“Everything was source material for him, he [might] walk across the room and see a paperclip and maybe that would inspire him, inspire something.”
His extraordinary ability to see the artistic potential in an idea or object speaks to Basquiat’s creativity and keen intellect. Some critics frustrated themselves trying to draw connections between the elements of his work, unable to fully decipher his distinct process and methods. When Basquiat painted, he was known to keep piles of open books around him while music played in the background. He read all manner of texts and was deeply curious. The books scattered around his studio could range in topic from poetry to art history.
The music that soundtracked his painting was also varied, ranging from classical music to his favorite genre, bebop. And as if that wasn’t stimulation enough, he would sometimes have the television on as well. This confluent mixture of media was a source of inspiration that would permeate his thoughts as he worked, and elements would sometimes find their way onto the canvas as words or images…”
Alexis Adler had just graduated from Barnard College in New York City with a degree in biology when she fell for a charming artist four years her junior. His name was Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The two moved in together later that year, into a sixth-floor walk-up with about 400 square feet of living space located on East 12th Street in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood. The rent, wildly, was $80 a month, affordable enough for Basquiat to support himself by selling sweatshirts on the street. The couple spent about a year in the apartment, a passionate and creatively fertile time that Adler chronicled meticulously with her camera. (read more)
