Arty 80's
Curatorial Statements
Despite their careers being cut short by early deaths, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring altered the trajectory of contemporary art. Both artists worked with themes, iconography, and styles that are still relevant today.
Harsh Collective invites you to examine the similarities in these categories that exist in its contemporary roster.
Eganam the Trumpet Player was first exhibited at Apartment 26, Njoku’s solo exhibition at Harsh Collective. The show carried the narrative of a family living in a New York City apartment building, and the gallery was renovated to recreate rooms of the apartment that are featured in the paintings. The first painting, Washington Street, named for the street where the exhibition took place, depicted the facade of the building where the story takes place. One window frames the silhouette of a man playing a trumpet. While preparing for the show, Njoku had the idea to hire a trumpet player for the exhibition to further immerse visitors into the setting of the series of works shown. After finding a trumpet player to perform, Njoku added a piece to the show, a portrait of the performer himself.
Njoku’s work aims to celebrate Black joy and communities whereas Basquait tends to celebrate Black talent and accomplishment despite hardship and adversity; beauty in the face of struggle rather than in conjunction with happiness. While Basquiat returns to jazz to exemplify Black excellence, Njoku returns to Ankara fabrics, which are featured in the background of the work and on the clothing of the central figure.
Trumpet by Basquiat likely depicts Dizzy Gillespie, a trumpet player and one of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, who is frequently depicted in Basquiat's works along with the saxophonist Charlie Parker. Besides dabbling in jazz music, Basquiat’s painting techniques were inspired by jazz. Both artists here draw inspiration from other art forms and find that interdisciplinary exploration strengthens artistic development and experience. Basquiat once said, “art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time.” Njoku used the work Eganam the Trumpet Player to decorate the space of the exhibition and the musician to decorate the opening itself.
Basquiat commonly featured superheroes and cartoons in his works, among many other pop culture references. He appreciated comics for their ability to touch upon larger societal issues including discrimination and complex understandings of good and evil. When he was young, Basquiat even said that he wanted to be a cartoonist. Both he and Tara Lewis return to these iconic and nostalgic characters with a critical lens. While Basquiat explores the conflicting nature of these characters and stories, Lewis reflects upon the characteristics that each of these figures symbolize: Batman’s stoicism and Robin’s loyalty. Lewis explores how we shape our own identities around popular culture and childhood icons.
March Madness by Gabriela Kramer strikes an undeniable compositional similarity to Basquiat’s Untitled (Skull). Upon initial inspection, Both works have backgrounds of pinkish-orange on the upper right corner and blue towards the left. Despite these areas of color being backgrounds, they are actually layered on top of the subjects of the work. Both artists created the central imagery and then added a background that helps to carve out the subject.
Kramer explains that she titled the piece simply because March was a hectic month for her. While the composition itself is chaotic, different styles and mediums meld together and break apart, the abstract work possibly represents madness itself. The foreground coalesces into the shape of a skull, which Kramer uses more explicitly in other works such as The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit, or is it the Ghost? When interpreted as a head, the sporadic shapes and colors exist where the brain would. Kramer seems to be expressing an indescribable mess of thoughts and feelings – a madness. Similarly, Basquiat’s Untitled (Skull) expresses a sense of confusion or indetermination. While the jaw and teeth are visible suggesting that the head is just a skull (visible only after skin and tissue have decomposed), the subject has eyes and hair, suggesting that it’s possibly depicting a live being. Skull was only added to the title of the piece after it sold. This addition is said to be a mistaken assumption that the artist was employing memento mori, so it’s unclear whether or not a living head is being depicted. Similarly to Kramer’s work, the area where the brain would exist in the figure is consumed by an entangled mass of shapes and colors. While up to interpretation, there is a claim to be made that each of these works represents a figure that explores the complexity of the human mind in both its beautiful and torturous natures.
Rodrick Howard’s I’m Up, He Sees Me, I’m Down is a response to the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and was featured in the Art Museum of the University of Memphis’s “Hindsight 2020.” The piece depicts a naturalistic portrait of a young Black man looking over his shoulder, then transitions into a naif style as his body and the outer world are depicted. The title references a military defense technique used when soldiers move across large open spaces. The title also reflects the experience of Black Americans and the constant fear of being targeted by the police; the artist feels that as a Black man in the United States he must always behave defensively;, in everyday life he is reminded of the techniques he was taught during his time in the military, searching constantly for safety.
The police officer is painted to mimic a magic marker or crayon, suggesting the ease of the White experience, or perhaps the trivialization of institutionalized racism in the eyes of White Americans.
Basquiat’s La Hara depicts a police officer in an entirely different naif style. The title references the slang “La jara” commonly used by Puerto Rican New Yorkers at the time of the work's creation, which is a play on the Irish name O’Hara. The monstrous, skeletal figure is a depiction of a police officer. Basquiat’s work is an earlier expression of the same fear Howard depicts, that of the institutionalized racism and police violence particularly afflicting Black men.
While Haring’s figures in his Philidelphia mural, We the Youth, fit together and seem to energetically collide, Njoku depicts a mutual embrace that is a small piece of her larger pattern that was designed as wallpaper in Jamboree. Both patterns are intended for a large scale and are intended to bring joy to viewers. Haring’s mural We The Youth was added to a neighborhood to encourage development. While Haring seemingly brings beauty to an area that others hope to improve, Njoku celebrates the beauty that exists naturally within communities. While Haring’s work was undeniably an inspiring addition to a low-income neighborhood, its public and publicized nature suggests the intention to encourage change which would ultimately lead to development of the neighborhood; Njoku rather celebrates the joy that exists naturally and due to the replicable nature of her wallpaper, that joy can thrive in any circumstance. Despite the possible economic incentive behind the organization of Haring’s project, the pro-bono mural united and encouraged a large number of multicultural children and acts as a powerful message of hope.
With Strings Two represents one of Basquiat’s favorite jazz musicians, Charlie Parker. The black silhouette of a figure is struck by lightning, making his skeleton visible in a cartoon-like flash. Adorned with Basquiat’s classic crown motif, which typically signifies Basquiat’s encouragement and celebration of intellectual greatness rather than simply the physical strength or ability of many Black men, the abstracted figure indicates Basquiat’s admiration for Parker. The title references the notion that fame or success is a double-edged sword; greatness and acclaim come with strings attached, Basquiat warns. The lightning strikes the figures – perhaps this is passion, energy, or inspiration, but while his mind and spirit are ablaze, this intense phenomenon does not come without its mental and physical toll. Similarly, Alexandra Houx Grounds’ Dreamer’s Disease, with its explosive energy coming from the right and a figure reaching to the left of the composition, explores the dichotomy of passion. Behind the central figure, the background is divided: on the left is a serene silhouette, the inverse position of the central figure, filled with a moonscape over a calm body of water, towards which the subject looks and reaches; on the right is a rocket taking flight, its explosive launch leaving a displacement of dust and debris that lingers on the surrounding terrain. While the figure reaches towards the serene, projected onto his chest is a road leading towards a surreal landscape that seems to be a combination of mountainous terrain and fiery explosion. While the figure seeks serenity and an ultimate ideal destination, the dreamer is encased in chaos and absorbed in a desire for adventure. The figure, donning a cowboy hat – what seems to be Grounds’ version of a crown – is fueled by and destroyed by his brave, daring, and insatiable nature. Both works explore the notion that one’s passion is his demise; what fulfills him is what will destroy him.
While the immediate resemblance between Johanna Kestilä’s Of Course You Were Right and Haring’s Untitled (Family) exists in their similar color schemes, their similarities reach beyond. Kestilä’s works are the result of a somewhat therapeutic process — the artist paints various canvases freely, and allows the works to sit as she continues to reflect upon them and moves onto new pieces; she then rips the initial paintings apart and sews together new compositions as if tying together memories to come to a psychological conclusion about an event. This work reflects the moment after her divorce when she realized she could love again. Haring’s work depicts a similar optimism. Haring presumably shows a small nuclear family, two parents and a child. While the gender of the parents and child are unclear, what is clear is that love ties the unit together through the love heart symbol that floats above the three figures. Both works utilize the colors pink and red to imply love. The frenzied nature of Kestila’s brush strokes implies a new, exciting romantic love, while the defined shapes and simple coloring of Haring’s work suggest a strong, unshakable, familial love.