Basquiat on display at MUDEC
A new major exhibition on Basquiat will be open to visitors in Milan until February 26, 2017. Il MUDEC, Museum of Cultures, has managed to collect over 100 masterpieces by the artist who died 28 years ago. This retrospective is a unique opportunity to admire the works, many of them unpublished, of the icon of an entire generation.
Basquiat and Italy
Italy has a special relationship with Basquiat, a love that has lasted for thirty-five years. It was 1981 when the Modenese art gallery Emilio Mazzoli decided to organize the first solo exhibition of the New York artist. In those years Basquiat was already a famous figure on the New York scene. On the other hand, it was not highly regarded outside the United States. The one in Modena was therefore not just a simple exhibition, but the door to Europe and the rest of the world. The Milan exhibition renews the feeling of Italians towards this great artist who was able to change the very concept of art.
In flight, out of reality
Baquiat began his artistic career in the 70s as a writer. His graffiti in the suburbs of New York will affect all his artistic production. One of the legacies of metropolitan graffiti are the writings. Words are always present in his works, sometimes as a background, other times as the main subject. But what is truly special about Basquiat's work is the ability to take the audience out of reality. While observing the painted figures, one has the sensation of being inside a nightmare or a dream. Racial segregation and the difficulties of a hard life are represented in an almost childish way, but with a violent and precise sign. È as if a child screamed desperately into a man's body and mind. Perhaps it was this child's cries that led Basquiat to that fatal dose of heroin, even turning himself into a nightmare or a dream.
