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From: innertubevideo
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  • He was so cute and talented!

    So sad how he went :(

  • what a stupid interviewER. Basquiat is greatness. 

  • The director of the Basquiat movie "borrowed" the ART/new york interview program so that Jeffrey could study the real Basquait. He came somewhat close to mimicking Jean Michel's mannerisms (twirling his hair, etc) but he did not get his soul. The complete interview, (a must and 35 minutes), tells much more than the movie. Marc Miller and I are lucky to have caught him on camera just as he rolled out of bed at about 3PM on Crosby Street in New York. PT

  • Up until seeing this video, everything I knew about Basquiat came from the Jeffrey Wright film. Some people here say Wright nailed the performance, but I have to say that I came away from that film totally disliking Basquiat. He seemed arrogant, totally disengaged and uninterested in the people around him, and usually in a stupor. I'm glad to finally see the real Basquiat, because he seems like a much more contemplative, approachable and likable character. I'm sorry he's gone.

  • so you can study his beautiful face.

  • why those stills?

  • whats with the still shots?

  • @TRESBELA should it have been about basquiat as a black painter? Why did it have to be? shouldn't it just have been about him as an artist? I liked the movie. But I did not see Basquiat as just "black" In fact, from what I have read about him, he really didn't associate much with blacks, especially once he accomplished some success. I saw his art as black, though.  And I saw in the movie his struggle with his identity, and with his race.

  • Another one we lost too soon! You could tell by his demeanor he was on drugs something awful :(. I wish he would have saved himself. Sweet Man...

  • He sounds like extremely gentle soul.

  • he is gorgeous

  • Cute and multi-taleneted!

  • typical american vacum. DOPE!!!

  • I love listening to him speak, he seems really nice and mellow he is a really unique kind of guy. I wish i could of met him, shame he died from somthing so stupid.

  • if you don't have anything to say, just keep your mouth shut

  • Whats with the ridiculous still in between answers??!!

  • the video is neat. Shows his personality, although possibly contrived, it is quite cute .Too bad he wasted his life. guess he felt too much like a poser. had he lived longer he could have done something really great. In my opinion he died long before he blossomed.

  • Wow! Whoever the interviewer is, he made it very awkward! Didn't break the ice, was SOOO formal! H was sitting in front of one of the biggest artists of our time, he could've do so much better!

  • @TRESBELA You're right but Jeffrey Wright was still a great actor in this movie and all of what you've stated, can't take that away from him.

  • This is a very early interview done in 1982 when there was almost nothing written about Basquiat. He was only 21 and seems uncertain about how "black" he wants to be in an art world that he knows traditionally marginalized black artists.

  • what is the song in the beginning?

  • I don't think the interviewer is consciously racist. He's just a pretentious clown who has nothing really to ask and goes for the obvious question about some vague ethnic influence even though Basquiat - as he says himself - is just the product of an ordinary background with exposure to mass media. He just happened to have been bright and extraordinarily talented and the interviewer happens to be a dummy who only had one basic question and even that turned out to be absurdly stupid.

  • The French artist Henri Rousseau was called a primitive; Grandma Moses was called a primitive. There is a group of Haitian artists known as Haitian primitives. The term is not racist. It refers to artists who are not academically trained. Basquiat knows this. He is playing with the interviewer.

  • No, correction; Basquiat is offended. The face of a black man once again shot down by white elitists. I know the look of expression on his face to well. The term, whatever the meaning is extremely offensive. All these terms meant to label blacks are created to box us in and make us appear as "minor" hence, minorities. But there is no explaining this to white people, after all in your eyes, I'm just "playing the race card"

  • @TRESBELA you may be right, but in the end we all have to individually rise above this crap. sadly, this artist was also an addict. Is that because he was black? No.  I could take your statement and substitute male vs female in the place of black vs white....and it would be valid. But I don't spend my life crying about how women are still in our society considered minor to men, and blacks should do the same. You become what you think you are.

  • my father is a very sexist man, and years ago when I talked about a woman becoming president, he said to me that a black MAN will be president long before any woman ever will. What I am saying is that in the eyes of many, women are more of a minority than blacks. Should I be bitter and always looking for the negative in every interaction between men and women?

    Basquiat got a great break as an artist, and he blew it, just like many other artists have. Race had nothing to do with it.

  • @Dix994 Most folk dont know who he is just as people dont know alot about black painters in general. Everyone knows who Andy warhol is. I think the combination of his short life his drug use and his ancestry. And i dont agree with wat u say about women as more of a minority from experience and it depends on the color of the woman

  • principle mark of a geniuus is not perfection but originality so says the man by the name of arthur koestler. so its not photorealistic art, but its a distinctive type of shit smeared art that only he can do honestly. the art world is unfair. it can work in our favour..or knot. and umm if there is any truth to picassos quote on every child being an artist but the struggle being to maintain the child, then basquiat is just another example of this.. he paints like a child. a radiant one

  • its really funny how bored jean michel is during this interview. you can tell he just cant wait for it to be over. hahahaha

  • I bet all U lames paint like garbage if U think he's a great painter. haha If this type of booboo sparked a movement then me crapping on a canvas and smearing it in specific places must be a new phenomenon! Lmao

  • I can paint photorealistically and have a photographic memory, i've been able to draw photos perfectly since the age of 15 and Jean Michel Basquiat was not only a master of colour, but a genius, something you could not understand unless you tried to do pieces in his style and have a successful outcome, and actually smearing ones own shit on a canvas was already done by Brittish painters gilbert and george and i highly doubt, based on what you've just said that you have any artistic ability

  • anything design related you own is a culminated derivative of the works of "nutjobs" like basquiat, warhol, etc

    get over it, move on

  • I used to do heroin and hung out with others who did, he def has the "heroin stutter" it's kind of sad.

  • @NoelBenson8029

    Heroin is one hell of a drug. It's sad how he died though. He had talent.

  • this interview wasnt in 1989

  • nervous mic man has trouble relating with subject.

  • what has jeffery wright done scince the movie?

  • why is it that the good artist or musicians drug addicts!

  • because some of them are geniuses..and being a genius makes you see things average ppl dont see..and the more you see the less you wish to have seen. so theres just one thing left to do:

    blurring your senses

  • @gabeguzman drugs open your mind! xD

  • After seeing this, Jeffrey Wright should have won an Oscar for the movie, Basquiat. Wow!

  • He's so cute!

  • Really mirrors the interview in the movie. The acting in the film is all the more believable after watching this piece. It's sad that he's not with us.

  • @sarniaking There is a film about him?

  • @tania480 The movie is called "Basquiat", and stars Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat and Benicio Del Toro as his close friend.

  • He could be alive with us...and with his art..

  • @XOPAUXO - Because the work of 5 year olds isn't preoccupied with social justice and mortality, for one. You're wrong in assuming that technical skill equals good art, there's much more to it than that.

  • XOPAUXO, you sir, FAILED!!

  • Basquiat has cute brown eyes...

  • i am an artist, so if you like art you should check out my video.

  • Yeah! He was smart, talented, generous, good looking,

    funny, and more. I hope his show in Haiti survived the earthquake. What a tragedy

  • White supremacists destroyed Basquiat.

  • Life destroyed Basquiat...

  • JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT was a cool dude. i wish i could have met him.

  • Jeffrey Wright nails JM mannerisms! Look at him and then watch the movie.

  • he sure did love that movie!!

  • @gp5 It's amazing how much Jeffrey Wright looked like the real Basquiat in that movie!

  • NO!!! DRUGS KILL!!!

  • drugs fuel art

  • in this clip, it's quite evident that Basquiat, unfortunately, is very much in the throes of his drug addiction...rip

  • this whole interview was just awkward. the interviewer kind of sucked.

  • those still frames r whack

  • cool, they used to have a lot more jean interviews on youtube too bad they don't now

  • thats my life... i hope i can become something in my life, not soft

  • the still shots are so awkward and funny

  • And of course it would, because HOW can you squeeze someone's entire life into less than 2 hours on film? Sorry using the word idiots, but fuck, there is just SO much disrespect if you check ALL the comments... Research, yes?

  • I wish (most) of you idiots would do some REAL research on Jean Michel Basquiat before (drunkenly/or just plain stupidity? e.g. spelling?) making comments regarding his life that are SO out of line... I suggest the book "Basquiat: A quick killing in art" by Pheobe Hoban. I own at least 10 or 11 books on the Painter, most monographs, true, but this book makes the film "Basquiat" (Directed by Basquiat's "friend", Julian Schnabel...) look like a thumbnail sketch compared to his whole life...

  • I read the book, very good book.

    Take care

  • thanks for recommending that book

  • do you do any painting?

  • those still shots are so annoying. just play the damn interview straight thru y dont ya

  • he was so beautiful and deeply talented. The art worls hyped him and than robbed and used him. He died in poverty.

  • he didnt die in poverty he wore $1000 armani suits while he paited and he died before he was 30 so i dont think he could be destitute

  • Is that guy seriously a reporter? You've got to be kidding. He needs to quit his day job because he sucks HARD. Who conducts an interview like that? Why couldn't he just talk to him like a normal human being. The reporter acted as though he never conducted an interview in his life. Awful!! He was probably making Basquiat uncomfortable with how lame his approach was. I notice in some of these comments, people can only seem to focus on Basquiat's drug use, typical when the artist is Black.

  • this is an excerpt of a 36 min interview it think, i never saw it complete though

  • I don't know if you can say that the guy is a good reporter but he sure gets good results. Basquiat is challenged and rises to the occassion. He is sharp. He is funny. And most importantly he talks about his art. Basquiat actually seems to be enjoying the interview.

  • I don't think that he's condescending, its just hard to interview an artist who is high on cocaine or heroin.

    I still love Basquiat, but you can tell he's not sober.

  • yeah, beautiful person

  • Notice at 2:15 when he says "that's when I started drinking and...(taps vein)...uhh throwing bottles and stuff. You mean shooting heroin!

  • nahhhhh basquiat didn't start doig heroin until he could afford it! ya idiot

  • this is a great interview so sad he die at such a young age.

  • I wouldn't go as far to call this interview great. Don't get me wrong, I think Basquiat was a great artist and I LOVE his work, but he seemed a bit apprehensive and the interviewer sounded sarcastic and condescending.

  • yes i agree he's one of my favs!

  • he has the funniest mannerisms

  • hes beautiful

  • So beautiful.

  • you are just great

  • its the art that matters....

  • i love his appearance...it may seem weird, his art really portrays him as an artist and the way his appearance even though he did drugs. O.o wasnt he doing art like this b4 he was a druggie?...

  • i'm glad he died when he did. he's a case where he was a product of a drug crazed lifestyle, and if he cleaned up his act, it wouldn't be Basquiat. some things (no matter how tragic) have to happen in order to become permanent. through Death he became that. i dont think i would have wanted to see him clean and sober and fade into obscurity. sad to say, some tragedy must happen.

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  • well, you are part of the same kind of waste-people that helped all this young artists die young, pieces of shit like you are the ones that fuck everything, put money first and don`t care for the talent. you just care about the product,(that's what it is for you). i really wish that all fucking idiots-waste products of post modernism like you died like flies every time a young artist is taken away.

    nothing HAVE to happen, it's their lives and they should do what they want not what has to happen

  • Your a sick fucker...wow, i despise people like you

  • Comment removed

  • read up on him more before forming an opinion on him. the movie Julian Schnabel did about him is fairly accurate, and study his paintings more.

    his biography is a good read too.

    he was a dick at first glance, but when you dwelve deeper into the person he was, you'll see something greater than the average human being. his mind operated on a different frequency, for lack of a better phrase. plus all the junk he shot and blow he sniffed only made him more weird.

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  • This guy is not a great interviewer. Jean-Michel Basquiat is very interesting, even just sitting there. So sad he died young. What might have he done, and done and done?

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  • Jean Michel is asking me why u didn't put the whole interview?

    plz do it!

  • grande basquiat...........desde lima ----peru

  • it's funny how the people who interview artists always expect to hear some weird answer. artists live in the same world as everyone else, they just have different reactions to being here. these reactions are deep inside each person, but were obscured almost beyond recognition. this is why entire museums and classes are dedicated to the people who have preserved their connection to what we can't see with our eyes.

  • couldn't have said it better.

  • ...soo true, perfect analysis

    &

    it also annoys me when people

    get so upset when an artist of any

    sort isnt meek and extremely reserved

    they automatically assume that the

    person is being pompous and

    concieted when in all actuality its

    just confidence

  • His confidence is evident in the interview. He seems like he could hold his own against his peers.

    I would have loved to see how he matured into his life.

  • very true..it oozes through the computer screen, i mean yes there are the artists that are indeed "Conceited" but most of the time they eventually get put in their place by somone greater..lol but anyway i too would have loved to see i guess its just goes to show how some are meant to be here for only a season but they are put here to leave a GREAT mark on the world
  • Wow Im looking at him and Im like his so Caribbean right?Even though he said he had ever been there.The way talks and the ways his chesters are. Wow!

  • also, he did work for Maya Angelou's children's book. Basquiat, and enormous talent, was second banana to the near-talentless Angelou.

  • Angelou, "near-TANLENTLESS", come on now. I'm sure that you are not that ignorant my friend.

  • Her poetry (and pretty much all of her writing) sucks. I am not the only one who has said this. Her poem for Clinton's '92 inaugeration was about dinosaur shit.

    The woman is a hack who has an inflated name. In other words, talentless, but makes a million for sucking, while the genius Basquiat has been mostly forgotten (except by hard core art types). This is the ultimate injustice.

  • ...and an inflated ego to boot.

  • I agree with you that Jean-Michel and his works have been forgotten and how much of an injustice that is, but surely you can't believe that Maya Angelou is "near-talentless".

  • well, my friend, I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

    But at least we agree on the wonderful Basquait. :) Have a great day.

  • you too, man :]

  • this guy was so fucking talented and did NOT get the recognition that he deserved. Sadly, the recognition that he did get did not last, he has been forgotten except those who study art and art history.

  • This couldn't have been in '89... cus Basquiat died in 88!!

  • Is it all conceivable to you that the interview was released in 1989?

  • When I first saw this video I became aware of the genius of Jeffrey Wright's performance. Brilliant!

  • Julian Schnabel borrowed Paul Tschinkel's program "ART/new york No. 30" in order to study Basquiat; his words and mannerisms. Wright uses Jean Michel's gestures and speech patterns and Julian even uses some of the ART/new york program content. They did a good job, but, the original is always better and real.

  • Why are you talking about yourself in the third person? You are in fact Paul Tschinkel right?

  • Basquiat is my favorite artist

  • right on

    its nice to hear some positive feedback from utube land

    i know everyone is entitled to an opinon but why does it seem like a whingefest somedays

    plus i just heard my dog vomiting,awesome,cant get more real than that

  • Wright did a better Basquiat than Basquiat.great paintings though its a pity that great artists have to be spun into narratives about drugs and women;shouldn't their work be enough!

  • watching this makes me think of how well Jeffery Wright did as Basquiat in the movie.

  • All you need to know;

    Panditha666 has the same taste and attitude about art as Adolph Hitler.

    Loves Kitschy art like Bouguereau. But if you get abstract; oh man! That's NOT art the fool raves.

    Ignorant and hateful towards art of the 20th century;

    will be forever lost in the 21st I imagine.

  • Bougerou kitschey! man your a fucking idiot! bogerou was neoclassical/academic you fucking retard!

    sorry if you cant reaoize that REAL abstract art is michael angelo or the such! what a fucking nigger!

  • So jealous of successful artists.

    Too bad you'll never be one.

    You really need a time machine to get back to the 19th century...but you're stuck in the present not understanding any of the art from the Modern era on. HA ha sad pathetic childish clown throwing a tantrum.

    And try to learn how to spell; you just come off like a high school drop out.

  • jelous?! nigger please! id rather sell my self for five sense than be jelous of this untalented fuck!

    how do you know i wont be? oh cause i dont do shit art like this fuck who just got famous cause he was touted by some famous guy?

    not understaqnding any modern art?! no i dont understand ryden etc. fucknign nigger!

    OOh spelling on the net.. typical comeback of a LOSER!

  • Put up some of your art then.

    Too scared to do it.

    All talk and no art.

    It's garbage just like your words.

  • id be happy to show my work, to those who ask polielty unlike twits like you, plus its not work that isnt paint thrown on walls, its realistic work whcih takes time unlike you which is throw paint

  • Skill is not Art; sensitivity and intelligence are needed.

    Picasso could draw as realistically as anyone but figured out early on that he didn't need to be a camera. His early work; as much skill as anyone in realism.

    You can't turn your mind off and be a great artist and you are narrow minded. Your confusion about abstract art makes you so angry. No one sane tosses around the N word. When you see an abstract pattern on the fur of a cat does it also make you angry? You're confused about it all.

  • having senstivity and intellegce IS a skill dumbas!!

    camera!?! the reason he went that way was because he was welol off and he COULD do that. Basquiat could not!

    what makes me angry that is that twits like this can cater to morons like youwho buy abstract art and say its full of meaning when its nothing more than paint thrown around

    and nigger means dumbass and your one of em!

  • And so clouds are horrible because they are just water vapor tossed around; same with molten lava.

    IRONY;

    Pandith is just an Indian spelling for Pundit (scholar) and Panditha would be a woman scholar.

    But you are not a scholar...just an ignorant angry ranting child. Not a very good show of intelligence to misspell the word itself. You toss WORDS around in a sloppy way...and then you get angry about those who toss paint. Sad really.

  • NIGGA

    uhhh your a dumbass if you think panditha is a name for a wopman you fucking nigger!

    good one judging people by their name.. idiot. that and how someone spells etc. i get angry aboput twits who buy that shit and call it art when its not you fucking negroid!

  • Sad that one does not know the derivation of their own name ...especially one that might be an assumed one.

    You might do a little research...it sure isn't all that hard to find out THE FACTS.

    Like everything else you spew; lacking basic intelligence.

    The 666 title does fit pretty good because you are possessed by something evil.

    The facts;

    Pandith is just an Indian spelling for Pundit (scholar) and Panditha would be a woman scholar.

  • so your calling me a chick you fucking nigger?

    i know what it means dumbass! i just dont give two shits.

    hers a fact for you the number 666 I PUT CAUSE ITS A EASY NUMBER TO REMEBER JACK ASS!

    dear god first sayng my name is chickish, cause it has an a in it thinking my name is spanish and then thinkign paint splattered around is art

    dear god nigger is an understatment for you!

  • Panditha

    It's an East Indianname .

    Sorry to confuse you with facts; 666 is the number associated with Satan. But why isn't ANY number repeated thrice just as easy to remember?

    That part fits nicely.

    And you are surely a pussy if not in fact a little girl.

    I wonder if you also paint in a dyslexic style like you type and don't know it. I think I'm getting to the bottom of your problem; a closeted gay boy with dyslexia and delusions of grandeur  I'm sure you're a legend in your own angry mind.

  • Oooops;

    I left out the other part of my diagnosis;

    Tourette's Syndrome.

    Compulsive repetition of swear words.

    You're one messed up asshole!

    No one could give credence to a word you write.

  • your diagnosis is shit because REAL tourettes patients do not spout out obsenitites ON PURPOSE LIKE DO YOU FUCKING NIGGER!

    messed up asshole? i wouldnt be talking dumbass !

  • Finally you're half right;

    Yes, I do it on purpose but you...

    with the mental illness...can't control yourself like I can.

    See; no obscenitites here this time.

  • what mental illness?! cause i call you several forms of dumbass(ie nigger etc.)

    dear god your a retard seriously!

  • .....So then the gynaecologist says to the Tamil Tiger "I said IUD, not IED!".

  • I wouldn't say that - but maybe Haitian primitives! Ha! No, but seriously... There's such HATE in this thread! It's just bad form. Pity.

    And I don't think that JMB did crap art at all. He has a unique voice that's not easily replicated even today.

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  • How can this interview be from 1989 if Basquiat died August 12, 1988?

  • The interview is actually from 82', but it was released on video in 89'. The poster must have overlooked this I guess, but it's cool, at least he/she posted this up for us to watch right?

  • It is possible to like different types of art. I like Ryden and Durer and Giger and Heinrich Kley, but I also like Basquiat and de Kooning and Pollock. I like some classical music and some punk rock. I don't believe there is REAL art.

  • Well, I guess we're just gonna have to disagree on what polecock is.

  • For someone who considers themselves a creative person, you certainly have a closed mind, especially for someone whose into some unconventional things. You strike me as a basic tatted out, rocker goof. Into skeletons, 666, death, ect, boring, and typical L.A.

  • That's a self defining number, and I'm not even a religious person. But it says to me that the persons into some dark shit, at least usually.

  • There's a difference between fine art and illustrator here, De Kooning, Pollock, Basquiat & Durer are recognized fine art artists.

  • Chris Peters is working in a movement that was created and explored during it's era. He is obviously heavily influenced by Salvador Dali and for this I'm not finding him to be very original, but I guess this fits into your whole L.A., 666, rock & roll aesthetic Panditha666. M.Ryden & Peters are NOT fine artists, they are basically illustrators in my opinion, and that's fine, but this is a very important distinction.