Not A Businessman, or a Business, Mannn: The Commercialization of Basquiat

04-05-24

Oh great! Another brand has collaborated with [insert dead artist here]! :/

From iPhone cases, socks, pens, keychains...To being Used in collaboration with Gap, Amazon, Urban Outfitters, Uniqlo, WACKO MARIA, Valentino, and Coach.

Jean Michel Basquiat’s work has become minimized and merchandised in ways that I have never seen for any other artist. Like....this is absolutely abhorrent (big words ik)

It's at the point where people are forgetting the meaning of his work and only using it for money, clout, or aesthetic purposes. Completely neglecting the depth of the artwork and how his Black identity correlates with his work.

James Rushing Daniel, author of “The Commodification of Jean-Michel Basquiat”, states,

"paintings – though typically not the ones licensed by Walmart – evocatively explore race, framing contemporary racial inequality through the longue durée of racial violence...The contemporary branding regime not only largely obscures these critical aspects of Basquiat’s paintings it also occludes the contested nature of his work in the context of the art world.” (The Commodification of Jean-Michel Basquiat).

As an artist, It’s terrifying to see. It’s like he is not even seen as a person with experience anymore. He is a product and being pushed as such. Completing erasing his thought process, identity, and personhood, so that brands can make money off him

EXAMPLE 1: His painting Equals Pi (1982) was used in a Tiffany & Co. Commercial. The painting has a blue robin egg which Vice President of Tiffiany & Co., Alexandre Arnault, claimed was a nod to the Tiffany & Co. Company (The Commodification of Jean-Michel Basquiat). Like HUHHHHHHH???? BE FR RN :///

Sooooo The same artist that constantly comments on capitalism, racism, and the systems that oppress minority groups made a piece with the intention of (checks notes) nodding to Tiffiany & Co a multi-million-dollar diamond company.....Rightttttt..

Daniel states,

"is yet another example of the indefatigable efforts of corporations to metamorphose art and artists into business-friendly parodies, in this case to render Basquiat as a symbol of authentic New York to sell luxury goods.”

Stephen Torton, a former assistant of Basquiat's posted a statement on Instagram saying,

"I designed and built stretchers, painted backgrounds, glued drawings down on canvas, chauffeured, traveled extensively, spoke freely about many topics and worked endless hours side by side in silence. The idea that this blue background, which I mixed and applied was in any way related to Tiffany Blue is so absurd that at first I chose not to comment. But this very perverse appropriation of the artist’s inspiration is too much.”

Its a testament to how art is so disregarded and misunderstood an artist is, especially a Black artsit.

This my last post about Basquiat. I think he’s a very interesting artist but I believe discussions around his work are over saturated. (and this all i got left to say fr)
(shout out to James for the article that inspired this post. So good!)

-azana, wunder, igotsumtosay