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Radiant Child [DVD]

$20.00

In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200 and became best friends with Andy Warhol. Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom. However, soon his cult status began to override the art that had made him famous in the first place. Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary, but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist.

Director Tamra Davis delves into the life of the artist whose status as a cult figure began to overshadow his neoexpressionist output, and whose friendship with Andy Warhol cemented his role in pop-culture history. In the late ’70s, a Lower East Side graffiti artist who signed his work “Samo” emerged the darling of the New York art scene. Samo’s real name was Jean-Michel Basquiat, and in just a few short years, Basquiat would be an internationally celebrated artist. But being a black artist in the 1970s wasn’t all fun and fame; despite all of his success, Basquiat found intolerance and misconceptions dogging him at every turn. In this film, Basquiat’s friend Davis uses her talents as a filmmaker to offer a better look at both the man and the iconoclast.

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