Thoughts : Boom for Real - The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (2017)
My fascination with old-school New York has been well documented at this point. This love is due to things like old movies, hip-hop culture, the city’s downfall and rebuilding, and so much more. Of all the iconic figures that have emerged from the city, one of the most intriguing and influential was avant-garde artist and musician Jean-Michel Basquiat. Biopics and documentaries have been made about his fame, but Boom for Real : The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat focuses instead on the promise he showed just before he blew up in the art world.
The late 1970s found New York on the verge of a cultural shift. The traditional art, theatre and music worlds were established, but there were fresher and newer alternatives forming that would rock the entire scene in the form of punk rock and hip-hop culture. Graffiti, a major part of the hip-hop scene, became an eventual bridge between the haves of the art world and the have-nots of the street art world, but one figure, Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a forerunner in terms of bridging the gap between those worlds. His erratic but fresh style, his primal approach to the illustration, and his thought-provoking writing immediately demanded attention, and through a series of chance meetings and interactions with different influencers, eventually he found himself mentioned in the same name as artists like Keith Harring and Andy Warhol, already icons on the scene.
I went into this documentary expecting more about Jean-Michel Basquiat through personal reflection, but in this documentary, everything you learn about him is via reflections on interactions with him through other people. Be it his famous acquaintances like Fab Five Freddy, Jim Jarmusch, Diego Cortez or Lee Quinones, or personal friends that helped him out by providing places to live or an alternative version of a relationship, the one consistent is Basquiat’s influential nature and feverish need to create, as if it was as natural as breathing to him. You also get the idea that, regardless of fame or opportunities, Basquiat was going to create at the same level and intensity.
The documentary does provide another example of how the multiple counter-culture scenes in New York at the time, despite being completely different on their exteriors, were all in league to an extent. Their goals of shaking up the old guard and breaking the rut that many creators were in was shared, as well as the need to provide a voice for those who are not given an opportunity to voice their experiences. Basquiat provided insight into the fact that a seemingly struggling, homeless misfit could be an influential artist and intellect if given the proper opportunity.
All in all, the documentary is more of a love letter to the man than it is an education or informative piece about his work and method. If you’re looking for words from Basquiat about Basquiat, this may not be the way to go, but it’s worth including in the bigger picture research if you’d like to learn about Basquiat and how he fit into the New York scene at the time.