Basquiat`s „PrimitivisM“ disrobes
as Camouflage and that
„Mister Basquiat– the real one“, a travellogue exibited in the „Parkhaus“ of art association MALKASTEN, fonded 1848 in Düsseldorf, curated by Karl Heinz Rummeny and documented by Ute Janssen, co-worker of Wim Wenders in the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, 27 September 2019. by Karl Heinz Rummeny and documented by Ute Janssen, co-worker of Wim Wenders in the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, 27 September 2019. 1979 SAMO© left the recognition protocol to his method of covert communication in my diary. Prove by the evidence shown, a war tactic, a steganography [gr.] στεγανός ‚hidden‘, γραφία ‚to write’ he used. So that third party should not arouse suspicion when looking at it. Mary, Queen of Scots brought hers to the scaffold, unmasked by the code-breakers of Elizabeth I.
contradicts John Berger a.o.
the travellogue translated his Art into official dialogue.
The liberal media usually very committed when it comes to racism, did not show up. Possibly a result of the keep-it-simple-and-stupid-marketing of his Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger a.o.. They probably thought it is impossible, that Basquiat, the wild naiv „intuitive primitivist“, the graffiti painter, had been so superiorly sophisticated. German’s largest tabloid newspaper BILD alone appeared and reported briefly, not in detail.
„His paintings are deliberate enigmas“,
Prof. R. F. Thompson, Yale, in „A Radiant Child“ a film by Tamra Davis, 2010. He is author of „Flash of the Spirit“, 1983, Random House, about the Yoruba culture.
John Berger, NZZ, March 12, 2011, „Metaphysics from Downtown.
Basquiat chose a different strategy. He felt that hidden truths could not be described with the help of a language that at the same time served to spread lies; in his eyes, every official language was merely a code for conveying distorted messages. His strategy as a painter was to discredit and break such codes, thus creating space for vibrating, invisible, clandestine truths – like a saboteur“.
Prof. bell hooks, Art in America, 1993[…] Like a secret chamber that can only be opened and entered by those who can decipher hidden codes, Basquiat’s painting challenges folks who think that by merely looking they can „see“, Altars of Sacrifice, Re-membering Basquiat.
“… a meticulous analysis of Basquiat’s symbols and signs is a trap that lures us away from the abstract and oneiric intention of these paintings. They do not send us encrypted messages that we are supposed to interpret iconologically, but they confuse and disarm us at the same time with their discursive artifice.” Marc Mayer, Basquiat in History, Catalogue Retrospective, Brooklyn Museum, 2005.
Anyone who tries to draw conclusions about the life of this artist from the slogans that appear in Basquiat’s drawings or from the codes contained in his paintings finds themselves in the position of the shepherds who spell out the letters (note: the shepherds of Arcadia, Poussin). The artist’s life followed laws that can no longer be understood a year after his death“. Dr. Carl Haenlein, Archetypography, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kestner-Gesellschaft catalog, Hannover, 1989.
