not to go on about this after this, but that stupid Watson thing really put me off
it's just crazy to me that 30+ years after his death there are still ppl who feel like they can totally separate Basquiat's intent and agency from his work
whether it's for negative or (nominally) positive reasons, either way with racial and heavily patronizing overtones - the Julian Schnabel biopic goes heavily in that direction, Basquiat as naive mystic genius
he was neither a naive art brut savant nor a graphic design hustler. he was a savvy dude whose work was deeply rooted in both Western art and black culture - both black history, modernity, including his own experience of blackness, and afrofuturism (cf his relationship w/Rammellzee) - who fully knew what he was up to.
like famous white artists are allowed to have influences but he only gets to have motifs
I do like to think that his success in the Art World - and that of ppl like stan's grandma - helped opened doors for ppl like Theaster Gates, Arthur Jafa, etc to be considered as fully formed artists with agency rather than as passive ciphers