Passage
Read the following exchange and answer the given subquestions:
Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Work Ethic of Creative Flow: A Radio Report
Reporter: Jean-Michel Basquiat had endless inspiration. He was the embodiment of artistic flow, and while most artists will never approach anything close to his once-in-a-generation talent, there are a few things that you could learn from his work methods that will help you tap into your own creative genius. For example, at the beginning of his career, Basquiat went out and bought two books - two books that would inform all of his work right up until his death. The first of these was a book called Henry Dreyfuss Symbol Sourcebook. This rare book would end up providing source material for almost all of the fifteen hundred drawings and six hundred paintings that he left behind. His art was filled with symbols - ladders, crowns, crosses, copyright, and all of them came from this rare book. Many of them are gathered on one page - page ninety - a page that almost looks like a dictionary of his whole artistic language. There is, for instance, the symbol that denotes the death of man, which, easily, he used to symbolise and prophesy his own death. One of the secrets of staying in flow is to have source material. Basquiat used source material like J Dilla (the rapper) sampling records, but source material alone will not automatically give you creativity. You have to learn to use it the artist's way, and it is thus a question of taste - you choose source material that can expose you to the best things that humans have done, and try to bring those things into what you are doing. Picasso had a saying; he said “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” Stealing like an artist means stealing with no judgement. Let your taste make the decisions, not your brain.
In an interview at the Fun Gallery in the early 1980s, Marc H. Miller asked Basquiat where the words in his paintings came from. He was interviewing the artist at an exhibition of his paintings at the Fun Gallery in the East Village of New York, and had the rare privilege of being able to refer back from the art to the artist, as both were present there at the gallery.
[Original audio of the interview] Interviewer: Where do the words come from? Basquiat: Real life, books, television. Interviewer: Yeah, and you just use them and start including. Basquiat: No man, when I'm working, I hear them, you know, and I just throw them down. Interviewer: Oh yeah? Well, I mean, things like “panic ware,” I remember that was in one of your... Basquiat: Uh, yeah, that was from a guidebook on Roman history, “History of Rome in 5 Pages,” you know? Interviewer: So you scratched a few words from it? Basquiat (a slight smile in his voice): I didn't scratch them, you know? Interviewer: They caught your...? Basquiat: They caught my eye and then I took them. Interviewer (referring to a painting): What is this? Basquiat: That's Pluto. Based on a drawing of the moon, the first drawing of the moon by Galileo. Interviewer: This looks like an eye. Basquiat: Yeah yeah, that's the evil eye of the Malocchio.
Reporter: The moment you stop thinking “Should I use this? What would people say?” you open yourself to flow. Stealing like an artist is not to act as just the sum of your influences. The choices of the artist are choices that serve his message and it is this informed choice that renders an artwork meaningful. The second book that gave Basquiat his unparalleled momentum was Flash of the Spirit - a book about African art. This book was key in helping him zero in on his message. The reason most artists lose flow when they are working is that when they get stuck, they have no guiding ideology to get them out of their tough spot, and because they don't know what they are trying to communicate to the world, any roadblock could stop them in their tracks for days and open up a vortex of overthinking, staring at a blank canvas, and artist's paralysis. That's what happens when you don't have an overarching message in your work. Basquiat did.
[Original audio] Basquiat: I think there's a lot of people that are neglected in art. I don't know if it's because of who made the painting or what. Black people are never portrayed realistically, or not even portrayed in modern art enough.
Reporter: And because he had a message, art came out of him that much more effortlessly. It's not just that he had source material; it's that he had a place to channel it. His work became a commentary on the underrepresentation of black art in the established art world. When you have a message, art comes out of you easily, but a message, tons of source material, and your newfound audacity to steal like an artist is still not enough. You will never have that Basquiat-like limitless inspiration and flow if you don't master speed. The day Basquiat met Andy Warhol, he ran back home and painted a self-portrait of both of them from a Polaroid he had just taken. And then he ran back to the restaurant to give it to him as a gift. The paint was still fresh. Warhol couldn't believe it. All he kept repeating was “Oh, I'm jealous. I'm jealous. He's faster than me, and these are so great.”
That was the beginning of the collaboration between Andy and Jean-Michel. When one of the most prolific artists of all time is jealous of your speed, you know you are doing something right. Work quickly, like a demon. You should work so fast that you don't have time to think. The brain is your enemy in art. Like they say in the music industry, keep the tape rolling.
If you really want to become the legendary artist that you have the potential to be, if you really want that endless inspiration, you have to understand that most of the flow that you have for making art will come from all the things that you are doing while you're not making art. In between your creative sessions, while everyone else is busy consuming regurgitated content on social media, you should go offline and you should go deep. Most people need to rev up when they sit down to work. They need hours before they can finally get into the groove. That is because they haven't been feeding their mind during their downtime.
[Original audio] Basquiat: I never went to an art school. I failed the art courses that I did take in school. I just looked at a lot of things. And that's how I think I learned about art, by looking at it. That's a Roman belt buckle. It's from a drawing that I did at the Metropolitan. Went all the way to the Metropolitan museum, and I did the drawing of the buckle and I came back with it and I put it right there. Interviewer: Well, that's kind of a slow process. Basquiat: I'm a slow person.
Reporter: The process may seem slow to an outsider, but that slow process is what makes you outrageously fast when you get back into the studio. Make it your mantra to study, memorise and internalise, and those ideas you consume will marinate inside of you, and will eventually become part of your artistic DNA. Suddenly the oddest things will come out of you at the most unexpected times. It is all because you made yourself this well of inspiration. You became a student of life - ready at any time to express your genius.