Project 1: An Individual Vocabulary.

Research Task on: Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988); Cy Twombly (1929-2011), Rose Wylie (1934-) , Keith Tyson (1969-);

Visual artists who use visual language in a way that interests me.

Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988).

Jean-Michel Basquiat is a notable, short lived American painter. His iconic works contained a unique visual language with iconography including skulls and masks, his Carribean origins heritage, African American culture, as well as Aztec people cultural histories, pop culture themes. His visual vocabulary was also strongly influenced by the anatomical drawings from Gray’s Anatomy journal given to him by his mother. His artworks now belong to MoMA, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Whitney Museum o American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His painting Untitled (1982) was sold for 110.5 $ at auction and is considered as the most expensive artwork sold by American artist. He was a self taught visual artist who started his career with street art, graffiti. Andy Warhol used to be his mentor and friend. It is worth to mention that his works were perceived as “too advanced” when they were offered to museum curators, as Eleanor Nairne (curator of London show) says in the article written by Miranda Sawyer (The Guardian, Sept 3, 2017 online). Jean-Michel Basquait had a turbulent life: divorced parents, rebellious childhood, mentally unwell mother. He found hislelf in NYC in late 1970s, immersing himself in street, punk culture which was a scene for artistic experiments for many young people of that time. Intially, Basquait painted in the style of Peter Max, but then shifted to the style of Cy Twobly and Robert Rauschenberg. Due to the lack of money, he painted on objects he could find from the street- old doors, briefcases, tyres, windows, walls and floors. However, the shift from being penniless happened in between 1981-1982, he started to be able to sell his artworks from 200$ to 20,000$ each. His first public show took place in NYC in 1981 “New York/New Wave” show. He was given a whole wall where he placed 20 paintings. That was a show where his artworks happened to be a sensation, people at the end of the show were trying to find him to buy his artworks. Below I place some of his paintings.

Hollywood Africans, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1983, Photograph@The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork/AGAGP, Paris. Licensed by Artestar, New York;

Dustheads, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982, acrylic, lipstick, spray enamel, metallic paint on canvas; image via artnet.fr

Untitled, 1982, Jean-Michel Basquit, acrylic, lipstick, paper collage and spray paint on canvas, image via http://www.artsy.net;

My research on Cy Twombly I did during my Painting 2 course, here is the link: https://zhan-art.com/2021/09/30/7291/(opens in a new tab)

Rose Wylie (1934-)

Rose Wylie is a notable British living painter. She has received her formal training in visual arts at Folkestone and Dover Art School and at Royal College of Art (1981). Her artworks are at Tate, Britain, Wolfsberg Cont. Art Museum, Germany, Hammer Museum and Collection, Los Angeles, Royal College of Arts, London and other. Her paintings are characterised by figurative compositions with usage of imagery and texts, distorted figures, unusual compositions and view angles. She started to show her works internationally from mostly 2010. Below I put one of her works.

A Musician From Margate, Shamrock, 2017, Rose Wylie, oil on canvas, image via http://www.artsy.net;

Keith Tyson ( 1969-)

Keith Tyson is a well known British living contemporary artist. He uses a broad range of mediums for his paintings. In his interview to Tanya Koenig he describes his paintings as his attempt “to connect his works to something bigger than his ego” and “my ego is not interesting”. I also liked his definition for who is an artist. Keith Tyson said in the same interview: “The artist is a person who looks at this world more intensely”. His paintings can be found at the Centre Pompidou, The Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern and other. He produces complex mixed media large scale works, often utilising reactions of pigments and chemicals, techniques such as temperature, hydrophobia and evaporation. In the article on Artspace (Keith Tyson, Nature Painting, 2005-2015) it is mentioned that the artist is influenced by astrophysics and mathematics, what brings a mixture of scientific date and artistic poetry in his artworks. He received his formal training in visual arts at art foundation course at the Carlisle College of Art, continuing at experimental Alternative Practice degree at The Faculty of Arts and Architecture, University of Brighton (1990-1993). Below I put some of his works I deeply resonate with ( from left to right)

Studio Wall Drawing: Feb 2010. Running up that hill, 2010, Keith Tyson, ink, watercolour and pencil on paper; image via http://www.ocula.com;

Still Life Floating in Space, 2020, Keith Tyson, oil on aluminium, image via http://www.ocula.com;

Still Life with no Sense of Self, 2021, Keith Tyson, oil on canvas, image via http://www.ocula.com;

Nature Painting, 2008, Keith Tyson, industrial paint and gesso on aluminium; image via http://www.ocula.com;

Reflection on research.

Bibliography: Jean-Michel Basques, American, 1960-1988, online on http://www.artsy.net [accessed on November 15, 2022]; “The Jean-Michel Basquiat I knew….”by Miranda Sawyer, Sept 3, 2017, The Guardian, online on http://www.amp.theguardian.com, [accessed on Nov 15 2022]; “Jean-Michel basquiat’s Enduring Fame:Why the ’80 Art Star Remains relevant Now”, by Tessa Solomon, December 22, 2020, online on http://www.artnews.com [accessed on 23 Nov.2022]; Rose Wylie RA (b.1934) online on http://www.royalacademy.org.uk [accessed on Nov 25, 2022]; Rose Wylie, British, b.1934, online on http://www.artsy.net [accessed on Nov 25, 2022]; Rose Wylie, born 1934, online on http://www.tate.org.uk [accessed on 25.11.2022]; Keith Tyson, (British, born 1969) online on http://www.artnet.com; Interview with British Artists Keith Tyson – 1 may 2018, Tanya Koenig, Youtube channel, [accessed on Nov 26 2022]; Keith Tyson, Ocula, online on http://www.ocula.com [accessed on Nov, 25, 2022]; Keith Tyson, Artspace, Nature Painting 2005-2015, online on http://www.artspace.com[accessed on Nov 25 2022];