Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks

About this book

Accompanying a major traveling exhibition this first-ever survey of the rarely seen notebooks of Basquiat features the artists handwritten notes poems and drawings along with related works on paper and large-scale paintings. With no formal training Jean-Michel Basquiat (19601988) succeeded in developing a new and expressive style to become one of the most influential artists in the postmodern revival of figurative during the 1980s. In a series of notebooks from the early to mid-1980s never before exhibited Basquiat combined text and images reflecting his engagement with the countercultures of graffiti and hip-hop in New York City as well as pop culture and world events. Filled with handwritten texts poems pictograms and drawings many of them iconic images that recur throughout his artworkteepees crowns skeleton-like silhouettes and grimacing masksand these notebooks reveal much about the artists creative process and the importance of the written word in his aesthetic. With over 150 notebook pages and numerous drawings and paintings this important book sheds new light on Basquiats career and his critical place in contemporary art history.