Life Doesn't Frighten Me

Customer Reviews:

2 for 1.......2007-08-12

You have two great contemporary artists combined in this book.....I plan to buy it again as I gave it to a friend who is a new grandmother.

Life Doesn't Frighten Me .......2007-05-21

This is a great book! This book is a good starting point for conversation with children in helping them talk about what might frighten them. The artists (both Maya Angelou and Jean-Michel Basquiat) both have created a unique book for all ages.

Undecided.......2007-04-22

The pictures are abstract looking and dark in tone. The book makes reference to; ghosts, bad men fighting in the dark, and cougars in the park. I'm not sure my 3 or 5 year old children had thought up these bad things on their own yet. While reading them the book I felt uneasy about the dark pictures and scary references to things they may not have even thought of before. I'm still undecided if it will be helpful in convincing them that they don't need to be afraid of life or if it will convince them that life is pretty scary and they ought to be afraid! There is one reference to 'having a lucky charm up her sleeve' that protects her from the bad stuff and also allows her to walk on the ocean floor without having to come up to breathe. Those are both useless defenses in the real world so the book doesn't offer any real reasons to not be scared of life.

Art Appreciation For All Ages---.......2006-11-19

This book is truly for both parents and children. The cadence of Angelou's poem is one that appeals to kids of all ages, even if they don't initially understand it's meaning. The artwork in it's 'stick figure form' can be appreciated by all who enjoy the complexity of Basquiat's work as well as children relating to it's color and elementary presentation. It's one of my favorite gifts, from baby showers to adult parents. If you appreciate art and culture this book is one to have in the home as well as gift to a friend.

Pure Bosh.......2006-07-13

What a deep, deep woman this Maya Angelou is. At least this book ADMITS it's for little kids, unlike a lot of her other work.

Average customer rating:

Beautiful loosers Beautiful Book
THE BOOK NEVER CAME.
A Historicly important exhibition catalog with great essays.
Great pictures, great read

Beautiful Losers
Alexis Lykiard , Victoria Lynn , Mark Gonzales , Keith Haring , Chris Johanson , Jorge Macchi , Barry McGee , Raymond Pettibon , Alexander Rodchenko , and Jean-Michel Basquiat
Manufacturer: D.A.P./Iconoclast
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1933045302
Release Date: 2005-10-15

Book Description

The greatest cultural accomplishments in history have never been the result of the brainstorms of marketing men, corporate focus groups, or any homogenized methods; they have always happened organically. More often than not, these manifestations have been the result of a few like-minded people coming together to create something new and original for no other purpose than a common love of doing it. In the 1990s, a loose-knit group of American artists and creators, many just out of their teens, began their careers in just such a way. Influenced by the popular underground youth subcultures of the day, such as skateboarding, graffiti, street fashion, and independent music, artists like Shepard Fairey, Mark Gonzales, Spike Jonze, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, and Ed Templeton began to create art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Many had no formal training and almost no conception of the inner workings of the art world. They learned their crafts through practice, trial and error, and good old-fashioned innovation. Not since the Beat Generation have we seen a group of creative individuals with such a unified aesthetic sense and varied cultural facets. The world of art has been greatly affected by their accomplishments as have the worlds of fashion, music, literature, film, and, ironically, athletics. Beautiful Losers is a retrospective celebration of this spirit, with hundreds of artworks by over two dozen artists, from precursors like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Larry Clark, to more recent adherents Ryan McGinniss, KAWS, and Geoff McFetridge. Work in all conceivable mediums is included, plus reproductions of reams of ephemera. The accompanying essays are contributed by a half-dozen writers who have championed these beautiful losers from the start. This paperback reprint includes more pages, more images, an exhibition checklist, installation shots from a variety of exhibitions, and an interview with Beautiful Losers advocate, Agnes B.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful loosers Beautiful Book.......2007-01-04

If you like street and pop art... I kindly raccomend this book to you!

Peace and 420!

THE BOOK NEVER CAME........2006-06-28

I ordered this book from Amazon as a graduation gift and it says that it will ship in 1-4 weeks. BEWARE! I placed my order in mid-May and received a third delay notice today saying that it will not ship until mid-August. BOLLOCKS!! I finally canceled my order, as my "happy graduation" note is no longer applicable and my guy will likely be in school for the fall semester by the time the book actually arrives.

A Historicly important exhibition catalog with great essays. .......2005-10-09

Beautiful Losers exhibition is a document of an epoch centered on the twenty year history of street art and culture from the walls of urban landscapes across America to the walls of the dopest west and east coast galleries. Really great essays. Read the one by McCormick, its especially good. Well printed and designed. Everything in this book is imperative to know about if you are an artist, especially young artists in their formative years.

Great pictures, great read.......2005-04-03

Its definately worth $25.17, or whatever price theyve stuck on it by now. Its includes pictures of, and interesting stories about a few of the Beautiful Losers aswell as full pages of artwork (in color). Its no picture book either, in addition to the stories, its got the histories of various subcultures that influenced the artists (skateboarding, graffiti, etc.) So it'll keep you busy for a minute.

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Amazing Quality

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Manufacturer: Skira
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 8876242643
Release Date: 2005-07-12

Book Description

Controversial cult artist, enfant terrible of the art world, friend of Haring and Warhol, and both idol and a victim of the art scene of the '80s-Jean-Michel Basquiat was a legend in his own lifetime. This catalog, published in conjunction with the major retrospective at the Lugano Museum of Modern Art, provides an excellent overview of Basquiat's life and work. As an African-American painter, Basquiat has made a significant impact on the history of contemporary art. From his origins as a street graffiti artist, he became one of the most influential artists of his time: in 2005 his work is being celebrated in seperate exhibitions in the US and Europe. As emblems of the contemporary world, his explosive, colorful, and apparently naéf canvases have an unparalleled force. The brief but intense artistic career of this celebrated proponent of the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s is covered through some fifty paintings and twenty works on paper drawn from prestigious private collections and museums. This book offers a new intense dialogue with the more modern expressions of twentieth-century art.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Quality.......2006-02-26

I highly recommend this book. The print quality and color of the images is top notch. And there's a ton of great info as well. There's no reason not to get this if you're interested in Jean-Michel at all.

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Is he really great?
Good Value
A retrospective important for any modern art library collection.
great book
Extremely Good Book

Basquiat

Manufacturer: Merrell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1858943612

Book Description

A stunningly designed landmark publication celebrating the astonishing work of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), whose meteoric and often controversial career lasted for only eight years until his death at the age of twenty-seven. Basquiat features spectacular reproductions of Basquiat's work, including many rarely exhibited pieces from private collections and offers fresh new perspectives on Basquiat's achievements, explored in the contexts of the key influences on his work, including Picasso, Matisse and Twombly; the development of hip-hop culture; and the emergence of a multicultural society. Explores many of Basquiat's individual works in detail, with particular reference to his working methods and techniques and accompanies a major travelling exhibition. This is an indispensable book that will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary art.

Customer Reviews:

Is he really great?.......2007-04-12

This is the catalogue for an exhibition held at the Brooklyn museum which benefited from many loans from private collections. The artist's brief career is shown here with many of his best paintings from the pivotal 1982 year. The quality of the images is excellent. Now this book has not lifted my doubts whether Basquiat is really a great artist in the line of Twombly and Dubuffet whose influences he acknowledged. Seeing his oeuvre in a retrospective as complete as this one, I can't help but noticing a weakening in the "late years", that is after 1984, when he started inserting xerox collages on his canvases (many of these works appear in the book), or when the repetition of his main themes and characters becomes a bit boring. As for the book itself, if you like Basquiat, it is a must-have. If you don't like him, well...

Good Value.......2007-03-30

This is an excellent art book for the price. It contains a large number of color plates of Basquiat's best works, along with some good scholarly essays. The color plates are fairly small, however, with many of the paintings only taking up a half or a third of the page. Full page reproductions would be much more satisfying, but the book is still worth its price. I was pleased that the curators of this exhibition omitted the dreadful Warhol collaborative works, as those are such a down note for Basquiat books to end on. This collection manages to present the very best of his final works, rather than demonstrating, as many works on this subject do, that Basquiat's talent waned and failed.

A retrospective important for any modern art library collection........2006-11-05

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in 1960 in New York and never reached age 30, but his short and controversial career created a distinct and influential style in modern art and here is celebrated in BASQUIAT, a full-color display of his graffiti-inspired street art. From religious symbolism to inner city influences, BASQUIAT gathers and examines all the works of his eight-year career under one cover in a retrospective important for any modern art library collection.

great book.......2006-08-23

shows the progression of his work over the years, a great insight into his evolution as an artist.

Extremely Good Book.......2006-03-22

I love this book! Full of great colorful plates and information about Basquiat's life.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981, The Studio of the Street

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BOOM FOR REAL

Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981, The Studio of the Street
Diego Cortez , Glenn O'Brien , Gerard Basquiat , Franklin Sirmans , Arto Lindsay , and Jean-Michel Basquiat
Manufacturer: Charta/ Deitch Projects
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 8881586258
Release Date: 2007-02-01

Book Description

In 1981 Jean-Michel Basquiat made the momentous transition from the street to the studio. He had attracted considerable attention with his Times Square Show the summer before, and reinforced that nascent notoriety with a wall of phenomenal works in Diego Cortez's New York/New Wave at P.S. 1, which opened the following winter. A few months later, the dealer Annina Nosei offered Basquiat an independent space in which to prepare work for her September group show, Public Address. He was only 20. Between the world of spray-painted poetry and what critic Peter Schjeldahl called "New York big-painting aesthetics" lies a fantastic coming-of-age: Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981: The Studio of the Street includes paintings and drawings on everything from note cards to sheet metal to a leather jacket and conventional canvas. In them, as throughout his career, Basquiat married an exuberant spontaneity and art-brut sensibility with a firm command of not only art materials but art history. He would go on to define the 80s Neo-Expressionist idiom, and to remain its most compelling representative. The Studio of the Street examines this charged point of contact in works that show the artist's progression from text to text-and-image, from found materials to traditional canvasses, and from pure drawing to his uniquely evocative hybrid of drawing and painting.

Customer Reviews:

BOOM FOR REAL.......2007-07-30

This book satisfies a great need for an authentic, raw, yet sensitive collection about Jean Michel Basquiat, as a person and an artist. I value this book for more than its appearance, which is so well done. It's quality helps to preserve the legacy of his life and work. The collaborators did a fantastic job.

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heresay
Most useful for history buffs, not terribly enlightening for fans of Basquiat's work
Reality Check
Contains just a peek into the life of Basquiat
Worth the read

Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art
Phoebe Hoban
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140236090

Amazon.com

This minutely reported book is as much a portrait of the frenzied, prodigal New York art world of the 1980s as it is a biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died of a drug overdose at age 27 in 1988. Basquiat, one of very few African American artists to acquire an international reputation, left a thick web of dealers, collectors, friends, lovers, paintings, drawings, and used syringes behind him. Author Phoebe Hoban seems to have unblinkingly interviewed or examined them all. While she duly registers Basquiat's sad childhood, with his unstable Puerto Rican mother and punishing Haitian father, she doesn't make much of the deeper veins of sorrow and self-destruction that may have motivated the artist and informed his art. Rather, she allows his celebrity, which whisked him from street urchin to art star, to be the central trajectory of this story. The Warhol protégé would probably approve, as he was the primary obliterator of his own psychological depths, throwing away his short, phenomenally productive life in the edgy club and drug scene of downtown Manhattan. The miracle is that Basquiat was so good, and so serious, an artist, surrounded as he was by hype and cash. Hoban's book is a fluid, intricate, authoritative dissection of a time, a place, and--almost--a person. --Peggy Moorman

Book Description

The bestselling biography of the controversial artist, and a vivid account of the fast times in which he lived--and died

Painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was the Jimi Hendrix of the art world: in less than a decade he went from being a teenage graffiti writer to an international art star; he was dead of a drug overdose at age twenty-seven. Basquiat's brief career spanned the giddy '80s art boom and epitomized its outrageous excess, from its art dealers to its drug dealers, from its clubs to its galleries. A legend in his own lifetime, Basquiat became a fixture in the downtown scene and got involved with many of the period's most celebrated personalities, including Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and Madonna.

Phoebe Hoban's Basquiat, the first biography of this charismatic figure, charts the trajectory from the artist's troubled childhood to his volatile passage through the art world of white dealers and nouveau-riche collectors. As much the portrait of an era as the portrait of an artist, Basquiat is an incisive expose of the eighties art market that paints a vivid picture of the rise and fall of the graffiti movement, the East Village art scene, the avaricious dealers, and the out-of-control auction houses. Ten years after the artist's death, Basquiat resurrects both the painter and his time.

* A New York Times Notable Book
* Basquiat appeared on the Los Angeles Times and Voice Literary Supplement bestseller lists

"Compulsively readable. . . there is enormous value in it, especially in Hoban's depiction of the glitzy 1980s art world, which is sharply etched and deadly accurate." --Patricia Bosworth, The New York Times Book Review

Customer Reviews:

heresay.......2007-01-13

Not a bad read...but not a factual one either. The movie nor the book provide the reality of the Jean Michel Basquiat story. Enjoy it as gossip filled fiction literature.

Most useful for history buffs, not terribly enlightening for fans of Basquiat's work.......2006-07-05

Phoebe Hoban's BASQUIAT: A Quick Killing in Art is one of the few biographies of the painter whose brief career (1980-1988) coincided with the disgusting obsession with profit of the Eighties' art world. There is little here about his work itself, and in order to understand why Basquiat is so important you'll need a collection of his pictures.

The two big themes of the book are drugs and lots of sex with myriad women and men. I had the impression (like many, I assume) that Basquiat's sinking into drug addiction happened only after his corrupting fame, but Hoban reveals that he had been seriously abusing drugs since the age of fifteen. Basquiat's making an income by selling his body is also exhaustively treated, as are his relationships with Klaus Nomi, Rene Richards, Suzzane Mallouk, and others. The reader notices that a lot of things are being left out. It is obvious, and Hoban herself makes an allusion at one point, that Basquiat was somewhat well-read, but Hoban never talks about his intellectual activities or, with the exception of Cy Twombly, his discovery of his artistic predecessors.

After recounting Basquiat's death, there are two final chapters. The first describes the fights over his estate over the following decade. Hoban has Vrej Baghoomian coming out looking like quite the scumbag, and she describes the case of the several Basquiat forgeries. The chapter ends with a chilling visit to Basquiat's mother, now left extremely poor and mentally fragile even though she was entitled to fifty percent of all proceeds. The final chapter finally focuses on Basquiat's art itself, its themes and the painter's techniques. However, it isn't as substantial as other presentations of Basquiat's work.

If you love Basquiat's painting and really could care less who the man was, Hoban's biography has little appeal and that is why I have rated it rather low. I think that the book would be most attractive to those seeking to understand Basquiat in a historical context along with the 1980s art scene as a whole. That the work is very well-sourced makes it a useful guide to further research.

Reality Check.......2006-02-07

I usually am disappointed in the art books I purchase because they lack insight into the artist and the reproductions are consistently not accurate reproductions.

However, one reviewer needs a reality check. Yes, Basquiat may have indeed been a drug addict and mooch to some, but characterizing the man this way only reveals the writer's utter lack of understanding of the art, the process and the mental anguish and character flaws that may have existed. Learning to see is perhaps more difficult than being judgemental.

Take the eighties art scene for what it was, but don't disparage the artist for his weakness. And while I'm not endorsing excess or drug use, that weakness was integral in the production of what could be argued is some of the most important art of the age.

Contains just a peek into the life of Basquiat.......2006-01-27

I enjoyed this book. It is a pretty entertaining read,but it does not got that in depth into the artists life. It does give some insight into the man and his work, but not as much as I would like. Still worth a look for any fan of Basquiat, though. 3 1/2 STARS

Worth the read.......2005-10-11

The best thing about this book was the last chapter when someone must have realized, "Wow, I guess we should talk a little about his art and creative process." A lot of the rest of the book is about girlfriends, drug experiences, etc. I think a lot of this could have been edited out. There was also a lot about the 80's art business and dealers and I thought that was pretty interesting. But I was looking for more of what it's really all about for me - the art and the process. One thing I took from it is that Basquiat worked hard before his last couple years; he was constantly drawing and painting and processing. Regardless as to whether he was on drugs or not, he did the work. And no one can take that away from him. And I think his work kicks ass.

Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat

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Factory Work: Warhol, Wyeth and Basquiat
Joyce Stoner
Manufacturer: Farnsworth
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Jasper Johns: An Allegory of Painting, 1955-1965

ASIN: 0918749212

Book Description

Factory Work examines Andy Warhol's (1928-1987) role as a mentor for two younger artists from opposite corners of the art world. Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) were young, independent artists with their own substantial reputations when Andy Warhol invited each of them to paint in his "Factory" on 860 Broadway, New York City. In 1976 Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth painted each other's portraits. They jointly attended openings from 1976 to 1980; the exhibitions were known informally as "The Patriarch of Pop Paints the Prince of Realism," and Warhol visited Wyeth's farm in Pennsylvania. Basquiat rented a studio on Great Jones Street from Warhol beginning in August 1983 and collaborated with Warhol (first as part of a trio including Francesco Clemente) later the same year and in 1984 began joint projects with Warhol alone and exhibited in 1985. Warhol influenced these younger artists, and they enabled him to stay connected to new audiences of an evolving art world. At the same time, Warhol's paintings demonstrably changed due to his contact with Wyeth and Basquiat.

The works illustrated provide clues toward further investigation of these two unique partnerships, also documented in Warhol's published diary entries, Interview magazines, and Warhol's tape-recorded conversations. There are four catalogue essays: Robert Rosenblum, Professor of Fine Arts at New York University and internationally known curator of 20th-century art at the Guggenheim Museum, examines Warhol as mentor for Jamie Wyeth, "a card-carrying member of a Yankee dynasty of three generations of ultra-WASP artists," as well as for Basquiat, the "dark-skinned crazy kid from Brooklyn who began his meteoric career by raucously embracing a counter-cultural life"; Christine Daulton, consultant conservator for the Warhol Museum, describes and provides recreations of the unusual techniques used by Warhol to create his oxidation portraits in the 1970s and 1980s; Joyce Hill Stoner, conservator, art historian, and Director of the University of Delaware Preservation Studies Program, writes about Wyeth's influence on Warhol that can be seen in Warhol's 1976 cat and dog paintings, his 1979 pig photographs and print, and his 1976-1977 skull paintings and self-portraits with skull; Margaret Rose Vendryes of the City University of New York discusses Basquiat's work and his "tagging" of Warhol's commercial images on their collaborative paintings and collages. The text and illustrations also offer insights into the celebrity-obsessed culture of the '70s and the drug- and money-mad art market of the '80s.

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Suzanne
Hearts and Tracks
no title
Poetic, sympathetic, and True
s.

Widow Basquiat: A Love Story
Jennifer Clement
Manufacturer: Canongate Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 086241931X

Book Description

In this extraordinary and unusual book, Jennifer Clement explores the turbulent relationships that Jean-Michel Basquiat had with his muse Suzanne Malouk and with the art establishment. The result is a distressing yet beautiful profile of a strange, powerful love striving to flourish in the face of horrendous outside pressures. And while Suzanne held firm, Basquiat sought refuge in a fatal heroin addiction. Widow Basquiat also presents an eye-witness account of the drug-fueled insanity of the New York art scene of the 1980s.

Customer Reviews:

Suzanne.......2005-10-09

I had the honor of knowing Suzanne. She's an extraordinary human being, and I'm glad that someone else found her as special as I did. This book is simple, haunting, and beautifully written. Blessings on Suzanne, wherever she may be.

Hearts and Tracks.......2002-08-20

This book was a excellent book in the matter that it protrayed another perspective of Jean-Michel Basquiat and let us in on the life of one of his most enduring muses in his short and unfortunate addictive lifestyle and life. The books poetic writings give Jean-Michel and Suzannes life together a hard tragedy instead of a glamorous protrayal (tragedy is the actual matter of fact). Jean-Michel and Suzanne's relationship was truely bizarre and not understanding to the everyday person. People who know or know of Jean-Michel probably never knew the side of him that Suzanne saw, and it is refreshing and wonderful that we were allowed to read such intimate details of their life together. I titled this review "Hearts and Tracks" because the book is full of heart and the heroine abuse of Suzanne and Basquiat (including a discription of his unfortunate death).

no title.......2002-04-01

The book came in the maximum amount of time I expected - 2-14 business days from the notice I received from the seller that the item had been shipped. The quality of the item was high, much higher than expected for a used book. It looked brand new and I was very pleased with the item.

Poetic, sympathetic, and True.......2002-03-15

I have been a fan of Basquiat for a long time. I am an artist as well. I have always been intrested in his life and have a lot of books on him and his art and his life. I found this book to be about a totally different perspective. Not only a womens persepctive but a women who was a muse to him. This book does not paint a glorified Picture of him...or a star struck tragic picture of him. It is about Susan and her plight with life, and him being a big part of it. The book is extremely poetic, very dark, sad, melancholy...but above all MOVING. I read it in less than 24 hours. I applaud Jennifer Clement

s........2002-03-12

This is a surprisingly light read of a heavy topic that gives a unique, inside view of life with the artist, Jean-Michael Basquiat. It is an even better book when read as a success story of a woman who ultimately left an unhealthy relationship. Since it covers her childhood as well as her relationship with Basquiat and her attempts to move away from him you get a little bit of insight as to why she would be attracted to this type of person. When you finish the book you will have learned about the sensationalized artist but you will also learn a story about a very successful woman who wasn't quite as interesting to the public only because she was strong and overcame adversity instead of wallowing in it. She is probably not as famous as her ex-beau because she didn't die of an overdose, but such is our culture.

100 Masterpieces of Painting: From Lascaux to Basquiat, From Florence to Shanghai

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100 Masterpieces of Painting: From Lascaux to Basquiat, From Florence to Shanghai
Michel Nuridsany
Manufacturer: Flammarion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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1001 Paintings You Must See Before You Die

ASIN: 2080305298
Release Date: 2006-12-05

Book Description

A renowned French art critic has chosen one hundred of the world's greatest paintings from all periods and traditions of art. From Chinese calligraphy to the Mona Lisa, and from Mexican wall murals to Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie, the multicultural and chronological scope of 100 Masterpieces of Painting offers a comprehensive approach to the development of painting. While other volumes offer a repetitive template of photos and text, 100 Masterpieces of Painting presents the paintings in a lively design that reflects the style of the individual artists, mimicking the evolving history of painting on the printed page. The author situates each work in the artist's oeuvre and establishes the role it played in the evolution of painting. Japanese prints, Indian paintings of the grottos of Ajanta, illuminated manuscript from the Book of Kells, Russian icons, and the works of the Great Mastersâthis is an essential addition to the library of any art lover.

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Complete Intro and overview - not an easy painter-
Concise and friendly, an ideal introduction
Getting the Respect He Deserves
Farewell Basquiat By Salah Mahdi Abood
BOOM!! An Excellente' Intro. to a "Misunderstood Genius"

Basquiat.
Leonhard Emmerling
Manufacturer: Taschen Deutschland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3822816361

Customer Reviews:

Complete Intro and overview - not an easy painter- .......2007-05-14

My Profile- No qualifications whatsoever as art critic

This refers to the spanish Taschen edition

Back in the 80's I was into art mainly by helping my late father-in-law (may God have him in his glory)who was a well known merchant here in Caracas.

I began knowing of JMB thorugh the works that were auditioned in the Sothebys and Chrity's galleries... his prices were rising like bubbles of champagne... his art is not easy, and sometimes its hard to tell the mundane from the sublime.. though I always remeber a painting called "Everything must go" that somehow revealed what he was trying to accomplish..

Again its not an easy travel but this book is a good and objective guide

Concise and friendly, an ideal introduction.......2006-06-27

In spite of many who claim that Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was but a flash in the pan, a faddish personality whose work won't survive, today there are many different presentations of his art published. This TASCHEN overview by Leonhard Emmerling, however, might be the best introduction for those who have never come across this great figure. Basquiat's art speaks to this reviewer who encountered the painter only years after the time in which he lived and worked, and Emmerling's book explains just what's so special about him.

I come to like this TASCHEN series. None of its titles meant to provide exhaustive coverage of a painter's oeuvre. Instead, they give a brief biography with examples of outstanding work from each period. And this one on Basquiat is no different. In the prose portion of the work, Emmerling tracks Basquiat from his humble beginnings as a grafitti artist through his discovery and brief fame, and ultimately to his death from a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988. Especially attention is paid to his relationship with Andy Warhol, and the rather misguided partnerships he had with Warhol and Francesco Clemente. A coda discusses views of Basquiat after his death, with savage words against Schnabel's film. Throughout, Emmerling portrays Basquiat as a conflicted figure, half in the art scene and half sick of the commercialism, and unsure of whether to embrace his African heritage or assimilate to upper-class white values.

The selected paintings are presented here in glorious colour. I was very pleased to see that Emmerling features Basquiat's "Pegasus", a massive and intensely-detailed pencil work which I believe is his masterpiece. His "Angel" gets a full-page spread (as well as the cover), and his fascinating "Baptism" an entire page. Many of Basquiat's sly jabs against commercialism, for example by painting a dollar sign on the work, are featured.

Getting the Respect He Deserves.......2005-03-23

The myth of Jean Michel Basquiat has taken on the status of an "art cautionary tale". Born to a middle class family in Brooklyn's Park Slope, Basquiat first made a name for himself as a graffiti artist and punk musician in ate 70s Soho before reinventing himself as a painter. His work rode the painting boom of the early 80s where, along with Julian Schnabel and Europeans George Baselitz and Francesco Clemente he was associated with the Neo-Expressionist movement in art. Basquiat's studied primitive canvases, which mixed text, symbol, primitive figuration and abstract techniques became the rage in the burgeoning "art market" of the 80s, looked upon as much for "investment" purposes as for the intrinsic value of the work. Basquiat's meteoric rise to fame and romantic origins as a street artist sold his paintings as much as the actual work on canvas. And then when he fell, he fell hard. He was dropped by the very people who had made his career only a few years earlier and died of a drug overdose in 1987, at the age of 27.

I bought this book after attending the fantastic Basquiat retrospective exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum. I had not been a fan of the artist before seeing this show. Somehow, wandering through the almost 200 pieces brought a cumulative power to the work that I had never noticed when viewed singly. Basquiat's arcane use of phrases, text and esoteric symbols fascinated me and I wanted to know more. This book was just the ticket.

The book is a fast read. The highlights of Basquiat's career are present; his time on the streets, his early struggles as an artist, his lionization by Rene Ricard and Diego Cortez, his contentious relationships with his agents and promoters, the strange relationship with Warhol, and his final dissolution. But what comes through is the seriousness in Basquiat. Rather than just a drug-addled idiot savant, a characterization that is immortalized in Julian Schabel's deeply flawed bio-pic, we get the impression of Basquiat as a deeply intellectual painter who hides profound social insights under an almost child-like surface.

Emmerling takes Basquiat very seriously. He traces the main themes of the painter's work; heroism, death, and racial injustice; and decodes the hidden meanings in many of the paintings. His draws attention to Basquiat's excellence as a draughtsman, something that was often ignored during his lifetime, and to his debt to older painters. He demonstrates the influence of Cy Twombley on Basquiat but also draws deeper connections between the painter and older abstract expressionists like Clyfford Still. The artist who emerges from this book is something much more comlex and interesting than the Basquiat the myth. He is rather an accomplished painter with something profound to say about life and society who died, not in decline, but at the height of his powers.

The book is lavishly illustrated with many of Basquiat's most important paintings. All are in color and most are big enough to help one appreciate the details in the work. The only paintings that don't come across well in this book are the massive text paintings such as the late Pegasus, which is dominated by a plethora of tiny, precisely laid out text items. In the gallery this work is one of the most hermetic and paradoxically profound pieces, but much of the power is lost on the small page.

Still, with this small caveat, which could be raised against any artist catalogue, this book is highly recommended for anyone who wants to gain a greater appreciation for this important and yet much misunderstood painter.

Farewell Basquiat By Salah Mahdi Abood.......2004-12-13

Farewell Basquiat! May the Lord grant you the ultimate paradise up in heaven above, Amen.
Your Friend, Salah.
Throughout the entire history of art, a major fact can be concluded which is : ART FOREVER REMAINS SUBJECTIVE NOT OBGECTIVE, AND DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ARE AND WHAT APPEALS TO YOU. Here lies the difficulty of addressing a fare evaluation and an accurate critique and review. And when it comes to Post-Modernist artist, such as Jean-Michel, the difficulty is greater because that there is a clear gap between realist and modernist aa well as an abstact expressionist art. Modern art does not apply a traditional technique or standard art theories, such as proportion, and measurement. Nevertheless, modern artist insted employs a free formula of randam imagination to capture his thoughts and express his artistic vocabularies and themes. Although I am not writing review about Basquiat's style, yet I feel the need to explore the significance of his contributions to the world of art and to our lives. His noble memory will remain ever alive in our hearts and minds. His too soon departure from our lives will remain a landmrk of an inspiration to all of us as well as to new generations, yet to be born. The book is a mastarpiece by any standard, I have read many books about Jean-michel Basquiat, larger in size than this, yet this one, the Taschen's publication is the best, for its unique produc and visual attraction. Above all, artistically documents the work and the live of one of the most controversial young artist in our time.
Jean-Michel Basquiat! wherever you are in heaven, out hearts with you.
Salah,
roxburytaxi@aol.com
Boston, MASS.
12/12/2004
IN MEMORY OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT(1960-1988)
Absent Friends, Salah remember Basquiat

BOOM!! An Excellente' Intro. to a "Misunderstood Genius".......2004-02-18

Great writing, Pocket Size edition, but very informative. Breaks Jean Michele down and makes him real. Does more than "gawk at and patronize" the so-called "negro savant" of the early 80's art world.

As a fan of "the artist" and the prolific amount of "work" he was able to create in his brief time on Planet Earth, this was a much needed testament to his legacy.

Unlike "Basquait"(IMO) the all-too self-serving Schnabel film,
Jean Michelle is not "presented as the drug-riddled token-ghetto golden child." His complex relationship with his family, ethnicity, and the 80's art world who both exploited and extolled him are examined.

Jean Michele artistic influences are detailed, his original perspective and cleverness is allowed to shine, and the author has obviously spent time and research and it is much appreciated.

Originally, I was under the impression that Basquait was somewhat of a fraud (many years ago) and it's only been in the last 5-7 years that I am beginning to truly appreciate his legacy and genius.

Emmerling plants Basquait firmly in the tradition of African, Latino, and American artists, where he firmly belongs.

"Liberals" beware, This is not the book to purchase, if you're looking for the "overly hyped" sordid details of his life. He may not have been a Saint, but who is???? Time will tell if he's deserving of the "Black Picasso" moniker.

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