Now, we can see his paintings and hear more things go “click” in our heads about the human being who made them. It is shocking to think Basquiat went that soon and has been gone this long – that’s how much immediacy his work retains. Told through cinematic scenes, this is Basquiat as seen through the eyes of those who knew him, including his father, Suzanne Mallouk, Larry Gagosian, and, most importantly, the man himself. Count Basquiat among that number, as in the painting "Charles the First" (1982). The stance towards money is cavalier, at best. It is a poem. Jennifer Clement works against this distorting narrative, and she knows what she's talking about: Not only did she know Basquiat, his girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk has been a friend of hers. If you can't afford any of his paintings (they routinely fetch millions in auction), you can see them depicted and analyzed in any of several volumes and monographs, or simply pick up a year’s worth on a calendar. The poems don’t just describe the art, they express some of why his art struck so many so deeply. I was surprised. Basquiat left … The words in the bottom left corner (Basquiat was big on using text among his elements) inspired Jay Z’s track "Most Kingz", his 2010 meditation on fame, legacy, and his own determination not to succumb to the dangerous pitfalls and distractions of success. COUPURE DE PRESSE-CLIPPING. She struck up a friendship with Rene Ricard, a poet she’d heard about back home. By now, Mallouk has a doctorate in front of her name, and a medical practice specializing in treating artists suffering from addiction. Suzanne Mallouk, Stewart’s former partner, was one of the prime movers behind the Michael Stewart Justice Committee, a voluntary lobby group set up in his memory. Suzanne Mallouk estimated net worth in 2018 is Under Review.Here we also added Suzanne Mallouk … Suzanne Mallouk is a 60 year old Canadian Artist. Clement’s factual accounts are to the point, shorn of decoration and interpretation. She helped his family bring his case to court. Some readers who like a straightforward narrative will most likely be discouraged with the mixed voices in this fictional biography/memoir of Basquiat and Suzanne Mallouk. Age 57 Years old. Such is our endless attraction to Basquiat, to the way his art still speaks to our world 30 years after the fact, to the rhythms and colors and spirits he brought from his darkness, and his blackness, for all to see. He always had a lot of women. Young chronicles Basquiat’s life, from his formative years through his early death, incorporating painting titles and phrases he used in those paintings. Basquiat’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, Suzanne Mallouk, was close friends with Stewart and covertly photographed every wound on his body in the hospital. Where films are concerned, there's the inevitable shaky camera scene (when the artist begins to seriously lose it or ups the ante on his coke habit). I wasn't that familiar with Jean-Michel Basquiat and his art, other than hearing his name mentioned in other non-fiction books set around the same time period that he lived and worked. She picked up a few server jobs, including one at a dark little place called Night Birds, where she met Basquiat. But this memoir. Help us build our profile of Suzanne Mallouk! PopMatters have been informed by our current technology provider that we have until December to move off their service. His art resonated across worlds that otherwise had little in common. Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. © 1999-2020 PopMatters.com. please sign up They break the pattern only for a postscript, from a meeting of old friends at a 2010 Basquiat retrospective in Switzerland. Contribute. As the pressures of success and the allure of heroin dug into Basquiat, Mallouk’s tale sounds much like that of any addict’s companion. I know this, having spent three years powering through them at university. It’s really more of an interpretive biography told through poems, most of which ring with tense, staccato stanzas. And yes, it's about an iconic artist and one of his lovers but it's really about so much more if you choose to dig deep and see it. It is about childhood. As part of SAMO, he expressed his early creativity through graffiti. At some point, she became enamored of Iggy Pop, and for that reason chose New York as the place she bolted to in 1980 once she decided to leave home. Provenant d'un magazine français. I'm always suspicious of biographies of artists. Canada’s first major Basquiat exhibition opened in February, and an exhibition compiled from his notebooks is on tap for this spring in Brooklyn. It is about politics. On the advice of some of those draft dodgers, she went straight to the Seville Hotel, and quickly found a place within the burgeoning downtown scene. As revealing as it is, Widow Basquiat is far from the final word here. We are moving to WordPress and a new host, but we really need your help to fund the move and further development. They also used heroin until it finally used them up. There is nothing like reading a history or biography book and being so completely transported to another time and place that you find... Artists' biographies are usually some of the most boring books you will ever read. It was as if Basquiat’s art articulated things we only knew as feelings, in a language entirely of his invention yet clear and direct enough for all to understand, and once he was gone we felt not only a personal loss but also anger and sadness that yet another brotha could not repel those ghosts. She knew it was his way of saying goodbye. 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