Jean Michel Basquiat's move from unknown street artist to internationally known gallery star was solidified with a seminal review in Artforum in late 1981. His distinctive style merged cave-like drawings, the scrawl of the "untrained" artist, and astute observations of culture. His packaging of ethnicity, street background, and artistic style matched seamlessly with Ingrid Sischy's Artforum agenda of art, culture, and race eclecticism. Sischy sought to remodel the magazine to reflect the 1980s fascination with product and image. Basquiat embodied both for Artforum, who shaped his image as an 80s style primitive for 20th century Western art imperialists.
Since the early 1960s, Artforum has held the influential position of art world kingmaker. The magazine's primary focus was the traditional art world centered in New York until 1980, when Sischy took the helm of editor. She guided Artforum through a decade of blurring boundaries between money, fine art, and popular culture. Sischy's changes reverberated throughout the art publishing industry. She introduced non-traditional art writers to the magazine, implemented cultural commentary with columns on advertising, television, and music, and added artist projects created specifically for Artforum.
The lower East Side of New York was a haven for a different style of artist. Alongside the homeless, prostitutes, and pawnshops grew a subculture of graffiti artists, galleries, and music and dance clubs. A young, African American of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat, was a product of this street culture. Although not a traditional graffiti artist, his early work as part of the duo SAMO tagged walls, buildings, and doors with insightful aphorisms.
Though he brought a needed boost to the art market, Basquiat was not inoculated from art world prejudice. In this paper I will contrast the presentation of Basquiat with that of black British artists and filmmakers who directly challenged art racist practices. Through the magazine, Third Text, and film cooperatives like Black Audio Film Collective, they discussed race from the perspective of the non-western Other, something that was lacking in the coverage of Basquiat.
The 1980s art market composed of artists, art magazines, gallery owners, dealers, museums, auction houses, and corporate and individual art collectors was not immune to the effects of a culture pre-occupied with money and image. Young, brash business executives saw art as simply an investment vehicle. With thousands rather than millions to spend, auction houses and gallery owners nurtured these new collectors through art education, and appropriated business tactics, such as mortgage style loans and bank financing packages.
I selected Artforum because of its influence in the 80s and even today in establishing the career of an artist. Art writing contributes significantly to the success of specific artists, and particular artistic styles and movements. Since the bulk of art writing appears in art journals, these magazines are key in championing particular artists through artist profiles, exhibition reviews, and announcements of upcoming shows. These announcements, or gallery ads, also generate revenue for the magazine. Often artists featured in articles or reviews are the same artists promoted in ads purchased by prestigious galleries, auction houses, and museums, thus illustrating the cyclical, self-serving nature of the art market.