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‘9-TO-5, WENT TO COLLEGE, NOT 2-NITE HOMEY BLUES’: Jazz and the American mundane in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s writing

Issue: Vol 13 No. 1-2 (2019) Special Issue: Jazz and Everyday Aesthetics

Abstract:

This article looks at the influence of jazz music-specifically bebop-in Jean-MichelBasquiat's use of the written word, arguing that the artist incorporates improvisationand dynamic rhythms to build a fragmentary stream of the everyday across his canvas.Looking towards Basquiat's graffiti, paintings and notebooks, this article will read Basquiat'sworks as jazz texts that rewrite the everyday, protest against social barriers, andreveal beauty in the mundane. This article will contextualize the musical and literary influencesreferenced across Basquiat's work, as well as the techniques he took from suchinfluencers and used on the canvas. By positioning Basquiat within a literary canon,this article will also consider how the multi-formality of jazz enabled Basquiat to createworks that were literary, musical, and painterly at once.

Author: Ellen O'Donoghue Oddy

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References :

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