Talk:Jean-Michel Basquiat/Archive 1

Archive 1

Initial message

I'm stubbing this, it's fragmentary and incomplete. There needs to be a section adressing the criticism towards Basquiat. Robert Hughes for example called him a featherweight because of his weak technique, and criticized his dealers for exploiting him as a young black painter. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 201.133.69.2 (talk) 05:19, 18 February 2005 (UTC)

Name of Band

I'm pretty sure his band's name was spelled with an "e", but I can't remember. Someone who knows should let us know and correct it if needed (I think it was named after "Grey's Anatomy" if I remember correctly, which would suggest the g-r-e-y spelling).Arekusu (talk) 03:44, 15 May 2011 (UTC)

Let's improve this

This paragraph is problematic in both style and content. Let's try to improve it:

• Many of his friends and his lovers showed a remarkable fear for his frequent drug abuse. Many believe because of this drug use, he developed a paranoia around many, including his close friends.

--jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 15:37, 1 May 2005 (UTC)

The paragraph concerning his drug use seems to hint at a connection between the drugs/paranoia and his appearance on the cover of Time. Is this the case? If not, this paragraph should be restructured. -Sam Walker (2005/8/15)

I agree. In fact, this article is disjointed in many places and includes at least one POV statement, "Some claimed that Andy Warhol was merely using Basquiat for some of his techniques and insight, but this was never based on much fact, just mere speculation." Who are the some who claimed that Warhol was using him and how do we know that the assertion was mere speculation? I would suggest that someone put a clean-up disclaimer on this page. I'd do it myself, but I haven't yet learned how. CKA3KA (Skazka) 00:26, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

I have tagged the article as being in need of work. CKA3KA (Skazka) 01:35, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

This page needs a section on where some of his works are housed (i.e. names of paintings followed by names of museums) to follow the format used for most visual artists on this site. --Emilie, 4/5/2007 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 160.39.245.202 (talk) 12:09, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

This page needs to move away from Graffiti, and more to talking about his life, habits, and contacts. At least 3 new sections are needed, and I think it should probably be totally rewritten. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.68.66.175 (talk) 04:08, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

He was not on the cover of Time, it was the Magazeen of the Sunday New York Times. It had nothing to do with his drug use, which went on an off for most of his career. --AaronF2 (talk) 20:06, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

There is one good biography so far published, and several good works on his art. Yet most of the statements in this article seem to come from websites filled with misinformation. The entire work needs to be restructured, and edited severely. --AaronF2 (talk) 20:06, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The article says his father (Gerard Basquiat) was a "former Haitian Minister of the Interior." I have seen no reference to this in Basquiat's biography, or the many interviews with Jean-Michal and Gerard. Gerard has stated that he left Haiti for Brooklyn in 1955 when he was only 20. He came from an "elite, affluent background" and his family "got into some political problems." I think the statement about the Minister of the Interior should be removed. --AaronF2 (talk) 20:19, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Political Correctness Fails Again

Why is he listed as being an African-American? There is nothing in the article that says he has African heritage. Black =/= African-American. 207.250.76.5 14:42, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

1) Basquiat was of Haitian extraction. Where do you think the Haitians came from? They are descended from African slaves. 2) Basquiat was an American. Therefore, Q.E.D. he was an African-American. JohnC 05:25, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

3) And the Puerto Rican ancestry comes into this where exactly? kris 23:50, 09 January 2007 (UTC)

Basquiat would best be described as being of West Indian descent. Both Haitians and Puerto Ricans have a rich and very mixed heritage of African/Indigenous/European culture. Nothing wrong with being listed as African American... Unfortunately in America, the color of your skin trumps anything else. Malarican 02:41, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Try telling a Haitian that he is African-American, many Haitians have serious problems being identified with the American Noir. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.31.91.82 (talk) 17:55, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Why not just say he is American? And leave it at that, although most Americans have different ethnic backgrounds for example on Jackson Pollock's page we don't say "European-American" or such as that? It's ridiculous. - User:EthanLeon —Preceding comment was added at 19:35, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

Jean-Michel Basquiat was Black and born in America. Another term used for that is African-American. His father was from Haiti, and Black, and his mother was from Puerto Rico. Although not all Puerto Ricans are Black, she was. Jean-Michel did not call himself Haitian, or Puerto Rican, although he was proud of his heritage. His work makes references to Haitian history ("Haitian Baseball Factrories," "Toussaint L'Overture vs Savonarola" 1983, etc.), and to Puerto Rico ("Abuelita" 1981, etc.), but even more to the African-American experience, from "Slave Auction" to "Jim Crow," "Great Negro Athletes" and numerous paintings about Black American jazz and sports figures. He even visited Africa, and painted "Griot" and other paintings based on West African traditions. So there should be no problem in refering to him as an "African American" painter, although he is certainly a notable modern American painter with or without noting his ethnic background. --AaronF2 (talk) 21:06, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Afro-Puerto Rican

There seems to be a ridiculous wikipedia trend of calling persons who happen to have ancestors from Puerto Rico who married black people who are not Puerto Rican, "Afro-Puerto Rican." Afro-Puerto Rican refers to a specific group of people -blacks from Puerto Rico- and not anything else. I am deleting this nonsensical reference. Thanks to the editor who adds people to ethnic groups by combining ancestors; very poor and very non-academic. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Noopinonada (talk • contribs) 03:16, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

brooklynmuseum.org external link

This link: [Street-to-Studio Interactive was added to the article by the site owner. In keeping with our guidelines could regular editors of this article check out the link and add it back if you think it appropriate. Thanks. -- Siobhan Hansa 00:23, 1 January 2007 (UTC)

Pictures of his artworks?

would it be possible for someone to post some pictures of his more famous artworks? most other artists seem to have these included with their articles.

It would be nice, but there are copyright issues with the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. The best thing to do is to link to other sites which have authorised pictures (such as Brooklyn Museum, and some galleries). --AaronF2 (talk) 21:09, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

SAMO shit image by imitator

Am i the only one that sees how silly that looks? it's as if someone uploaded their own cover of "Strawberry Fields" to The Beatles article. This image should definitely go and replaced for either an originl SAMO tag by Basquiat or nothing.Yamanbaiia 11:10, 14 October 2007 (UTC)

Agreed. I removed it. I'm surprised it stuck around as long as it did. In addition to the obvious ridiculousness of having an imitator's bathroom graffiti on the page, it's not even a good image of that imitation. It's cut off on the bottom, and it includes a spam reference to "trashfetishwear.com". MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM 21:52, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

Coincidental Information Also Left Out

The graffiti name "SAMO", obviously used by Basquiat, is shared by a Frankish merchant named Samo who became the first ruler of the Slavs. He was called King Samo. If you're familiar with Basquiat's work you'll recognize the significance by his usage of the ever-present crown. I think this is more than a coincidence and should be noted in the article. Another piece of information left untapped was his SAMO quotes which can be found on many sites. "SAMO© as an end to mindwash religion, nowhere politics, and bogus philosophy" or "SAMO© saves idiots" are just a few examples. This article needs more, with a few more links.--Garyloganhobdy (talk) 21:38, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

This name was, in its first phase the product of a three person collective effort of which Jean-Michel Basquiat was part. In its second phase it Basquiat alone. Many examples of the first phase (much of which appear very similar to those quoted above) are available on Henry Flynt's website as he photographed them and exhibited the photos in New York in 1979. I found your comments in the process of creating a stub to document this information.Bob Doubles (talk) 18:17, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Please give more information on this. All availalbe accounts, including interviews with Basquiat and Diaz, say the graffiti was a dual effort between Jean-Michal Basquiat and Albert Diaz. In early 1980 Basquiat began writing "SAMO is dead" and the tag was killed off. --AaronF2 (talk) 20:15, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Basquiat Museum

Is there any current proposal to create a Basquiat Museum from the large amount of works that constitute the Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate ? Just curious to know.213.13.242.8 (talk) 22:47, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

No. —Preceding unsigned comment added by AaronF2 (talk • contribs) 21:11, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

It wouldn´t be a bad idea.213.13.241.8 (talk) 23:55, 27 October 2010 (UTC)

Ethnicity in lead and see also section

Are ther other sources for the claim that he was the first internation African American "art star" (whatever that is :) )? Also, I removed the over bloated see also section. Maybe work into the article or spell out what the relation is to this article. Thanks, --Tom (talk) 21:51, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

ps, I also removed the quote farm. --Tom (talk) 21:54, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

Other sources for Basquiat as first black American art star (whatever that is): "the only black artist to achieve the Olympian pinnacle of international painter stars [in the 1980s]" [1], "one of the most significant black artists of his generation" [2].--Ethicoaestheticist (talk) 22:01, 19 June 2009 (UTC)

American painters Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden were also black.213.13.245.166 (talk) 02:15, 6 November 2009 (UTC)

copyright image in need of context / commentary

File:Untitled painting by --Jean-Michel Basquiat--.jpg has been removed from the article per WP:FAIR, without properly sourced commentary / contextual content, it will likely be deleted from wikipedia. Active Banana (talk) 20:51, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

I would also recommend that rather than this image, we find one of the Graffiti works or one that shows his use of incorporating text into his work. This and the other works in the article appear to be very similar in style and do not give the reader a very good overview of the span of his work. Active Banana (talk) 22:55, 17 February 2010 (UTC)

Early Life Unclear

The Early Life section is unclear and not organized chronologically. It even appears to contradict itself. Will someone with knowledge of this subject please clean it up?Tdimhcs (talk) 21:33, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

Art Market

This needs to be updated. This section gives a high price figure for the sale of a Basquiat at $16 million when his paintings have sold for $40 million and even $80 Million.Tomandzeke (talk) 00:59, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Small Issue But Disrespectful Nonetheless

The last sentence in the opening paragraph of Jean-Michel Basquiat's biography should not end with “Basquiat died of a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988.” If other biography opening paragraphs dealing with this time period ended similarly this would not be an issue, but they are not. He should be given the same consideration as his contemporaries with the last sentence removed and edited to read as follows:

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist and is cited by Graham Thompson as the first painter of African descent to become an international art star.[1] He started as a graffiti writer in New York City, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.

Consider the opening paragraphs of Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious:

Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. (July 15, 1952 - April 23, 1991), was an American Glam-Punk guitarist, singer and songwriter. He came to prominence in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls. He later played with The Heartbreakers and as a solo artist.

Sid Vicious (born John Simon Ritchie[1] 10 May 1957 – 2 February 1979) was an English musician best known as the bassist of the influential punk rock group Sex Pistols. In 2006 he was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Sex Pistols.

Or are the openings for Nancy Spungen and Rockets Redglare – two controversial and/or some would say scandalous people of the same time period:

Nancy Laura Spungen (February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978) was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.

Rockets Redglare (May 8, 1949 – May 28, 2001) was an American character actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared in over 30 films in the 1980s and 1990s, including a number of independent films, and mainstream films such as After Hours (1984) and Desperately Seeking Susan (1985).

Even they were shown respect– why wasn’t Basquiat?

First WP:OTHERSTUFFEXISTS. In other words, using other articles as an example of what should be done on every article is not a solid argument. However, since I really couldn't care less about this issue, I haven't reverted. Second, had you explained why you were removing the content to begin with, I doubt anyone else would give a toss either and you wouldn't have been reverted twice. Editors doing vandalism patrols cannot read your mind nor do they know why you have a problem with what appears to be very valid and very sourced content. Pinkadelica^♣ 02:00, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

I agree that removing the specifics of his death from the opening paragraph is the right thing to do. The Sid Vicious argument is best, as both Vicious and Basquiat were talented young artists and already famous; thus making their untimely deaths all the more tragic. On the flip-side, musician Kurt Cobain's fairly robust article DOES mention his death in the opening section.--Knulclunk (talk) 02:10, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

WP:LEAD says that the introduction should cover all important aspects of the topic of the article. The death of a human is a pretty important aspect in the life of a human. We are not here "to show respect" - the facts are the facts and we report them. From WP:LEAD "When an article subject dies, the lead does not need to be radically reworked. Unless the cause of death is itself a reason for notability, a single sentence describing it is usually sufficient." suggesting that the single sentence about the death is in fact appropriate.Active Banana (talk) 17:35, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

The issue at hand is whether it is important enough in the life and relevance of Basquiat to be one of the three sentences in the introductory paragraph to his page. And yes, facts are facts, but again, is he famous for dying of a heroin overdose, or is he famous for being an artist and cultural blah-blah-blah? I don't think his death has very much at all to do with why he has a page on Wikipedia, why he is remembered, or how he is remembered. And you'll note that other people who died with similar opportunities for journalistic sensationalism, as mentioned by others, were not treated the same way in the opening paragraph. Chris Farley is a person whose death (and I know this is anecdotal/subjective) is a well-known part of his life and is connected to the image of Farley 'we' have, but there's no mention of that in his intro paragraph. This isn't about allowing the truth out, but about whether there's really any reason the heroin overdose should be one of essentially two facts about his life initially presented, along with being an American artist famous for his certain brand of art. It didn't affect his art, and I just don't see any way it is connected to who he was.

I'm removing it for now. If somebody fill the paragraph in again, I would recommend giving equal consideration to his heroin overdose, his beginning selling T-shirts, and Haitian/Puerto Rican background for what might be placed there. ~ magbatz 17:42, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

If you removed it it didn't stay removed. Basquiat's paintings have sold for up to $80,000,000 to date which makes him much more famous for his legacy than his autopsy. Which is more important that his work commands among the the highest prices of any American painter or that he was a heroin user? How does Wikipedia know he died of a heroin overdose rather than an accidental overdose since no user ever knows the purity/potency of the drug—where is this documented and why is there no citation? Tomandzeke (talk) 01:06, 3 June 2014 (UTC)

Better to start a new section here than revive a three-year-old thread. Read the "Final years and death" section of the article; the info is sourced and pertinent to the story of Basquiat's career. Carlstak (talk) 03:55, 4 June 2014 (UTC)

Artistic Analysis

The explaintions of B's work needs attention. For example:

"His paintings are typically covered with text and codes of all kinds: words, letters, numerals, pictograms, logos, map symbols, diagrams and more."

- This is merely a statement of artistic practice. It does not explain why B did this, or more to the point what representational value this practice has.

"A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery. The years 1984–85 were also the main period of the Basquiat–Warhol collaborations, even if, in general, they weren't very well received by the critics."

- Why did B do multi-panel paintings? Why use stretcher bars? Why were B and W's collaborations not well received?

"A major reference source used by Basquiat throughout his career was the book Gray's Anatomy, which his mother had given him while he was in the hospital at age seven. It remained influential in his depictions of internal human anatomy, and in its mixture of image and text. Other major sources were Henry Dreyfuss' Symbol Sourcebook, Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, and Brentjes' African Rock Art."

- What did G's Anatomy contribute to B's work? Why is it important to mix image and text? What did this bring to B's art?

Jamesthecat (talk) 14:57, 13 July 2014 (UTC)

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opening biographical info inaccuracy

in the opening paragraph, it is stated, rather unequivocally, "the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements had coalesced."

this is simply historically inaccurate for two reasons:

in the 70's (especially late 70's) there was, as yet, no hip-hop culture, movement, or anything similar fully formed. at best the culture of rap, and later known as hip-hop, was in it's nascent phases. further, in whatever state hip-hop existed, by no means was it present, and certainly not 'coalescing', anywhere near the lower east side. this was strictly an uptown phenomenon. and most definitely there was no 'coalescing' with punk in any form. those worlds simply did not mix. while looking thru the lens of today's culture, where there has been a dissolution of specific tastes to the extent that various genres of the arts (especially music) may be blended, at least in discussion, etc., at that time, such a crossing of barriers simply didn't happen.

secondly, the use of the term 'post-punk' is completely inaccurate here. the 70's (again, primarily late 70's) was the origin period of punk. to whatever extent a 'post-punk' genre existed in the late 70's(joy division being the best example)there was certainly no overt, fully formed movement and/or subculture which was independent and coherent enough to be considered as viable to be 'coalescing' with any other movement.

to be sure, the downtown nyc art worlds were blended in a mix of alternative culture in general at that time(note: that would not include any nascent hip-hop)- that would include punk, post-punk, goth, etc. but to single out post-punk as a specific movement that was coalescing, as the author did, is simply wrong.Patric627 (talk) 18:08, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

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Timeline inconsistent

The early childhood timeline does not line up and does not match the sources. One source say 6 years old when hit by car could not be in September 1968.

69.159.30.146 (talk) 17:41, 15 February 2018 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Jean-Michel Basquiat/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Caeciliusinhorto (talk · contribs) 07:19, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

I will review this article. Initial comments hopefully later today. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 07:19, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

In a reversal of my usual practice, as this is a visual arts article I started by looking at the images.

• File:AsPoster-SAMO-Mania-D.-363x500.jpg is tagged as CC-BY-SA for the photograph, but there is no information about the copyright status of the poster itself. As posters are normally protected by copyright, it needs an explanation as to why it is not in copyright.
• File:Drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat, (Axe-Rene) 1982.jpeg and File:Untitled acrylic and mixed media on canvas by --Jean-Michel Basquiat--, 1984.jpg: both of these include as part of the fair use rationale that they show Basquiat's work. Per WP:NFCC#3a, "Multiple items of non-free content are not used if one item can convey equivalent significant information." The fair use rationales need to explain why these two images convey different information.

I also notice that there are several external links in the body of the article (I count four; I may have missed others). WP:EL says that external links "should not normally be placed in the body of an article".

Comments on the text of the article later. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 17:14, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

Thanks for taking on this review. Regarding the formatting of the cites, I could only locate 3 of the cites which needed to be formatted and have done this in the article. Since the article is fairly stable, if you would like me to format or reformat any of the other cites, then you can list them by footnote number and I will see to doing them as well.

Ah, perhaps I was not clear. I wasn't looking at cites: I was looking at links to other websites in the body of the article. I removed them in this edit. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 21:38, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

Regarding the Fair Use images rationale, this has differed in the two cases you mention. In the case of the poster the use of the image was justified as to its use being limited to the low-res image, and poster protection of converted images is different from original images. The Fair Use of the Skull image was discussed in 2016 and the decision was to retain it as discussed there. At present, the 2 images you mention illustrate 2 different sections in the article, though that might be adapted later on during editing or by other editors to use them in other sections. My thought would be to keep the rationale as belonging to the article as a whole, and not require other editors to remake the rationale argument or adjust it each time the image is shifted within the same article. Let me know it that sounds reasonable. I'll also look forward to your comments on the main body of the article when you can start listing them here. CodexJustin (talk) 15:02, 5 July 2019 (UTC)

I am slightly confused. The poster doesn't have a fair use rationale at all. It is hosted on Commons, which doesn't host fair use works. Therefore, it should be out of copyright, and needs some explanation as to why. If it is not out of copyright, we need to host the image on en.wikipedia, not commons, and we need a fair use rationale.

Regarding the two drawings: the fair use rationale for each drawing needs to explain what it adds to the article individually. I don't think that it needs to refer to a particular section, but it does need to explain why the two drawings are not conveying the same information. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 21:38, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

@Caeciliusinhorto: Ready for edit comments for main body of article when you are ready to continue. CodexJustin (talk) 14:44, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

@CodexJustin: apologies for the delay – I wrote up a long comment on Friday evening and my browser crashed just before posting it, and then I was busy all weekend. I shall try to reconstruct my commentary on the biography section of the article this evening... Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 16:36, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

Prose comments

Comments on §Biography

• "Matilde Andrades": Matilde and Gérard were married when Basquiat was born. Had she kept her maiden name?
• "Jose Machado": Machado is a Portuguese/Spanish name, which suggests to me that his first name is actually José?
• "a more than competent athlete": what's wrong with a simple "good athlete"
• "the Gray's anatomy book": "a copy of Gray's anatomy" would be more idiomatic.
• "San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1974": needs comma after Puerto Rico
• Why did Basquiat run away from home?
• "Basquiat transitioned from being homeless and unemployed to selling a single painting for up to $25,000 in a matter of several years." Can this sentence be rewritten more elegantly? It's pretty clunky.
• There's an apparent contradiction between "In 1976, Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz began spray painting graffiti [...] under the pseudonym SAMO" and "In 1978, Basquiat [...] began "SAMO,""
• "Plus safe he think.. SAMO": is this correct? If so, mark with {{sic}}. Else correct.
• "SAMO," should have the comma outside the quotation marks. There are various other violations of MOS:LQ throughout the article.
• "When Basquiat and Diaz ended their friendship, The SAMO project ended": "The" shouldn't be capitalised here
• "where in October 1979 Basquiat showed, among others, his SAMO color Xerox work": I think this means that B was part of a group show, but it's ambiguous; it could equally be taken to mean he showed the color Xerox work and other things too. Clarify.
• And while we are at it, what is "color Xerox work"?
• "Gray also consisted of" is an awkward construction. And if the members of Gray are important enough to be named, why not at the first mention of the band?
• "The early 1980s were Basquiat's breakthrough as a solo artist". Awkward construction. The 80s were not themselves B's breakthrough. Perhaps they saw B's breakthrough?
• "Emilio Mazzoli, an Italian gallerist saw": should be a comma after "gallerist".
• "Modena (Italy)[...] Modena, Italy": wikilink should be at first mention; geographical disambiguation should be with commas as throughout the rest of the article on first mention, and is probably unneeded on second.
• "In March 1982...": three uses of "work"/"worked" in this sentence, and it's a real run-on one: break it up!
• "I was a little concerned -- one too many": use an n-dash rather than two hyphens!
• "he took considerable interest": presumably B took, but grammatically this refers to Larry Gagosian.
• "In the early 1980s, David Bowie[...]" this sentence doesn't appear to connect to the rest of the paragraph.
• "In late 1981 Basquiat met Annina Nosei and had a first exhibition with her gallery in a group show in October called Public Address with Keith Haring and Barbara Kruger among others": this sentence feels like it could be made significantly less convoluted.
• "his girlfriend (from 1981-1983), Suzanne Mallouk". Date range should either be "from 1981 to 1983" or "1981–1983". And we've just been told that in 1982 B's girlfriend was Madonna!
• "the single contained two versions of the same track: "Beat Bop" on side one with vocals and "Beat Bop" on side two as an instrumental." when talking about vinyl singles, I believe A-side and B-side are the conventional terms. And can the repetition of "Beat Bop" be avoided?
• "Despite his artistic success in this period, he began to use heroin frequently. Many of his peers speculated that his heroin use was a means of coping with the demands of his newfound fame[...]" If the heroin use was a coping mechanism, why is it "despite" his success?
• "Despite the unsuccessful attempt at sobriety": I suspect "despite", "attempt" and "died [...] of a heroin overdose" make "unsuccessful" redundant!
• "Among those... were... Ingrid Sischy": should be "was".

I will tackle §Artistry later (probably tomorrow)... Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 17:20, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

That should be up to date. Look forward to Artistry when you are ready. CodexJustin (talk) 20:57, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

On §Artistry

• "According to Sirmans": who is Sirmans? Give his full name (and wikilink him) on first mention.
• Similarly, give Brentjes' full name
• "A recurrent and prominent theme in the early Basquiat portrayed historical and non-historical black figures who were identified by Basquiat as black heroes and saints." This sentence doesn't make sense.
• "used to distinguished": should be "distinguish"
• "As summarized in Art Daily concerning the Basquiat show in the Bilbao Guggenheim": this is also ungrammatical. Perhaps "As the Art Daily described Basquiat's show in the Bilbao Guggenheim..."
• "and many other sculpture and mixed media works as well": definitely cut "other"; probably "as well" is unnecessary also.
• Ricard's first name is given as Rene in the text, and in Untitled (Axe/Rene), but René in the title of Basquiat's drawing René Ricard. Is this correct?
• Formatting of artwork title and date is inconsistent. Sometimes we have "Untitled 1983", sometimes "Untitled (1983)", and sometimes "Untitled, 1983".

More anon. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 21:10, 8 July 2019 (UTC)

That should be up to date now for Artistry. Ready for next set of edits. CodexJustin (talk) 17:18, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

On §Reception, exhibitions and art market

• The whole first paragraph is problematic. First sentence makes sense but is clunky. Second doesn't. Perhaps "refereed" should be "referred to"? What does "the action of painting in Basquiat" mean?
• Then the next paragraph: "A second recurrent reference to Basquiat's aesthetics comes from the role of the artist as a person sharing, in the words of Niru Ratnum, a "highly individualistic, expressive view of the world"." What?
• "Basquiat seems to invite us to in the words of Luis Alberto Mejia Clavijo," at the very least there should be a comma after "to" here, but "us" is not very encyclopedic (see MOS:WE).
• "Reviews about his work have been written on the direct relation of painting and graffiti as stated by Olivia Laing[...]": this "as stated by" construction appears several times in the article and is very awkward. Avoid.
• Throughout the article, but particularly in this section, there are a lot of long quotations. I think there are on the whole too many: as MOS:QUOTE says, "try not to overuse them[...] it is generally recommended that content be written in Wikipedia editors' own words".
• "Basquiat's first public exhibition was[...]": when was it?
• "Rotterdam, in 1985)" a closing parenthesis with no matching opening paren
• "the Kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (1987, 1989)": missing something here.
• "The catalog for this exhibition, edited by Richard Marshall and including several essays of differing styles." another ungrammatical sentence fragment.
• "Basque and the Bayou": every other show is given in italics, but this one in quotation marks.
• "begins his first paragraph": just "begins" is more concise and conveys exactly the same meaning
• "The praises to follow are in the lines of "talentless hustler"": more grammatical problems
• I am not clear why there are two separate subsections, one entitled "Reception" and one "Reviews".
• "his market has developed": ugh, this is corporate jargon. "the market for his work" has developed.
• "$185,000 worth of fake drawings put forth as being the work of Basquiat.": perhaps "$185,000 worth of fake Basquiat drawings"?
• Do we really need two and a half paragraphs of blow-by-blow record-setting Basquiat prices? Our article on Van Gogh (a Featured Article) is twice as long as this one yet has much less on the topic of his record-setting prices.
• "Maezawa's two purchases of Basquiat artworks in 2016 and 2017 currently reach a total approaching $170M USD." if this is really that important, "currently reach" is superfluous, but frankly I think this whole sentence can be cut. Anyone reading this article can do the arithmetic here.
• "The Authentication Committee of the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat": is this really a proper noun?

And on Legacy: no comments on the prose, but this just reads like a list of stuff which happened, without any narrative tying it together.

Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 19:15, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

Ready for the next group of edits when you are ready with them. CodexJustin (talk) 20:58, 9 July 2019 (UTC)

One unconnected point: Joe Lewis (linked under "Heroes and Saints") is a disambiguation page. Is this meant to point to Joe Lewis (artist)? or someone else?

Sourcing comments

Looking at references: plenty of them, which is always a good start. Citation formatting wildly inconsistent, which would be a problem at FA level, but not strictly required at GA.

• Cite 15 (as of this revision) reads "Harvey Russack, founder, owner, and CEO of Unique Clothing Warehouse 1971–1992." If this comes from a published interview, that needs to be cited; if it doesn't, then it's not verifiable and can't be used as a source.
• "That same year, Basquiat formed the noise rock band Test Pattern – which was later renamed Gray – which played at Arleen Schloss's open space, "Wednesdays at A's",[18]" I cannot see how the source cited supports this claim – it's the auction record for a Basquiat drawing.
• Cite 19 is to a 90-minute documentary. Can you include a timestamp!? Same for cite 22.
• Cite 28 links to the main page of the Annina Nosei Gallery website, which does not support the claim that it is cited for.
• Cite 65 is a wiki, and therefore is not reliable
• Cite 67 reads "Hoffman, Fred. "The Defining Years: Notes on Five Key Works," in Ibid., p. 13)". Hoffman's "The Defining Years" certainly doesn't come from the Sotheby's May 2017 Contemporary Art Evening Sale.

Next stop: spotchecking sources. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 21:38, 14 July 2019 (UTC)

The cites you have just listed have been largely changed over to new ones or corrected. The last one is a book page cite which looks correct for Fred Hoffman, I am missing the connection to your mention of 'Sotheby's May 2017', let me know what is still missing. The book cite for Hoffman is correct. Otherwise, article is ready for your next set of edit requests and modifications. CodexJustin (talk) 15:07, 15 July 2019 (UTC)

The problem with the Hoffman cite is the "ibid". Ibid means "in the same source as the previous citation", which in this case is the Sotheby's catalogue. Only the Hoffman chapter certainly wasn't published in the Sotheby's catalogue. Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 15:27, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Okay, spotchecked a few sources and I have further questions/comments. (Referring to sources as of this revision):

• Curiator (cite 59) is user-generated and therefore not reliable
• Why is InEnArt (cite 100) reliable?

Instances where the source doesn't appear to support the claim made:

• "He slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park, and was arrested and returned to the care of his father within a week.": both cited sources say Washington Square Park; Hoban supports that he was brought home by the police but doesn't say arrested.
• I can't work out how cite 51 supports the sentence it is put with.
  • This is to support the gallery designations at Bilbao: “Street as Studio” and “Heroes and Saints”. It is in the article's Heroes section on Wikipedia. Is this the '51' you refer to ? CodexJustin (talk) 17:00, 16 July 2019 (UTC)
    • No, I am referring to the Laura Cumming review of Boom for Real in the Guardian. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 17:17, 24 July 2019 (UTC)
• "Drawings became central to his work as he developed as an artist." What in the cited source supports this claim?

Instances of close paraphrasing:

• "At the suggestion of Swiss dealer Bruno Bischofberger, Warhol and Basquiat worked on a series of collaborative paintings between 1983 and 1985. In the case of Olympic Rings (1985), Warhol made several variations of the Olympic five-ring symbol, rendered in the original primary colors. Basquiat responded to the abstract, stylized logos with his oppositional graffiti style." cf. cite 32.
• "From a very young age Basquiat would produce cartoon-inspired drawings alongside his mother, who had an interest in fashion design and sketching." cf. cite 53.
• "In 1985, he was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in connection with an article on the newly exuberant international art market; this was unprecedented for an African-American artist, and for an artist so young." cf. cite 97.

Caeciliusinhorto-public (talk) 15:34, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Ready for next group of edits. There is a comment above in response to one of your notations. This last one from you was the best yet... who were those naughty previous editors with all those close quotations? Ready for next edits when you are. CodexJustin (talk) 17:28, 16 July 2019 (UTC)

Comments on lead:

• What does it mean for Basquiat to "appropriate" drawing and painting?!
• "Basquiat's art has inspired many in the hip hop music community such as Jay-Z." In the lead, but not as far as I can see in the body of the article. Per WP:LEAD, the lead should summarise what the body says.

I still see various problems mentioned above which have gone unaddressed. Some of these are relatively minor problems in the grand scheme of things (violations of MOS:LQ, which is not strictly required for GA; inconsistencies in how artwork dates are given). Others are more problematic: I am still unhappy with the copyright status of the three images discussed above; I am not sure why we are uncritically saying He slept on park benches in Tompkins Square Park when various sources cited in the article say it was Washington Square Park...

Unfortunately, between these issues and the various troubling instances of close paraphrasing found by Earwig's tool ([3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]) I am not comfortable letting this article pass as a GA at this point. I don't have access to all of the printed sources to check them thouroughly for issues, nor do I have the time to do so. I suggest you get hold of the printed sources and make sure you can attest that there are no remaining copyvio/close paraphrasing problems before you re-nominate this article. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 17:17, 24 July 2019 (UTC)

Categories

This article should have both the following categories: Category:American contemporary artists AND Category:African-American contemporary artists (a non-diffusing subcategory of Category:American contemporary artists) otherwise African-American contemporary artists may be ghettoized when “Category:American contemporary artists” is removed from their pages — Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.40.81.254 (talk) 16:37, 21 March 2018 (UTC)

Sexual orientation

From this article:

Suzanne Mallouk, who later specifically described his sexuality in Jennifer Clement's book, Widow Basquiat, as: "... not monochromatic. It did not rely on visual stimulation, such as a pretty girl. It was a very rich multichromatic sexuality. He was attracted to people for all different reasons. They could be boys, girls, thin, fat, pretty, ugly. It was, I think, driven by intelligence. He was attracted to intelligence more than anything and to pain."

From the blog Gay Influence (I'm not claiming this is a reliable source, just the first to-hand) :

In the early 1980s he fell under the spell of Andy Warhol, with whom he collaborated on a series of paintings. Some say he entered into an intimate relationship with Warhol, his idol and mentor, but Basquiat’s sexual relationship with fellow East Village artist David Bowes is better documented. However, no matter how fluid his sexual orientation has been described by art historians, most of his sexual relations were with women.

This sounds like he was LGBTQ+ in some sense, but there's no categories to match that. — OwenBlacker (he/him; Talk; please {{ping}} me in replies) 08:36, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

References