The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader

"What a treasured compilation of essays, interviews, and thoughts about one of the most important artists of the late twentieth century! Jordana Moore Saggese, an accomplished Basquiat scholar in her own right, has selected a broad spectrum of key writings that, in their entirety, capture a comprehensive art history which will be of lasting value to artists, scholars, and admirers of Jean-Michel Basquiat's exuberant, redolent, exegetic paintings."--Richard J. Powell, author of Going There: Black Visual Satire "This indispensable volume offers a set of vital documents critical for the analysis of the work and career of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was mythologized early on and barely understood even after he passed. This extraordinary, riveting scholarly reader is a significant contribution to the fields of contemporary art, American art, and the discipline of art history at large."--Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, Associate Professor, History of Art and Architecture and African and African American Studies, Harvard University "An artist with a rare and acute understanding of the power of language, Basquiat withheld his words, sous rature, disassembling them, scattershot and specific, to allow hidden meanings and associations. Saggese does a splendid job gathering them here through his interviews and notebooks along with the insights of contemporaneous critics and the recollections of his contemporaries. A vital compendium for future scholarship."--Carlo McCormick, critic and curator "An invaluable survey of critical writing on the praxis of art phenomenon Jean-Michel Basquiat, including his own textual obsessions--which presents a varied yet precise chronology of his short but art history-changing career."--Diego Cortez, curator