ARTWORK: It looks like a 4-year-old could do it.

(Featured image for this post – Jean Michel Basquiat)

When in the gallery: A guide to how to analyze artwork for the untrained eye.

THE POLITICS OF LOOKING:

When in the gallery show some respect for other viewers and refrain from uttering the following two phrases:

1. It looks like a 4-year-old could have done it.
2. I don’t get it.

…

all images clickable

IMAGE: Jean Michel Basquiat

…

If you have not heard there’s a Basquiat show on at the AGO. And for the umpteenth time now I have heard someone say that his work looks like that of a 4-year-old or that they don’t get it.

 

The below guide to analyzing artwork will help you not make this mistake and breech of gallery going decorum in future.

 

I thank you in advance for taking the time out to try to get it.

The basics of analyzing an artwork are thus:

1. form – colour or absence thereof, line/construction, materials
2. style
3. function or lack thereof
4. intent
5. dialogue with other works in the gallery setting or within the collection at large let alone with other works and styles generally

Why a 4-year-old could not have done what Basquiat (or any artist) did; a contemplation of FORM and STYLE:

 …

IMAGE: Basquiat’s work – Head/Skull

 …

This “untitled – skull” is HIGHLY informed, stylized, and deliberate i.e. rather than assuming that an artist lacks competency because something looks messy to you, ask yourself instead WHY it appears the way it does in a value neutral way – jazz is messier than classical.

Accept without question that the artist is educated and most likely has spent time in life drawing classes and other formal training. They can make mimetic images (those that closely resemble reality) but may choose not to. Those that animate Bob’s Burgers, for example, know that not everyone has a double chin and exaggerated mouth – they just had to look different from The Simpsons.

…

VIDEO: clip from Basquiat film – how long to get famous?

…

Much like you may sign your name with a dot over the i or a circle over it or a heart above it, the artist CHOSE a particular style and vocabulary of painting or harmony of forms i.e. consistently making what ought to be smooth jagged or express what ought to be mature subject matter in a child-like manner and  deliberate and/or designed/planned composition.

In this case, Basquiat has CONSCIOUSLY AND ACTIVELY CHOSEN the colour palette of the Fauvists as well as their wild use of brushstrokes and, in his case, oil paint crayon. He has also chosen to borrow elements of neo-Expressionist style and “Primitivism” (not “primitive”; this faux pas will be viewed problematically and as racist potentially…don’t make it) i.e. Primitivism is a Western art movement that borrows visual forms from non-Western or prehistoric peoples.

His style is also intentionally “street” in feel. Despite growing up middle class, the artist lived in a cardboard box and was a heroin addict. He was involved in the early hip hop scene but his urbanity is more punk in essence – DIY, fast, furious, irreverent – including his use of graffiti both in the gallery and in outdoor settings. He often tagged other people’s property…even while they were wearing it. And his canvases can be dated by the sneaker prints all over them.

…

VIDEO: clip from Basquiat film – an interview with Jean Michel

…

FUNCTION OR LACK THEREOF AND WHY

 …

IMAGE: Basquiat’s work

 …

If you did not notice immediately, in this work above – “low pressure zone”, the stretcher bars of the painting are exposed rather than hidden behind the canvas. THIS WAS INTENTIONAL. Not an accident. Not a lack of funds. This is a comment on the function of painting and of artistry in general i.e. that form matters more than function and that the functionality of art ought to be subverted (key word).

INTENT

A lot of people think intent and criticism are arbitrary as per the video below:

…

VIDEO: Critique of Monkey Farter

…

Not so.

The devil’s in the details.

Pay close attention to the work. It’s begging you to. Notice:

• the colours used and why? e.g. Dull because the subject matter is somber? Bright for opposite reasons? Aggressive? Joyous? etc.
• the text used in both the work and the title of the work and why?
• symbols and their meaning (to the artist and in the wider world)?

This work, called “The Nile”, is about the trans-Atlantic slave trade and you should know this before checking the placard on the wall next to it. The details give it away.

1. an Egyptian boat being guided down the Nile
2. repeated references to sickles both visual and textual (a farm tool used by slaves in North America)
3. the word SLAVE
4. the word SALT (for the commodity and it’s place in history)
5. Nubian masks
6. juxtaposing Memphis and Thebes
7. text: “a dog guiding the Pharaoh”
8. text: hemlock (suicide/assassination)

 …

Also, note Basquiat’s iconic crown and his repeated use of pyramidal structures/triads/trinities/triptychs to symbolize his understanding of negro royalty in the collective consciousness i.e. musicians, athletes, and artists. (Works below: “crown” and “famous negro athletes”.)

 …

IMAGE: Basquiat’s work – crown

 …

IN DIALOGUE WITH OTHER WORKS

When in a gallery notice where objects are placed in relation to other objects and ask yourself why or how they are related or juxtaposed.

In this case, for example, imagine that two figures of authority are placed across from one another – “untitled – Angel” and “The Irony of Negro Policemen”. Both images are imposing; they occupy the entire centre of their respective canvases/surfaces. Both are in ways Messianic or Christ-like in pose and in the crowns/head cages/halos they sport.

 …

IMAGE: Basquiat’s Monkey Christ

 …

One plays a benevolent role (angel) and the other, as per its title, ironically oppresses their own people in service of the police state and prison industrial complex. And both are Black and monkey-like in features.

 …

IMAGE: Basquiat’s work

 …

In the case of his portrait of Warhol (pictured below),

…

…

Basquiat leaves the underpainting visible – embracing mistakes rather than “correcting” them (in other of his works he whitewashes over things intentionally – and yes, whitewash has racial implications when he does it).

 …

IMAGE: Andy Warhol’s Velvet Underground album cover

 …

Instead of doing a traditional portrait, again, he subverts one of Andy’s iconic images (the Velvet Underground album cover banana) by leaving it half-peeled (half-exposed) and half-consumed. A meta-analysis of the consumer and commercial nature of Warhol’s life’s work and of him as a person – consumed.

 …

IMAGE: Basquiat’s play on above album cover

 …

Again, that’s…

1. form

2. style

3. function

4. intent

5. dialogue

…

IMAGE: Basquiat’s self-portrait

 …