own brand of fame. His text was intended in part as a visual element but unlike graffiti writers who produced ever more expressive tags during that heated moment in New York graffiti history, Basquiat also sought an audience who may be hip to his cerebral wordplay of poetry that puzzled and enticed – a foxy style of William Burroughs-inspired automatic writing he adapted for his own uses.

In Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, now running at The Brooklyn Museum until August 23rd, the genius of his fragmenting logic is revealed as a direct relationship between his private journals and his prolific and personally published aerosol missives on the streets of Manhattan’s Soho and Lower East Side neighborhoods in the late 1970s and 1980s.

These notebooks were for capturing ideas and concepts, preparing them, transmuting them, revising them, pounding them into refrains. In the same way his text (and glyphic) pieces on the street were not necessarily finished products each time; imparted on the run and often in haste, these unpolished missives didn’t require such preciousness.

The art collector Larry Warsh lends these eight notebooks that span 1981-1987, 160 pages in all, for you to scan and contemplate. New to most audiences, they also feel familiar. While they do not provide a play-by-play account of his daily affairs, they do provide insight into his state of mind, interests, and creative process. Knowing his reputation for being very aware of his public perception, you may wonder how private these were in his mind – if he was at least partially writing for a greater audience here sometimes as well.

But these are definitely his voice. Even in lengthier poetry pieces, Basquiats’ reductive approach to writing produces the same clipped cadences that appeared on walls and gallery paintings, a process of addition and subtraction that he could eventually pare down to one word that would command a canvas.

“Famous”.

A two sided, free standing piece from 1982 midway through the gallery space gives a bittersweet focus to one of his aspirations, as well as to his application of photocopies of his own work in multiples on the canvas – a replication/repetition technique from commercial wildposting that was popularized on walls and lamp posts by graffiti writer/street artists like Revs and Cost in New York in the 90s.

“I think this show points out that the conceptual and poetic side of JMB’s work is central to and integrated with his more overtly visual and expressionistic paintings,” says Tricia Laughlin Bloom, who worked in collaboration with Dieter Bucchart, Guest Curator in organizing this exhibition. “He enjoyed exploring the play between text as visual sign or symbol and the layers of historical, sociological, personal meaning that words activate. Some of the very restrained word drawings and notebook entries are intensely expressionistic, for instance, without the use of gesture or color.”

The notebooks are part of a larger offering of paintings, drawings, and moving image in this well balanced show that keeps the focus on the writer and painter of text while placing it in the greater context of all his work. Included here are drawings of his fictional character Jimmy Best, for example, who appeared in early SAMO© street writings and elsewhere as an ongoing and developing narrative that hinted at his self image.

Most riveting for the new generation of writers may be the film clips shot in 1980-81 during the filming of New York Beat (released in 2000 as Downtown 81). Not true documentary footage, it nevertheless captures the artist outside mark-making in a determined, self-aware, sometimes hesitating manner across walls with letters and lines of simple black aerosol.

Moving into “the City” from his middle class Brooklyn home as a teenager in the late 70s, you have to wonder how or if his street practice with friend Al Diaz had been influenced by the students and workers who wrote slogans, epigrams, maxims, in black aerosol letters during the Paris uprisings of 1968. Quick passages on the street then like “Sous les paves, la plage” (under the paving stones, the beach) also played with text and sometimes cryptic meaning in ways similar to his on city walls and in these notebooks. Neatly penned, his was a deliberate meditation and experiment with words – a process that allowed you to see the deletions and additions, fully part of the finished product.

“We were presented with the rare opportunity to exhibit Basquiat’s notebooks, which offer fascinating access to his thoughts and process,” says Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director for Exhibitions and Collections Management, when talking about the decision to mount Notebooks.

Of course its not the first time Street Artists have been featured meaningfully here. Under the guidance of Director Arnold L. Lehman the Brooklyn Museum has shown a serious and committed interest in highlighting the contributions of artists whose practice comes directly from the streets of New York and its graffiti/Street Art traditions; including the huge Basquiat show a decade ago, the Graffiti show in 2006, the more recent Keith Haring show, Swoon’s Submerged Motherlands last year, Olek’s display at the annual Artist’s Ball, and the upcoming Faile exhibit this July, which will also feature their collaboration with Bäst. For Matt Atkins, this show is in perfect alignment.

“The Brooklyn Museum has had a commitment to showing artists whose work embraces contemporary culture. Basquiat seamlessly synthesized the world around him in his art, including elements culled from the streets, music, literature, history, and more,” she says.

It has been 27 years since Basquiat died at the age of 27. Somehow you can imagine that mathematical equation appearing here on one of the larger canvases; dense with symbols, sentence fragments, lists and formulas. Sifting through the tenuously connected word constellation it occurs to you that people like Basquiat and Burroughs and the Beats were forebears of the post-Gutenberg dislocation of text from its moorings – one that we all swim in – with passages and words and texts floating to us and past us from multiple screens of varying sizes throughout each day.

As this stream of messages blurs from the intensely personal to the public spheres, this show confirms how the art-making process for the street has always been rich with storytelling, even if not evident at first. A show of this moment, seeing these notebooks first hand will complete a cycle for many.

We had an opportunity to speak further with one of the curators, Tricia Laughlin Bloom, about Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks.

Brooklyn Street Art: Often we think of the work we see on the street as part of a continuum, a conversation back and forth between the artist and the passerby. How does this exhibition illustrate the continuum that extends from private neatly penned journals to public aerosol missives?
Tricia Laughlin Bloom: Going through the exhibition you find a lot of similarity between the voice he used in his street writing and in his notebooks, that also extends to his word paintings. Fragments of SAMO text recur in larger scale works that we have included, and many of his notebook passages read like they could have been SAMO texts.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you describe the dynamic between yourself and the guest curator Dieter Buchhart and how it informed some of your joint decisions for presenting the work?
Tricia Laughlin Bloom: Dieter brought the initial checklist together as Guest Curator, and we shaped it together from there. We both felt it was important that the show be about the notebooks—that the paintings and drawings should be carefully selected to compliment the notebooks and not overwhelm, and to highlight Basquiat the poet and thinker AND visual artist. Getting the right number of works and the precise balance was a long process, and many conversations.

Brooklyn Street Art: How has preparing this exhibition changed or affected your perception of his work in the intervening ten years since the “Basquiat” exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, if at all?
Tricia Laughlin Bloom: I was always a fan, and I loved the 2005 show, but I feel I understand him better and my admiration has deepened after the opportunity to work with the notebooks. It’s more intimate in scale and the whole experience feels more personal.

From left to right: Untitled (Crown) 1982. Tuxedo. 1982. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks. Brooklyn Museum. April 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photo taken from the video Downtown 81 Outtakes. 2001. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks. Brooklyn Museum. April 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks is organized by Dieter Buchhart, Guest Curator, with Tricia Laughlin Bloom, former Associate Curator of Exhibitions, Brooklyn Museum and current Curator of American art at the Newark Museum.

With special thanks to Tricia Laughlin Bloom, Sharon Matt Atkins, and Sally Williams.

Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks at the Brooklyn Museum opens on April 3, 2015 to the general public. Click HERE for further details.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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In my opinion, this kind of deep, genuine engagement with people and place is the future of street art, in contrary to the commercialisation and trivialisation we see from sponsored / branded events. As a film maker, these are the kinds of stories I look forward to documenting in the future.

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Today there are only 200 residents left on the tiny island – a vibrant mix of people of all ages and different corners of the world who share the love of nature and the windy life on an island far at sea.

This person, painted by the french artists Ella & Pitr on a roof top on Utsira, has obviously found his own peaceful and safe haven – and together with him I wish all BSA friends a relaxing festive season and a tolerant and peaceful 2017

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I’m looking forward to the new year, continuing to figure out what the hell I’m doing on this planet and hopefully spending some more time out of rainy London!

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In a city that boasts kilometer after kilometer of roadside murals, it was refreshing to find this image painted on the side of a laundromat. It is direct, funny and simple. I often think about how much I enjoyed being surprised by superheroes in their underwear.

I love coming across informal forms of expression such as this. No permits, no copyright, just do it.

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Lee Quinones. Silent Thunder. Whole Car. Detail. 1984 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Lee Quinones. Subway Car Montage. Study #2 1980-1983. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Crossing Delancy (Basquiat at the Clarinet). 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. The Fabulous 5. 1976. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. In The Yards. Color palette list. 1982. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Untitled. 1980 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dasic for Welling Court in LIC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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