Basquiat as Boone as Warhol
Basquiat, Detail of Boone (1983)
I just finished writing an entry on Jean-Michel Basquiat's strange portrait of Mary Boone when I realized I had missed something. It's an example of, no matter how much you see in truly poetic art, there is always something more. In this case, I had noted that Basquiat presents himself as a successor to Leonardo but totally missed the fact that he did not paint the red lips over a normal color reproduction of the Mona Lisa but a blue lithograph. It's obvious, in hindsight. It's a reference to Andy Warhol's colored lithographs of the Mona Lisa. In effect, Basquiat says: "I am the next Leonardo and the next Warhol." By choosing two artists, at both ends of the artistic tradition, Basquiat makes himself the quintessential great master. It's pure art.
Posted 01 Nov 2010: Artist as Another ArtistBasquiatWarholPortraitureVisual Perception
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