Artist 24: Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiet was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1960. His style of art is representational of his African heritage. This is true as it appears reminiscent of African art, my favorite being "Untitled (Skull)." There is a lot going on in this picture, what I love about it is the sketchiness, it looks very quickly done, yet it looks like much thought was put into it. The bright colors really catch the eye, and while there is a lot of blue on one corner, it doesn't seem heavy on that side, because the brighter orange opposite it balances it out perfectly. It also gives me a feeling of graffiti art, possibly it helps that it was created in the year 1984. In this piece it is like you are looking into the head of the head pictured here to see the inner workings of it, or even possibly to see what he is thinking. What it could be thinking is beyond me, as said before, it looks very sketchy, but this allows the viewers to come up with their own interpretations of the inside of the skull's head. This kind of freedom, intentional by the artist or not, is something I really enjoy in art because it allows me to use my own imagination on top of the imagination of the artist!