Basquiat (Yellow)

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By Julie Bennett
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Unavailable until 1st October 2022 as being exhibited.

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Dimensions (HxWxD):

80 × 80 × 4 cm

Materials:

Oil on canvas

Primary Medium:

Painting

Medium
2022
Signed on Back
Ready to display
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I painted Jean Michel Basquiat as one of an ongoing series of art icons who have influenced my practice. I absolutely adore Basquiat's use of colour and the crossover between mark-making and drawing; how he really uses paint to draw, so much so you could forget they were paintings and read them as drawing. This inspires me because when I am creating a portrait, my initial mark making is to draw with paint, locking in all the initial energy into the piece at the early stages. Some of my early work using everyday surfaces such as a ping pong table was influenced by Basquiat's use of the found surface, painting on fridge doors, advertising hoardings and transport signs. I am inspired by Basquiat's search for fame, and how he became friends with Andy Warhol, possibly seeing him as someone to get to know, to help him navigate the art world. I am intrigued by his no holds barred approach to befriending a celebrity which led to a strong friendship that coincided with producing some really interesting paintings. I chose yellow as the background colour because his own paintings often use this as the predominant colour. Yellow is such a diverse colour, a symbol of happiness and sunshine but also impulsive quick decisions and I think the way Basquait made work was very impulsive and exciting and certainly evokes happiness in me, like an adrenaline rush. I adored painting his array of dreadlocks, sitting high on the top of his head. In painting Basquiat, I wanted the viewer who might know his work and/or name, but not familiar with his face, look at my painting and consider who is this striking character? This is the second portrait I've made of Basquait because I wanted to look at him again in a different angle and new light together with a different background to see how that affected my perception of him.

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