First Image – Real Head piece by Basquiat
Second Image – My interoperation of the piece
Third thru Sixth Image – My studies
As of our second project in the drawing the imagination class, we were task to pick a piece from an artist of our choosing. With that piece, we either had to replicate it, use the techniques of the artist to create our own, or add to the piece using the style of the artist. I decided to use Jean Michel Basquiat famous head piece he created in 1981. Basquiat was known for his informal graffiti style paintings and used all sorts of medias to create his art. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, but sadly died very young at the age of 27 due to an overdose of heroine.
I’m very fascinated in the world of graffiti. I come from one of the most graffitied cities in the US ( Atlanta, Georgia ). I wanted to experiment and explore how can graffiti can change the image of it being a form of vandalism and gang related activities. No one could best represent this art form than Basquiat. He would often draw on random surfaces and had secret texts and codes hidden throughout his pieces.
I wanted to do a replica of his famous head portrait that he made in 1981, then afterwards creating other pieces using his techniques and famous figures he used in his art work in my sketchbook as a study of the artist. He was known to be under the influence when he created his artwork and I wanted to channel the true Basquiat in me, so I too did the same thing that Basquiat would do when painting.
Overall, this project was eye opening just to get to observe and value of what the artist did to create his line of work, but also getting the chance to experiment with different and strange techniques that I could potentially use future artworks.
