Emerging from an early association with street art during the 1980s, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat was largely regarded within the New York avant-garde, as ‘an exotic other,’ a token Black artist in the world of American modern art; a perception which forced him to examine and seek to define his sense of identity within art and within society. Drawing upon what he described as his ‘cultural memory,’ Basquiat deftly mixed together fragments of past and present, creating a unique style of painting, based upon his own experiences of contemporary American life blended with a remembering of an African past. This study will examine the work of Basquiat during the period 1978 – 1988, tracing his progression from obscure graffiti writer SAMO© to successful gallery artist. Situating my study of Basquiat’s oeuvre in relationship to Paul Gilroy’s concept of the Black Atlantic, I will analyse Basquiat’s exploration of his cultural heritage and depiction of a narrative of Black history, which confronts issues of racism and social inequality, and challenges the constraints of traditional binary oppositions. I will examine Basquiat’s representation of the icon of the griot; narrator of African history and mythical talisman, shedding new light on the artist’s reclamation of this powerful totem. Traversing the perimeters of the Black Atlantic I show how Basquiat’s work has influenced both fine art and urban cultural practice in Britain. Through analysis of Basquiat’s self-portraits I will examine his repositioning the black subject, literally and historically, within the tradition of painting, and argue that through this relocation, Basquiat’s work contributes to models of reparative histories. I will consider Basquiat’s processes of identification and his refusal to be labelled ‘a black artist,’ situating his visual construction of self identity in relation to a post-black aesthetic. Analysis of Basquiat’s paintings lies at the heart of my research, and I conclude my study with an in-depth consideration of three paintings created by the artist during the final year of his life which characterise the enduring themes within his expansive body of work. My research contributes to existing scholarship into the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, providing original insight into the work of this important artist.

Graffiti är en konstform som kan väcka olika associationer beroendepå dess kontext. Graffiti-begreppet är brett men förknippas oftast medvandalism. I olika sammanhang kan bilden av graffiti dock omformasfrån en rebellisk ungdomskultur till något som passar inom deexklusiva finrummen.Inom exempelvis modeindustrin och den postmodernistiska konstenfinns en del uttryck som kan komma att förknippas medgraffiti-estetisk genom dess expressionism och oordning. Genomhistorien har graffitin använts som uttrycksform av etableradekonstnärer vilket skapat nutidens konstbegrepp och gjort att graffitinblivit accepterad ur konstnärliga aspekter och tillgänglig för flermänniskor från olika bakgrunder att förstå sig på.Genom det moderna begreppet postmodernism behandlas i dennauppsats ämnet graffiti ur dess typiska visuella aspekter.Genom en en genomgripande bildanalys kan vi studera hur graffitinshistoriska och moderna element existerar inom dagens grafiska designinom modeindustrin och dess reklamutformning, I många fall går detatt se mönster av kopplingar till stil och tidsepoker.

Throughout the centuries artists have used art to express their identity. Art can be used as a tool to question stereotypes and conventions that shape our societies. Black artists emerging from the Civil Rights movements in America questioned social injustices and prejudiced violence that was targeted towards black people. Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was an artist who went against the status quo of a predominantly white art world in America during the 1980s. Basquiat’s art presents a fragmented vision of a colonized” self” in search of reassurance for being a black man and artist during a time when black peoples right where less than equal.Considering recent historic events that has reshaped the conditions and rights that black people and other ethnic minorities hold in American society, it is only suitable to re-read Basquiat’s art all over again through a post-colonial perspective. This is done in order to seek answers to how colonialism and other forms of institutionalized racism has shaped the world. Whose results could prove beneficial for current discourses regarding society’s ethical and racial ethical dilemmas.

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