SAMO©

                                                           

At the young age of 17, Jean Michel-Basquiet moved to Manhattan to start a career as an artist. At the time, while Manhattan and New York in general was a breeding ground for crime and poverty, it was also a haven for artists who wanted to do any kind of art including poetry, music and visual arts. Basquiet sought this haven as an open, free and creative environment where he could meet fellow artists, do what he loved and still make a living.

 It could be argued that the start of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s art career started with his SAMO wall art, or as some like to call it “graffiti”. This project was started with a close friend of his, Al Diez. Basquiat’s graffiti art was not done in images but rather obscure written work that consisted of sayings like “SAMO does not cause cancer in laboratory animals!” While phrases like this may seem nonsensical, Basquiet drew inspiration from issues he saw around him. His work hinted at these issues in a way that made the viewer stop and think about what was written. These phrases were also very indirect, which was less threatening, and “in your face” as a blatant statement about an issue may have been. From my experience, this less direct approach won’t scare listeners or viewers off but may encourage them to think about what you have to say. It’s far more intriguing, at least to me.

There is also a bit of attitude, rebellion and a cry for change to the mundane usual ways of life in his work. This can be seen in one of his SAMO works “SAMO as an end to the 9 to 5 ‘”I went to college’” not 2night honey”. This work points out what may be wrong with the “system” and how success is measured in how much money we make or how much education we have instead of measuring someone’s worth as the person that they are. This system does not work for everyone and no amount of wealth with necessarily make someone happy or produce healthy families. People have expectations put on them at birth such as: Go to school, get a high paying job, make money. In theory, this path will lead to some kind of success, however it can also be a trap, which labels those who do no follow it as “failure” and gives those who seek a different way of life very few options.

Basquiat’s SAMO work may also have been done with some personal gain in mind. It is said that Basquiat always wanted to be famous. Fred Brathwaite, an artist and filmmaker who knew Basquiat well, says that “doing graffiti is fame”.  This is true, whether or not it is good fame or bad. Grafitti is in the public eye where everyone can see it. In the case of SAMO works, they were numerous and had people talking. The fact that they were left anonymous until a short while after they were done added to the mystery and intrigue of the work making it more well known in the Manhattan area. Once it was found out that Basquiet was the face behind the mysterious work, it made him all the more famous.  He was already well known as an artist at this point, anonymous or not and his art career quickly took of through his paintings.

                                                   Works Cited

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuZZ3gY2_9I&feature=related

http://www.henryflynt.org/overviews/samo.htm