Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art

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Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art
Basquiat-A-Killing-In-Art-1998.jpg
AuthorPhoebe Hoban
GenreBiography
PublishedAugust 1, 1998
PublisherViking
Pages400
ISBN0-670-85477-8

Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art is a book by journalist Phoebe Hoban, chronicling the life of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Released in 1998 by Viking, the unauthorized biography was not endorsed by Basquiat's estate, but various people who were close to Basquiat contributed their recollections of him.[1] Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art was reissued by Open Road Media with a new foreword in 2016.[2]

Synopsis[]

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York to a multi-cultural middle-class family on December 22, 1960. Under the alias SAMO, he painted poetic verses on the walls of lower Manhattan in the late 1970s. Within five years, Basquiat went from a teenage graffiti artist to an international art star renowned for his neo-expressionism paintings. Basquiat's brief career spanned the 1980s art boom and epitomized its outrageous excess. Already considered a legend in his own lifetime, Basquiat was a fixture of the downtown scene. Along the way, he got involved with many of the most celebrated personalities, from his friendships with pop artists Keith Haring and Andy Warhol to his romance with singer Madonna. Regarded as the "Jimi Hendrix of the art," Basquiat died of a drug overdose at age twenty-seven on August 12, 1988.[3]

Critical response[]

Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art received mixed reviews. Kirkus Reviews noted that "Hoban's zippy biography of the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is less concerned with art than culture."[4]

Publishers Weekly wrote: "Throughout, Hoban makes a strong case that racism marred the life of the dreadlocked artist in paint-spattered Armani suits. What's missing is any analysis of the degree to which Basquiat's enormous drug consumption (ca. 100 bags of heroin a day at the end) contributed to his imagery, especially the gap-toothed skulls he splayed across ragged expanses of bright colors."[5]

Patricia Bosworth wrote for The New York Times: "Key elements of the great story she [Hoban] has unearthed lie buried beneath undigested material. That said, the book remains compulsively readable. There is enormous value in it, especially in Hoban's depiction of the glitzy 1980's art world, which is sharply etched and deadly accurate. She describes a place where sex, imagination and intelligence have been so brutalized by greed and celebrity the cumulative effect is numbing."[1]

Michelle V. McEwen wrote for The Harvard Crimson: "The biography is riddled with quotes from people who claim to have been Basquiat's friends, yet speak of him as some sort of exotic wild child. Hoban slips into this mode, as well. ... While Hoban recognizes the racism evident in a few specific encounters, she never gives any sort of profound analysis of the racism that structured Basquiat's most significant relationships, both business and personal."[6]

American painter Chuck Close stated: "Hoban's book is not just the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat but an insightful and devastating portrait of the 1980s art world, its movers and shakers, as well as Basquiat's manipulators, hangers-on, and a precious few genuine friends."[6]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Bosworth, Patricia (August 9, 1998). "Hyped to Death". The New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "Want to Understand What Makes a Great Artist Tick? Check Out 9 of Our Favorite Artist Biographies". Artnet News. 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
  3. ^ Gompertz, Will (2017-09-20). "The 'Jimi Hendrix of art'". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-04-30.
  4. ^ "Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art". Kirkus Reviews. June 15, 1998.
  5. ^ "Basquiat: The Life and Death of an Art Star". Publishers Weekly. August 3, 1998.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ a b Mcewen, Michelle (October 9, 1998). "Idol Gossip: 'Basquiat' Skims the Surface of the Iconoclast". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2021-04-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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