HIFF: Radiant documentary on legendary Basquiat

Stills from "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child"

Hawai 'i International Film Festival presents:

"Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child"
Screens at 9:15 p.m. Oct. 14  and 3 p.m. Oct. 15 at  Dole Cannery A

I have an art teacher who makes a point of testing my knowledge  of people and events through history. He'd ask questions like, "Were Claude Monet and Albert Einstein alive at the same time?" (Answer below.) The point being that, if they were, they might have crossed paths, or  even if not, would certainly have been aware of each other's renown, and perhaps been subconsciously influenced by each other's work. Events, too, shape lives and perceptions.

That is the first thought I had while watching Tamra Davis's magnificent documentary, "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child," about the artist's stratospheric rise to fame in the early 1980s, and near decade of notoriety until his death in 1988
at the age of 27.

I was on the planet the same time as Basquiat, but a continent and ocean away from the New York streets that were his turf, I did not
become acquainted with his work until years after his death, which is odd considering I was well aware of some of his
contemporaries and predecessors such as Julian Schnabel, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring.



Not knowing his work while he was alive, I became even more fascinated with his life , regretting my lack of firsthand context that would have helped me place him in my own pantheon of artists. When a young star dies, it is sometimes hard to separate the legend, hype and celebrity from the artist's actual talent. Certainly, Basquiat had an arresting beauty and bearing that, even lacking talent, would have opened doors in the 1970s when he arrived on the New York scene from Brooklyn. At that time, fellow artists said, you could just buy a camera, paintbrushes, guitar, boom, and respectively call yourself a filmmaker, painter, musician, etc., and no one would question it.

Over the years, the tale of his rise from ashes are what stuck with me, and Davis, a friend of his who interviewed him in 1986, makes clear through interviews with others who were around Basquiat from the start, that this was not the case. In fact, he came from a well-to-do household. He was exposed to art at a young age and was a member of the Brooklyn Museum from age 6. He was well-versed in art history, and as noted by museum curators, become one of the pioneers of Neo-Expressionism, though at that time he was denied entry into major museums, because, as one said, "If it is significant, it will be uncomfortable."



Gallery owner Annina Nosei obliged when Basquiat came to her and asked for canvases he could paint. She was thrilled by his work and became the first to show his work in a formal setting.

Looking at the parade of artwork in the film, it was hard to decide which images to show. Each is compelling, dramatic and evocative of his spirit, reflecting childhood memories, a love of jazz, people he knew, and so much more. His work has held up over these 30 years, as arresting today as they must have appeared when he painted them, although those growing up today, speaking the same visual street language are probably more open to his imagery than the 1980s mainstream.

Basquiat arrived in Manhattan in 1978, perfectly willing to make his home on the street, where he became known for his SAMO graffiti, challenging the status quo. Blondie's Debbie Harry was among the first to buy one of Basquiat's works for $200. In a few years, his works were selling for $5,000, and by the time he entered Los Angeles galleries in 1983, he was commanding $30,000. With no bank account, he kept his money hidden or in stacks at a friend's apartment.

One early collector said Basquiat did terrific paintings and while he bought a few, now laments, "I should have bought every one."

See this film if you can. And, yes the lives of Monet and Einstein intersected in time, though Monet was born in 1840 and Einstein, in 1879.



Basquiat was interested in dialog with other artists, and created many paintings in response to their work, such as the Piccasso at top left, and Van Gogh's self-portrait, below. He was inspired by Picasso's "Guernica" when he was a child, but his work could just as easily be influenced by things friends said, something he saw on television, and he also was inspired by William Burroughs'  cutup texts to create his own mashups of visual imagery.







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And the other film fashionistas may want to see is "Bill Cunningham New York," who has documented the way New Yorkers dress for 30 years in the New York Times. He takes street photos every day, and still manages to be thoroughly excited by what he finds. The documentary screens at  9 p.m.    Oct. 22 and 5:30 p.m. Oct. 23  at Dole Cannery A.