Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art [Hardcover]

Phoebe Hoban (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

Painter Jean-Michel Basquiat was the Jimi Hendrix of the art world: in less than a decade he went from being a teenage graffiti writer to an international art star; he was dead of a drug overdose at age twenty-seven. A legend in his own lifetime, Basquiat's meteoric success and overnight burnout were an instant art-world myth; his brief career spanned the giddy '80s art boom and epitomized its outrageous excess, from its art dealers to its drug dealers, from its clubs to its galleries, from Madonna to Warhol. And the legend endures: the 1980s art world enfant terrible became the subject of the 1996 film Basquiat, starring Jeffrey Wright, Dennis Hopper, and David Bowie. Basquiat, the first biography of this prolific and charismatic figure, charts his trajectory from his troubled childhood to his volatile passage through the white art world of dealers and nouveau riche collectors. It is also the evocation of an era--one that fueled Basquiat's hyperactive rise to stardom and sadly predicable death.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This minutely reported book is as much a portrait of the frenzied, prodigal New York art world of the 1980s as it is a biography of Jean-Michel Basquiat, who died of a drug overdose at age 27 in 1988. Basquiat, one of very few African American artists to acquire an international reputation, left a thick web of dealers, collectors, friends, lovers, paintings, drawings, and used syringes behind him. Author Phoebe Hoban seems to have unblinkingly interviewed or examined them all. While she duly registers Basquiat's sad childhood, with his unstable Puerto Rican mother and punishing Haitian father, she doesn't make much of the deeper veins of sorrow and self-destruction that may have motivated the artist and informed his art. Rather, she allows his celebrity, which whisked him from street urchin to art star, to be the central trajectory of this story. The Warhol protégé would probably approve, as he was the primary obliterator of his own psychological depths, throwing away his short, phenomenally productive life in the edgy club and drug scene of downtown Manhattan. The miracle is that Basquiat was so good, and so serious, an artist, surrounded as he was by hype and cash. Hoban's book is a fluid, intricate, authoritative dissection of a time, a place, and--almost--a person. --Peggy Moorman

From Publishers Weekly

Hoban's background as a journalist shows in the fast-paced, reportorial style with which she presents the life and times of the 1980s art world "phenom," painter Jean-Michael Basquiat. Half-Haitian, half-Puerto Rican, Basquiat grew up in Brooklyn as the son of a middle-class accountant. At constant odds with a father friends described as "strict" and "self-absorbed," he became a drug-soaked denizen of the East Village, painting the city's walls with his graffiti tag, SAMO. How he turned his skills at wordplay and fragmented imagery into a career that captivated the international art scene before dying of a heroin overdose at the age of 27 becomes the focus of this accessible, frequently entertaining book. Those who peopled that scene, from gallery owner Mary Boone to Andy Warhol and Madonna, receive ample coverage here, as do the downtown New York clubs he frequented and the upscale European suites he trashed. Throughout, Hoban makes a strong case that racism marred the life of the dreadlocked artist in paint-spattered Armani suits. What's missing is any analysis of the degree to which Basquiat's enormous drug consumption (ca. 100 bags of heroin a day at the end) contributed to his imagery, especially the gap-toothed skulls he splayed across ragged expanses of bright colors. Basquiat died intestate, which ultimately meant that his father, Gerard, became executor. Although there are eight pages of photos (not seen by PW), Hoban could not get permission to reproduce works for her unauthorized biography and the lack is sorely felt. Editor: Paul Slovak. (Aug.) FYI: August 12 will be the 10th anniversary of Basquiat's death.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670854778
• ISBN-13: 978-0670854776
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #988,398 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Basquiat by Phoebe Hoban, August 19, 2001

By 

VMOrgado.com (Bronx, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art (Paperback)

It took me three years to finally had the courage to read this book. I was afraid it was another hype about Basquiat. I was there during the 70s when he was known as Samo. When he sold his painted sweat shirts in Patricia Fields, I was selling my silkscreen anckle socks in Capezio, @ just a minute down the block. I recall his half shaven head dancing in Reggae parties back in the days and I also remember talking to him one day in 1983, not having an idea of how famous he had gotten.

Reading Ms Hoban's book I finally had a realistic glance at this dude we had the impression to know. It was an eye opener. I understood not only the man, ( being a Puerto Rican artist myself) but the color artist in the midst of that up-coming yuppy world of "radical chic" ( as Samo used to write on walls) This book is a social revelation about the 80s. What we learn about Basquiat should be enough for us to draw conclusions about the Artist. A typical "minority" freak stepping out of the 70s, influenced by Bill Burrough's evil and deceptive aura and encouraged by irresponsible upper middle class people without ethics or love for human kind. The book is clear and truly authentic. Filled with good faith for future generations to know the truth.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative - but somewat petty and gossippy., February 21, 2003

By 

LVM - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art (Paperback)

I know that's a contradicition however one gets the feeling that the author was not a fan of Jean-Michele Basquait. His art or his work.

She seems to take an almost preverse pleasure in sharing the more "scandalous" aspects of his behavior.

There is much more time devoted to his alleged "drug abuse, whoremongering and venereal disease sharing" than his art work.

Overall, I learned some interesting information about his relationship with art dealers. The author seems particularly infatuated/intimidated with the recording artist/actress Madonna (who Basquait has a brief relationship with) and the art dealer Mary Boone.

But there is precious little about his family life, what motivated him or his connection to the Black community of which he was most assuredly. In fact, there seems to be a lack of respect for the African-American culture and the community as a whole.

I wanted to like this book, and it was very detailed,however much of it came from interviews, innuendos and third-persons accounts. Fufilling at some points, it often reads like tabloid journalism too. Some objectivity would have been nice, but maybe that's another book.

Surprisingly, I would recommend it to the Basquait fan, (for informational purposes) just check it out from the library or used stack.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT FICTION, August 7, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art (Paperback)

This book is great fiction...I knew Jean Michel Basquiat in the early 80s'. He was not a simple person and this book envelopes him into a character that is easy fiction. I would suggest "Widow Basquiat" by Jennifer Clement, for a closer study of the artist.