Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks

This lavish volume, the companion catalogue to a traveling exhibit, reproduces key pages from Basquiat’s notebooks, interspersed with a series of informative essays about how the artist used the written word as a core part of his work. In his short life and career, Basquiat produced a tremendous amount of work, but until now his notebooks have not been made publicly available. To introduce them to the world, historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. provides a superb overview of Basquiat’s career and legacy. A sharp essay by artist Christopher Stackhouse looks at Basquiat’s language and poetics, and Franklin Sirmans, curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, examines the various themes and subjects that appear throughout the notebooks. On each page of the notebooks, the artist reveals himself as someone caught up in the vivacity of living and working and thinking. Basquiat practically jumps off the page. “THEY’LL SEE MY PAPERS WEARING AWAY IN MY FACE,” he writes at one point. He makes nods to his friends, writes epic poems, and even coins words (“LEAPSICKNESS”). There are some sketches in the notebooks, but it’s clear that they are something beyond sketchbooks or diaries. With vibrant visuals and Basquiat’s imaginative text, this book reinvigorates the interest for one of the truly great American artists. 280 illus. (Apr.)