“I don’t think about art when I’m working. I think about life.”

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. His father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and his mother was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents.

Born and raised in New York, Basquiat first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO (shorthand for “same old shit”), an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. Basquiat’s art focused on “suggestive dichotomies”, such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, and figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique.

Basquiat primarily used texts as reference sources. A few of the books he used were Gray’s Anatomy, Henry Dreyfuss’ Symbol Sourcebook, Leonardo da Vinci published by Reynal & Company, and Burchard Brentjes’ African Rock Art, Flash of the Spirit by Robert Farris Thompson. From late 1982 to 1985, his work featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery. The years 1984 to 1985 were also the period of the Basquiat–Warhol collaborations. The crown, Basquiat’s signature artistic motif, both acknowledged and challenged the history of Western art. “Jean-Michel’s crown has three peaks, for his three royal lineages: the poet, the musician, the great boxing champion,” said artist Francesco Clemente.

Basquiat died at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988, but his work has steadily increased in value. In 2017, a 1982 painting depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets named Untitled sold for $110.5 million, becoming one of the most expensive paintings ever purchased. (Source)

Learn more about Jean-Michel Basquiat:

• The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
• Video: Growing Up With Jean-Michel Basquiat | I Was There
• Article: The Enigma of the Man Behind the $110 Million Painting
• Video: Getting to Know – Jean Michel Basquiat

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“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

James Baldwin; As Much Truth As One Can Bear – 1962 New York Times review

James Arthur Baldwin was an American author from New York City and has acclaimed works across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. In addition to writing, Baldwin was a well-known public speaker during the civil rights movement in the United States.

In 1953, Baldwin published his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. He was only seventeen when he first started writing the piece and published it in Paris. His first collection of essays, Notes of a Native Son, appeared two years later and continued to experiment with literary forms throughout his career, publishing poetry, fictions, and essays. Some of his other popular novels included Giovanni’s Room, The Fire Next Time, Another Country, and If Beale Street Could Talk, which adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 2018. In 2016, an unfinished manuscript by Baldwin called Remember This House was expanded and adapted for cinema as the documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.

Baldwin’s work focuses on personal questions and dilemmas amid difficult social and psychological issues. Common themes of masculinity, sexuality, race, and class were main narratives in his works and some of the major political movements toward social change in mid-twentieth century America, such as the civil rights movement and the gay liberation movement. Baldwin’s protagonists are often but not exclusively African American, and gay and bisexual men were frequently featured in his literature. These characters often face internal and external obstacles in their search for social and self-acceptance.

Baldwin left the United States at the age of 24 and settled in Paris to see himself and his writing outside of an African-American context and escape the American prejudice again Black people. He wanted not to be read as “merely a Negro; or, even, merely a Negro writer.” Baldwin spent nine years living in Paris, mostly in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, with various excursions to Switzerland, Spain, and back to the United States in 1957. He eventually settled back to Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the south of France in 1970, were he lived and worked for the rest of his life until his death in 1987. (Source)

Learn more about James Baldwin:

• Article: 13 James Baldwin Quotes
• Video: I Am Not Your Negro
• Article: Native son – an interview with James Baldwin; Archive, 1962
• Article: As Much As I Can Bear

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“I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting, but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work.”

Augusta Savage, 1935

Augusta Savage took to art as a small child, carving small figures out of red clay in her hometown of Green Cove Springs, Florida. Savage’s father did not want his daughter to pursue art but she continued her practice, participating in clay modeling classes in school. By 1919, Savage’s skills earned her a booth at the Palm Beach County State Fair and that booth earned her a $25 prize for most original exhibit.

The burgeoning artist attended Cooper Union on a full scholarship, studying under renowned American sculpture, George Brewster. There she excelled in her coursework, completing the four-year program in just three years.

In 1923, Savage was awarded a prestigious scholarship to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in Paris. She was one of the 100 students selected to pursue a summer fellowship in France to study sculpture. However, upon learning that Savage was a Black women, the all-white, all-male selection committee rescinded her offer. Devastated, Savage appealed the decision several times to no avail. The controversial incident made international news with reports in the New York Amsterdam News, the New York Time, and the Negro World.

Six years later, one of Savage’s most recognized sculpture, Gamin, garnered her a second opportunity to study in Paris, this time through a Rosenwald fellowship. She studied with master artists and exhibited at the Grand Palais and other prestigious venues. Her works continued to earn her notoriety and she received a second Rosenwald fellowship while in Paris as well as funds from the Carnegie Foundation and various community members. This support afforded Savage the opportunity to travel to Belgium, France, and Germany.

By the time she returned to New York in 1932, the Great Depression was at its height. Yet Savage wanted to share what she learned during her travels. She opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Craft in Harlem, offering free or pay-as-you-go courses in drafting, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. The studio became a model for the Harlem Community Art Center which she formed and directed in partnership for the Works Project Administration. During the institution’s first 16 months, 1,500 Harlemites received free art instructions. Savage’s leadership and creative vision influenced African American art history as we know it. Her students and colleagues included artists such as William Artis, Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, and many others. (Source)

Learn more about Augusta Savage:

• Article: Sculptor Augusta Savage’s Towering Impact on the Harlem Renaissance
• Video: The Life and Sad Ending of Augusta Savage Biography
• Article: Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman

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“I am alive, and I am Black! Therefore, I am motivated to paint the human elements and conditions that affect humanity. Truth has motivated me to paint along with a desire to express myself. Because I am life, I am compelled to paint the realities of life.

Arthello Beck, Jr., 1970

Arthello Beck, Jr. was an American artist who often painted scenes of places he had visited using a variety of mediums, including oils, watercolors, and charcoal.

Beck was born in Dallas, Texas, and attended Lincoln High School where he received his only formal art training. Beck is considered one of the leading Black artists in the Southwest. In 1971, he opened Arthello’s Art Gallery at 1922 South Beckley in Dallas, which is still being operated and managed by his wife. The gallery became a centerpiece of the Dallas art scene in the 1970s and 80s, and was instrumental to the careers of many black artists. In 2007, SDCC’s art gallery was named after Beck to honor his work and legacy.

He is possibly best known for his works from the 1960s dealing with the Civil Rights Movement, although Beck commonly featured other subjects, including children, religion, and human interaction, particularly in the African-American community. Beck was also a member of the National Conference of Artists and the Southwest Alliance of African American Artists, and was one of the founders of the Southwest Black Artists Guild. (Source)

Learn more about Arthello Beck, Jr.:

• Photos: Arthello Beck Jr.’s “Humanization” Exhibit at the African American Museum of Dallas
• Video: “Humanization – The Artistic Eye of Arthello Beck, Jr.” Artist Talk
• Video: 2022 MLK Black History Month Celebration: Unsung Artist, Arthello Beck, Jr.

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“If you are unhappy with anything…whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self, comes out.”

Tina Turner, 1986 November issue of Ebony

Tina Turner, born as Anna Mae Bullock, is an American-born singer and actress. Widely referred to as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, she rose to prominence as the lead singer of Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer.

In 1960, she was introduced as Tina Turner with the hit duet single “A Fool in Love”. They released hits such as “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”, “River Deep – Mountain High”, “Proud Mary”, and “Nutbush City Limits” before disbanding in 1976.

In the 1980s, Turner launched multi-platinum album Private Dancer contained the hit song “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her first and only No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. At age 44, she was the oldest female solo artist to top the Hot 100. During her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988, she set a then-Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience (180,000) for a solo performer. Turner also acted in the films Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Last Action Hero (1993). In 1993, What’s Love Got to Do with It, a biopic adapted from her autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story, was released. In 2009, Turner retired after completing her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, which is the 15th highest-grossing tour of the 2000s.

Turner is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She has received 12 Grammy Awards, which include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the first black artist and first female to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone ranked her among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. She is also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award. (Source)

Learn more about Tina Turner:

• Article: Tina Turner Interview
• Video: Ike & Tina Turner Revue “Proud Mary” on The Ed Sullivan Show
• Article: Tina Turner’s Most Empowering Quotes

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“It’s fun to fail. You learn something: how not to fail.”

Artist Sam Gilliam

Sam Gilliam, an African American color field painter and lyrical abstractionist artist, passed away on June 25, 2022 at the age of 88. He worked on stretched, draped and wrapped canvas, and added sculptural 3D elements. He was recognized as the first artist to introduce the idea of a draped, painted canvas hanging without stretcher bars around 1965. Gilliam was associated with the Washington Color School, a group located in Washington, D.C. area where artists developed a form of abstract art from color field painting in the 1950s and 1960s. His works have also been described as belonging to abstract expressionism and lyrical abstraction. This was a major contribution to the Color Field School and has had a lasting impact on contemporary art today. His later works are textured paintings that incorporate metal forms.

Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1933, attended the University of Louisville, and moved to Washington, D.C in 1962 where he lived and worked out of his studio for the remainder on his life.

Learn more about Sam Gilliam:

• Video: Abstract Art is Political | Artist Sam Gilliam | Louisiana Channel Interview
• Article: Visual Artist Sam Gilliam has Died at 88 | NPR
• Article: Sam Gilliam ‘Took a Step Most People Didn’t Understand Was Possible’ | New York Times

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