Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat Hollywood Africans Bandana
Details
This bandana features Basquiat’s artwork Hollywood Africans with a graphic border design. Designed to be versatile, this bandana can be worn around the neck, tied to your bag, or on your dog.
- 100% cotton, lightweight voile
- 19.5x19.5 inches (49.5x49.5cm)
- Made in China
- Machine wash cold; Tumble dry low; Low heat iron
About the artwork: Jean-Michel Basquiat created this work during a trip to Los Angeles on the occasion of his solo exhibition. Hollywood Africans includes a self-portrait as well as portraits of his friends, the artists Rammellzee and Toxic, who were traveling with him. Basquiat referred to the three as African “Americans in Hollywood” and included references to the film industry with its stereotypes of Black characters and limited roles for Black actors.
Image: Hollywood Africans, 1983
© Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Licensed by Artestar, New York
Jean-Michel Basquiat
A poet, musician, and graffiti prodigy in late-1970s New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat had honed his signature painting style of obsessive scribbling, elusive symbols and diagrams, and mask-and-skull imagery by the time he was 20. “I don’t think about art while I work,” he once said. “I think about life.” Basquiat drew his subjects from his own Caribbean heritage—his father was Haitian and his mother of Puerto Rican descent—and a convergence of African-American, African, and Aztec cultural histories with Classical themes and contemporary heroes like athletes and musicians. Often associated with Neo-expressionism, Basquiat received massive acclaim in only a few short years, showing alongside artists like Julian Schnabel, David Salle, and Francesco Clemente. In 1983, he met Andy Warhol, who would come to be a mentor and idol. The two collaborated on a series of paintings before Warhol’s death in 1987, followed by Basquiat’s own untimely passing a year later.
