In honor of Black History Month, the Pasadena Public Library is teaching kids from 5 to 12 years old how to make a Basquiat Crown, and about the artist who’s behind these crowns, Jean-Michel Basquiat, through an online event that starts on Monday, February 22.
Basquiat is considered among the most influential African-American artists of the late 20th century. Sadly, he also led a short life with a tragic ending.
From an early age, Basquiat’s mother took him to museums throughout Manhattan where he learned to appreciate the arts. He was enrolled in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. At , and when he was only seven, he began attending Saint Ann’s School, an arts-oriented exclusive private school, where he met his friend Marc Prozzo. It was here that they together created a children’s book, written by Basquiat at the age of seven, and illustrated by Prozzo.
At age 8, Basquiat was struck by a car and suffered a broken arm and internal injuries. To keep him occupied as he was recovering, his mother bought him a copy of “Gray’s Anatomy,” which was to influence his art as an adult to a great extent.
When he was 13, Basquiat’s mother was committed to a psychiatric institution, and he started living a troubled teenager’s life. At 15, he left home and spent time sleeping on park benches, until police found him and put him under his father’s care. When he dropped out of school soon after, his father banished him from the home, and he had to resort to sleeping at the homes of friends. He earned money by designing t-shirts and hawking handmade postcards.
Basquiat gain notoriety as a graffiti artist on the Lower East Side of New York City. He used the pen name SAMO, and would “tag” various buildings with enigmatic statements which shaped his later career.
He soon became acquainted with several artists who would influence his work and with whom he would collaborate in various art projects.
Among his friends were Glenn O’Brien, who had a cable TV show where he played a role for a few years, and who produced the independent film, “Downtown 81,” where Basquiat also appeared; the famed artist Andy Warhol, with whom he developed a collaborative relationship; Larry Gagosian, of the Gagosian Gallery in Venice, California, where he displayed a number of paintings; and then-unknown singer Madonna, whom he dated for some time.
The first major exhibition which showcased the work of Basquiat was the Times Square Show in June 1980.
He also enjoyed particular success with his European audience, exhibiting in Edinburgh in 1984, Rotterdam and London in 1985, and Hannover in 1987. These shows took place simultaneously with displays at the Gagosian Gallery.
His fame climaxed in 1985 when he was featured on the front page of The New York Times Magazine, in the article, “New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist.” But even as that good news broke, Basquiat was becoming highly addicted to heroin.
Andy Warhol died in 1987, and contemporaries observed this had a profound effect on Basquiat’s demeanor and emotional state. He died on August 12, 1988, of a heroin overdose. He was only 27.
Basquiat Crowns are considered the most famous elements in many of the artist’s paintings. He first made use of crowns in 1981, in a painting, “Red Kings,” which was a homage to Picasso.
Put simply, crowns symbolize royalty, power and influence. His contemporaries would later say Basquiat’s inclusion of crowns was his attempt to connect his visual language with some of the art of old, whilst also playing with the concepts of power and influence.
Registration for Pasadena Public Library’s Black History Month Basquiat Crown Take-and-Make Craft online event opens at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, February 22, and closes at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, February 25.
Take-and-Make kits can be picked up from the Allendale Branch Library, at 1130 S. Marengo Ave., while supplies last.
To reserve your kits, fill out a form online, through www.surveymonkey.com/
