Basquiat

Interviewer: Do you consider yourself a painter or a black painter?
Basquiat: No, I use lots of colors, not just black.

I confess with no embarrassment: I am not a fan of, nor do I ‘get,’ modern art. Plush safe he think. No. I don’t GET IT. Scribbles. Incoherent phrasemaking. When Basquiat first meets Andy Warhol (a brilliant, hilarious David Bowie) he tries to sell him some pictures he describes as ‘ignorant art.’ ‘That’s new,’ Warhol remarks appreciatively. How postmodern. As far as I can tell, it’s no more creative or earned or intelligent than Warhol’s later indifferent ‘piss painting.’

The art scouts and gallery owners and buyers don’t get it, either. For a few years, Basquiat is a hot commodity in the most frivolous, unpredictable economy I can name. Soon Basquiat is forgotten; Warhol is passed over. That I suppose is the consequence of shedding rules and standards: there is no longer immortality or the category of masterpiece. The more art becomes pure personal expression the more it is reduced to mere market value. Perhaps that is the tragedy of Basquiat’s short life; or perhaps I am just lamenting the death of modernism once again.

I chose this film for the Gary Oldman factor, I may as well admit it, and in a small role he was, as always, fabulous and adorable. My notes as I was watching the film are littered with comments such as:

When Gary says hey baby, I hope what he means is hey baby, because I really enjoy it when he’s gay. Perhaps a bit too much.

Mmmm Gary in a skirt. Rewind.

Have nothing more intelligent to say on the matter. That about sums it up. Love Gary gay. Love Gary in a skirt. I may have issues to deal with.

Jeffrey Wright is a tremendous young talent, hitting all the right notes as Basquiat, yet somehow preventing me from truly caring about or sympathising with the man. Like I said, David Bowie is a laugh riot as Warhol, and always surprises me at how competent an actor he is. Willem Defoe and Chris Walken pop up, adding flash and substance as they are wont to do right when the film demands it. Altogether a very strong cast, an interesting life, but it fails to hit any emotional or particularly dramatic notes.