Art in the Society: Social Commentary in Jean-Michel Basquiat's Art

Art in the Society: Social Commentary in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Art
As a visual creation, art triggers different ways of visual perception depending on both subjective and objective factors present in the individual who views art. Art history can also be considered cultural history, and this is why it is easy to point out professions that can benefit from utilizing art history. Writers, for one, require a keener sense of the society that people are in. Developing newer ways of perceiving the society and the world would definitely help a writer in looking for relevant stories around him or her that needs to be spread to other people. This can also be the same case for lawyers, teachers, media practitioners, and more. Professions that require observation as part of the job are the ones that would benefit from knowing and understanding more about art and how it works in the society.
In personal perspective, art will always be subjective and relevant. This is why through art history; there can definitely be more ways of seeing and more ways of understanding. This is important in life, in general because through art there are also more ways of living.
On Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat was an artist who wanted to forward a vision of his own; a vision that represented how he viewed the world. His works are seen as something chaotic and attention-grabbing. What is most noticeable is how his works connect to people, no matter who and what background they came from.
He gained notoriety because of his choice in expressing himself; as part of an informal graffiti art collective. Of course, graffiti was not perceived as a formal expression of art, rather it was a transgression to the traditional forms of art being welcomed by the society.
Abstraction and Transgression
Jean-Michel Basquiat anchored his work on abstraction as a form of transgression in art. He focused on dichotomies that were relevant in the society which included poverty and wealth, racial integration and segregation and more. In creating art out of these issues, Basquiat made himself an artist who deliberately forwarded his political stance. This concretized his image as an artist who forwarded social commentary through art.
Basquiat’s was definitely not art for art’s sake; it wa...