“The creative adult is the child who survived.”—Ursula LeGuin
BASQUIAT
Jean-Michel Basquiat died in 1988 at the young age of twenty-seven after creating over 1500 drawings and 600 paintings. Basquiat was a mixture of creative genius and rebellious teenager. He was hyper-aware of social issues that affected his generation. He was intelligent enough to understand that art had to be dealt with like a business to be successful, but he lacked the maturity to find balance in his personal life. He socialized with the elite of the art world but was constantly at war with himself, loving the labels society placed on him and then loathing them. His “wild child” persona pleased him and yet also repulsed him. Even his art was a constant dichotomy of themes depicting “wealth vs poverty, segregation vs integration, and inner vs outer experiences.”
Basquiat was aware of the power of maintaining a childlike mindset. In an interview with Vanity Fair he said, “I want to make paintings that look as if they…