Basquiat photo african-american photographer
•
The Making of a Portrait: Michael Halsband’s Photograph of Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat
Michael Halsband is known for his striking portraits of celebrities, from rock stars to artists, as well as his commercial work for major publications such as Vogue, GQ, and Esquire. In 1981 and 1982, Halsband was the photographer for the Rolling Stones’ tour and became a photographer for a number of major editorial and advertising campaigns in the following years. His visibility as a photographer and connection with celebrities led him to the photoshoot that became one of the most recognized projects.
Here Jessica Hunter, our cataloguer for photographs and photobooks, takes us through the encounter that led to one of the most recognizable partnerships in the art world, and one iconic portrait.
An Invitation to Dinner
Invited to a dinner held by Andy Warhol in the back room of a New York restaurant, Halsband was seated next to Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom he had briefly met at a p
•
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was a Puerto Rican/Haitian American artist known for his neo-expressionist paintings and graffiti art.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Puerto Rican mother and a Haitian father. Basquiat grew up speaking Spanish, English, and French in a family that valued creativity. His father, Gerard, put on nightly musical performances for the family and his mother, Matilde, frequently took the family to museums. While he was recovering from injuries sustained after a car accident as a child, his mother bought him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy. The biological human imagery and forms would later shape his neo-expressionist artistic work.
In the late 1970s, Basquiat made a name for himself as a part of a New York graffiti artist duo with Al Diaz, using the tag “SAMO©” throughout lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. The tag of SAMO© continued to appear in Basquiat’s other works of art. At the age of 17, Basquiat dropped out of school and made
•
Pioneer African-American photographer James Van Der Zee made a name for han själv capturing the people and life on 125th street in Harlem, NYC where in 1916 he opened the Guarantee Photo Studio.
I wanted to share this photo of Basquiat after reading an interview with another famed Black American photographer, Dawoud Bey. This is just one of the shots from Van Der Zee’s session with Basquiat. In the interview, Bey mentions that amongst his wide collection of art, his most prized possession is “a Van Der Zee portrait of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.”
Van Der Zee lived a long life and shot this portrait of Basquiat in 1982, the year before he died at age 96.
Basquiat almost looks bored while the Siamese katt rests peacefully on his lap. I wonder if Basquiat felt honored to be immortalized bygd a photography legend? I also wonder, if armed with a camera, what Basquiat would’ve captured…
Follow Dodge & Burn on Facebook
No a