In 2018, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil and Art Unlimited brought to Brazil works of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. The exhibition was shown in São Paulo, Brasilia, Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro until January 2019.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (New York, 1960-1988) is considered one of the most important artists of the second half of the 20th century. His work personifies the character of New York in the 1970s and ’80s, when the local mixture of energy and decadence generated a paradise of creativity. Reflecting the rhythms, sounds and life of the city, Basquiat managed to incorporate his multiple and sophisticated self-taught cultural background into explosive paintings.
Basquiat arose under the pseudonym SAMO, in 1977, writing critical, enigmatic and sometimes poetic phrases on the walls in Lower Manhattan, but never considered himself a graffiti artist.
One of a few African American artists in a predominantly white art scene, through his deeply political art he raised awareness in regard to the question of color and race. He brought attention to traumas experienced by black people in the United States, and to the lack of diversity in the art world. He portrayed black people from different walks of life, such as jazz musicians, boxers and revolutionary heroes.
The powerful figures that dominate most of Basquiat’s work led the critics to initially classify him as a neoexpressionist, overlooking the artist’s most innovative element: the dynamic collage of words, images and found objects makes him one of the leading proponents of the culture of remixing.
Basquiat made poetic and intuitive appropriations, instantaneously incorporating words and images extracted from history books and science as well as from advertising logotypes, always with his unique touch and visual grammar. He was immersed in pop culture: he would work with his TV on, with further likely influence being the mix of text and images in comic books.
Basquiat’s work impacted on the art world, eager to discard the minimalist and conceptual trend that had dominated the scene since the late 1960s. Jean-Michel Basquiat died tragically at the age of 27, from a drug overdose, but his work still commands the attention of the museums, artists and the art market.
CCBB SP:from January 25 toApril 8, 2018 – 282,000 visitors
Location and date:
CCBB SP – 25th of January to 8th of April of 2018
CCBB BSB – 21st of April to 1st of July of 2018
CCBB BH – 16th of July to 26th of September of 2018
CCBB RJ – 12th of October to 8th of January of 2019
Visitors:
CCBB SP: 282.000 visitors
CCBB BSB: 86.000 visitors
CCBB BH: 186.353 visitors
CCBB RJ: 378.846 visitors
Download the exhibition’s digital book:
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