Analysis of Jean-michel Basquiat's Artwork "Trumpet"

“Trumpet” by Jean Michel Basquiat is an artwork that shows raw graphic fusions of text, scribbles and cultural expressions. The work shows an alien type creature playing a trumpet with Basquiat signature crown on top of the creature’s head. “Trumpet” was painted on canvas using acrylic and oil paint, Basquiat painted the canvas with deep red around the center of the work assembling the artworks focus on the creature. The text above the trumpet that is included in the work has been crossed out giving the work a rustic feel to it. The lettering is painted in black while contrasting with the body of the alien and trumpet. Basquiat loved music, especially Jazz. “Trumpet” shows his love of Jazz as it is main feature in the work and a key instrument in Jazz. The striking green mixed with yellow, his use of stick figure technique refences to his other painting down in the past. Basquiat is smart how he crosses the writing to give the artwork a historical view as they use to write poetry and words and then having to cross some words out. Basquiat signature crown is shared in many of his works. The crown is an icon to his works as it shows how insistent he was on the importance of intellectual over superficial.

Basquiat has a range styles of painting. His style was influenced by his interested in street art, his works would include a layering of graffiti, scribbles of random letter or symbols and his colour scheme would change. Basquiat’s works show him having a string personality with how he embraces his work and the style he paints in. Basquiat coming from a background of lower class he created expressionistic works that would mix graffiti and symbols with an everyday living scene. Although Basquiat had his signature way of painting and creating art he was defiantly influence by major styles at the time. When he was 20, when he started his phase of being influenced by Expressionism as this style was at its peck.

Basquiat aim for this artwork was not was in the middle of contemporary and post postmodern, he displays western philosophies and to enlarge limits of the western world of art. In June of 1978 seventeen-year-old Jean-Michel Basquiat left his childhood home in Brooklyn for good, both his parents were immigrants. He moved to SoHo New York, leaving oblique pieces of poetry around the city, it wasn’t like normal graffiti it was Basquiat work. A lot of the artist around that area was talking about “SAMO”, this is what Basquiat tags his work after his done.

As Basquiat was a Neo-expression, he explored with different types of brushstroke using heavy, fine or thick brushstrokes he would show bursts of raw and intense colours throughout the canvas. Him using this technique added historic and mythical imagery that was used in the art world. Basquiat was a groundbreaker of the scene, using the grittiness of the street and wasn’t scared to experiment with his surroundings. His artworks were more approachable as he turned the street into a gallery. Basquiat used electrifying colour to give him a feel for his aesthetic.

When Basquiat was young, he left home, therefore left him roaming the streets making no money. He was smart and made profit from selling postcards, T-shirts and drawings at this local hang out. Basquiat started getting interested of real art in 1960’s, when he saw Peter Max’s street graphic, mind-altering cartoons art. Basquiat began to discover his aesthetic and color scheme during his career, he discovered the classical side of art when he filmed Downtown 81, his style in painting changed from street to canvas. Basquiat works incorporated radical and intense colour scheme in his works.

Andy Warhol feared young black men and when Basquiat started became well known, Warhol was very reluctant in working and having anything to do with him. The impact of Basquiat knowing them turned them collaborating, making Basquiat works gain attention from Europeans and Americans.

‘Trumpet’ is a representation of Basquiat’s heritage being Afro-Caribbean, as a teenager who became famous by spray-painting and displaying his works in streets to art galleries where the world’s most valued artist works hang gave Basquiat confidence, pride and power in his works. He was around twenty when his started painting ‘Trumpet’, he wanted to share how proud his was about his fame. The element of the trumpet in this work expresses how the world listened to what he had to say and believe. Basquiat felt that he wasn’t following the status quo, when he painted his artworks, he wanted to embrace him as an individual and share his culture. ‘Trumpet’ subject matter is a man fiercely holding on to his pride and letting the world know it. It is a show of rebelliousness; a show of black excellence in the face of adversity.