2 Daring Artists: Past and Present

2 Daring Artists: Past and Present

Basquiat

Edited by Marc Mayer

With essays by Fred Hoffman, Kellie Jones, Marc Mayer and Franklin Sirmans

Merrell Publishers/ Brooklyn Museum

March 2005, $45, ISBN 1-858-94287-X

When painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was included with a group of artists in the Times Square Show in 1980, many art aficionados and critics no doubt had a strong sense then that the young, rebellious artist who was known for spray-painting graffiti all over New York City would reach stellar status. After his one-man shows in Italy and the United States, in the following two years, Basquiat was sure to become an icon in the art world.

Basquiat chronicles the painter's short career (he died at the age of 27 from a drug overdose) and the 150 illustrations in the book showcase the self-taught artist's employ of street imagery, religious symbolism-with his brand of art brute, Expressionism and primitivism-to give the reader an overview of the artist's imagination and interpretation of and commentary on race, identity and societal issues.

What's interesting about the perceptive essays, aside from the discussions about Basquiat's use of color, form and technique, are the concentrated reflections on his sensibilities, such as his departure from the known definitions of Expressionist and primitive styles of painting. For those who have seen Basquiat's complex images and have been baffled by or curious about his life and work, this important catalogue and the accompanying exhibition, which will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum through June 2005, is a welcome invitation to explore the career of one of the most celebrated and prolific modern artists of his generation.

-Reviewed by Clarence V. Reynolds

Clarence V. Reynolds is the managing editor of BIBR.

Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker

by Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw

Duke University Press

February 2005

$21.95, ISBN 0-822-33396-1

KARA WALKER is a genre-defying artist who has resurrected the Victorian-era silhouette in order to subvert the historical representations of blacks in art and re-vision the archetypes of racial/sexual relationships captured in centuries of art and literature. Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw's book places the artist's work within a larger artistic canon, which contextualizes the significance of her works and phenomenal artistic talent.

Shaw, assistant professor of history of art and architecture and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, crafted an academic yet accessible first book. California born but Stone Mountain, Georgia, -bred, Walker, in her art, represents the dichotomy of her upbringing. Stone Mountain is the home of a soaring 300-foot representation of the "heroes" of the Confederacy and historical meeting place of the Ku Klux Klan. Growing up in the footprints of the Confederacy, Walker's post-modernist artistic vision was quietly shaped. Graduating from the Atlanta College of Art she moved to Providence, Rhode Island, to attend the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. Master of Fine Arts in hand, fame soon followed her: a MacArthur "genius" grant, shows at the Whitney Museum, MOMA and Guggenheim just touch the surface of Walker's achievements.

Shaw's book has an evenhanded approach to Walker and her art. She doesn't shy away from the debate surrounding Walker's contentious imagery. She delves into the backlash from more conservative elements in the African American arts community, who see Walker's work as mere objectification and humiliation, rather than as the highly nuanced inversion and signification of slave era symbols. Viewers cannot merely walk through the gallery and comment on how lovely her work is. Shaw emphasizes how Walker's transgression of the boundaries of artistic decorum forces the viewer to look inwardly and externally at closely held beliefs of race, sex and class. Both Walker and Shaw succeed in their quest and thus make the viewer "see the unspeakable."

-Reviewed by Tracey Lewis

Tracey Lewis is a writer who coauthored The BAP Handbook: The Official Guide to the Black American Princess (Broadway Books, June 2001).