Uploaded June 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
Today, HENI Talks is presented by Eleanor Nairne, Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an artist in the most plural sense. Commonly misunderstood as just a 'graffiti artist', or a painter, Basquiat was also a musician, DJ, actor and performance artist.
On the occasion of the Barbican's major Basquiat exhibition, which ran between September 2017 and January 2018, Eleanor Nairne exposes how Basquiat's multidisciplinary nature springs from his profound engagement with a broad range of source material, from trashy TV, to philosophy, to media representations of black experience.
Nairne unpicks some of the fertile references which feature in canvases by the pioneering prodigy of the 1980s downtown New York art scene. She discusses how Basquiat could have brought these disparate sources together to critique and shed new light on the world around him.
Could the webs of references which feature in Basquiat's works parallel our contemporary experience of the digital age?
🎥 Presented by HENI Talks — films that bring art, design, and architecture to life.
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Produced by HENI Talks
#jeanmichelbasquiat #arthistory #punk #graffiti #basquiat
Today, HENI Talks is presented by Eleanor Nairne, Curator at the Barbican Art Gallery.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an artist in the most plural sense. Commonly misunderstood as just a 'graffiti artist', or a painter, Basquiat was also a musician, DJ, actor and performance artist.
On the occasion of the Barbican's major Basquiat exhibition, which ran between September 2017 and January 2018, Eleanor Nairne exposes how Basquiat's multidisciplinary nature springs from his profound engagement with a broad range of source material, from trashy TV, to philosophy, to media representations of black experience.
Nairne unpicks some of the fertile references which feature in canvases by the pioneering prodigy of the 1980s downtown New York art scene. She discusses how Basquiat could have brought these disparate sources together to critique and shed new light on the world around him.
Could the webs of references which feature in Basquiat's works parallel our contemporary experience of the digital age?
🎥 Presented by HENI Talks — films that bring art, design, and architecture to life.
🔔 Subscribe for more films on art, architecture, and culture:
youtube.com/@HENITalks/videos
👍 Like, comment, and share to support our work!
🌐 Learn more:
Web — heni.com
Instagram — instagram.com/heni
TikTok — tiktok.com/@heni
X — https://x.com/heni
Produced by HENI Talks
#jeanmichelbasquiat #arthistory #punk #graffiti #basquiat
