Overall, I found the film Basquiat (1996) by Julian Schnabel to be very interesting and enlightening. I had little knowledge regarding Basquiat before the film, so I learned a lot about his life and relationship with other artists that I previously did not know. One of the scenes that really captured my attention was toward the end of the film where Basquiat tried to add his tag to some graffiti to make it worth more, and the graffiti artists rejected him, showing that he is no longer a part of that subculture. I think one of the most important questions to ask is if Basquiat’s art can still be considered graffiti. There was a clear distinction made between his street graffiti and “fine art” graffiti; they each had different styles and purposes. This leads me to wonder if his graffiti in the galleries can be considered graffiti because they were evidently made differently and with a different intention than his street graffiti. I thought the film was intriguing and well done, but sad at the end.
A Colby Community Web Site