Seeing Loud, Basquiat and Music

(Hardback)

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During the late 1970s and early 1980s, New York City was financially and socially bankrupt, but the art and music scene was flourishing. During these years, the downtown New York music scene no wave, hip-hop, disco funk and club culture shaped Jean-Michel Basquiat as both a musician and an artist. This catalogue for a travelling exhibition explores how Basquiat's painting has parallels in his music (sampling, cut-up, rapping), and takes a new look at his production as a writer and a poet in light of his connections with the then-emerging hip-hop culture. This beautifully illustrated exhibition catalogue of rarely seen photographs and images sheds new light on Basquiat as a musician, exploring how his art and music are related, and how they reflect on his identity as a Black artist in the United States, the downtown New York music scene, and contemporary culture. AUTHORS: Mary-Dailey Desmarais is Chief Curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MBAM). She curated the major exhibitions Paris in the Days of Post-Impressionism: Signac and the Independants (2020), and Once Upon a Time...The Western: A New Frontier in Art and Film (2017). Dieter Buchhart is a curator and art theorist based in Vienna. He has PhD degrees in art history and restoration (science). He has curated many exhibitions in renowned international museums and art spaces and was co-curator of the Fondation Louis Vuitton's exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat (2 October 2018-4 January 2019). Journalist and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Jazzman magazine, Vincent Bessires curated the exhibitions We Want Miles (2009) and Django Reinhardt, Swing de Paris (2012) at the Cit de la MusiquePhilharmonie de Paris. SELLING POINTS: . Documents the first major multimedia exhibition devoted to the role of music in Jean-Michel Basquiat's work . Accompanies an exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts from October 2022 - February 2023 and Cit de la musique Philharmonie de Paris, March - July 2023 175 colour illustrations

Reviews

More than merely a soundtrack to his life, music was manifest in Basquiat's art as sign, symbol and sound. Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music is the fruit of unprecedented research offering privileged insight into the artist's complex musical universe. An American born to Haitian and Puerto Rican parents, Jean-Michel Basquiat had a meteoric artistic career. Beginning with an exploration of the music that shaped Basquiat's New York in the 1970s and 1980s, Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music turns attention to the performative aspects of his practice and sheds new light on the extent to which music shaped his artistic output. A music lover to his core, Jean-Michel Basquiat possessed an impressive collection of more than 3,000 records and was a performing musician himself, notably with the experimental band Gray, of which he was a founding member.-- "Artdaily"
...this gorgeously illustrated catalog highlights Basquiat's relationship with the underground music scene of New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s...these rarely seen images and photographs provide a unique insight into the career of one of the twentieth century's most famous artists.-- "Publishers Weekly"

Author Bio

Mary-Dailey Desmarais is Chief Curator at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MBAM). She curated the major exhibitions "Paris in the Days of Post-Impressionism: Signac and the Indpendants" (2020), and "Once Upon a TimeThe Western: A New Frontier in Art and Film" (2017).

Dieter Buchhart is a curator and art theorist based in Vienna. He has PhD degrees in art history and restoration (science). He has curated many exhibitions in renowned international museums and art spaces and was co-curator of the Fondation Louis Vuitton's exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat (3 October 2018-21 January 2019).

Journalist and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Jazzman magazine, Vincent Bessires curated the exhibitions We Want Miles (2009) and Django Reinhardt, Swing de Paris (2012) at the Cit de la MusiquePhilharmonie de Paris.