A Wilde connection between Oscar, Jean-Michel, Ashton, Autoimmunity and the Jawbone of an Ass
Autoimmunity – where physical and mental conditions uncover parallels all around us
Yet nothing is totally autoimmune – when you change the system boundary, perspective. Something external causes something internal and the same or vice versa with the effect(s). A foreign invader or idea attacks you, your body or mind destroys itself and you require energy in the form of love, guidance or medicine to recover.
Many mental health struggles are autoimmune or present a parallel, relatable theme – we definitely need to examine that concept more, and start with science (SwS), pay much more attention to the science underneath whether a virus or bacteria or the billions of chemicals and reactions in our brains happening each second of every day. From a mental health perspective, the autoimmunity concept is fascinating to me, struck a chord and then I saw something yesterday that further moved me.
Something foreign (an idea or perception) gets past your defenses and for some reason it bounces around your head in a way it shouldn’t, for whatever reason that idea penetrates your shield, becomes engrained in your system and then it takes over like a virus. Eventually destroys you directly or causes your own body and mind to destroy you in the process of fighting something that is long gone or was never real. After that foreign idea or thought is long gone, the damage is done, it has infected your own ideas, become entangled around your core being, you can’t tell what are your thoughts or what is created from this idea or event that left a mental mark on you. Your thoughts and feelings skewed from this past foreign invader, and you further attack yourself because of a misconception, or incorrectly connecting the dots, and a self-perpetuating spiral ensues. This happens with eating disorders, depression, anxiety and many other mental conditions that we don’t think of as autoimmune.
In the case of many mental health disorders, you end up killing yourself over a ghost that you created from an influence or external factors, something mistakenly seen or not seen, or we refuse to admit what we see. But quickly that external thing is internalized and will never leave you. Autoimmune disease happens when the body’s natural defenses can’t tell the difference between your own cells and foreign cells, causing the body to mistakenly attack your own normal cells. In so many mental health illnesses, the mind can’t distinguish between reality and what we create in our heads based off falsities or half-truths, incomplete pictures. Then that idea or thought becomes a target and you attack it, by attacking yourself. In some cases we make minor mistakes off of misconceptions, their impact and stickiness are minimal, others have grave consequences for not just yourself, but so many around you. I guess what can start off as an autoimmune disease, can turn into a dangerous, fast-spreading virus just as self-harm can.
They say self-harm associated with mental health, the direst form of self-harm being suicide. But self-harm is accurate for just the beginning, the autoimmune component, as the harm can not be contained and reaches far beyond self to family, friends, the workplace, everywhere you go. Self-harm has in many cases impacted communities or regions based on the event(s) of a single person, sometimes the impact felt for generations, a pandemic in a way.
For many times we are unable to identify a problem because of how far-reaching it is, or the depths at which it originated, to the extent that we can’t properly identify the real condition or causal factors. We must expand our view of classifying mental health issues and connecting back to the true influences.
I’m not ashamed that I check CNN.com every day, every once and a while something newsworthy pops up, you just have to sift through the junk like panning for gold. Sometimes I find treasures that take me to far off fantastic places. Like yesterday and an article on autoimmunity which serendipitously tied into a few other things I’m researching. Ashton Kutcher’s battle with a rare autoimmune disease that nearly left him blind, def and unable to balance. Wow that sounded bad. And there was not only an article but a video in our multimedia news of the present. Ashton Kutcher, maybe he got Punk’d by some bug, wow has he grown up right in front of my eyes. To see he is recovered from that rare autoimmune disease, I double-clicked in. Heck I’m a biochemical engineer in the pharmaceutical industry and was a fan of his so lets see what its all about, enticing on multiple levels for me. And so I watched a 2 minute video interview with him and his wife Mila Kunis, terrible how he nearly lost his sight and hearing and balance, terrible. But that was 1 or 2 years ago and I have to say, wow he looks pretty good though – a fully recovery it appears (or maybe more Hollywood embellishment to promote a new movie or some needed PR, you never know these days)! Vasculitis, doesn’t sound like a rare disease, heck I’ve got a form of vasculitis in my leg and its hard not to notice the prevalence of vascular disease all around us, so what is this all about I asked?
Sure I wanted to get to the bottom of the issue because of course he didn’t name the rare form of vasculitis he had, just detailed the battle and symptoms, physical and mental and how he has since prevailed. Not only prevailed from the physical perspective but this condition changed Ashton’s perspective and he is much more thankful for certain gifts which were previously taken for granted. So all in all sounded very positive. Through challenges we learn, from pain and suffering comes growth, the phoenix rises and flies farther and stronger.
Then I was thinking about Ashton and then very quickly became fixated on a detail in the background, we will get back to the autoimmune condition but that faded away from my attention.
He’s about my same age, he’s 44 I’m nearly 43 (but not taking that for granted). But wow if anyone looks like they have a disease it’s me and not him – the spoils of fame and fortune, great genes – dang he is no worse for the wear and looking like a leading man for sure, much evolved from the early films and TV acclaim that put him on the map: Dude Where’s My Car (2000) – highly underrated, Punk’d – loved it, That 70s Show, of course that was great. What Happened in Vegas (2008) a classic of unintended consequences and I’m a rom-com guy to the core. Ashton’s not just a funny guy, or Hollywood actor, he is doing big things and has a great heart for charity and advocacy which is also underrated – he is Reaching for the Stars in a number of admirable ways. Apparently, he's a big VC guy now too. His twin Michael did not have such a great heart, he received a transplant, suffers from cerebral palsy cardiomyopathy and has had a very tough road. That left a mark on Ashton from his teen years and in the present. Ashton kept himself so busy as a teen that he distracted himself from the emotions, pain and challenge of his family life. A common tactic that can in certain cases like this lead to great wins and change, even in the midst of pain and suffering. Whether it’s the right strategy or not, that is another question for another day and the word balance comes to mind, but greatness hardly ever originates from balance, the pendulum has to swing violently for breakthrough and eventually balances out.
I did a little research, you know the 3-minute wiki type on Mr. Kutcher. Ashton Kutcher attended the University of Iowa as a biochemical engineering major, hoping to unlock the mystery of his brother’s disease and others. Nice. He partied hard, as we all did, or at least I know I did, and we are both lucky to be here vs. in a ditch. Blessed with a fresh face, luck or a big break and physique that paid his bills he quickly moved from college-town bars and partying to a different zip code and existence – winning a modeling contest that led him to New York and from there, Calvin Klein and Paris and Milan. The rest of the story we know and modeling turned to acting turned him into a shining star. From going to college in 1996 in the Iowa cornfields to being cast in That ‘70s Show in 1998 it was a meteoric rise to say the least. He’s a fiscal conservative and social liberal – a term I am familiar with and aligned with for quite some time, but it’s an impossibility to separate those things and I have since reverted away from the term and hope others do as well. Political bipolarity to make one feel better is the best I can say it is. We do align on one thing which was a great controversy for Kutcher – via Twitter he called the firing of legendary long-time Penn State University Coach Joe Paterno, JoePa ‘in poor taste’ amidst the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse bomb, which provided so much fodder and blowback he relinquished his twitter account to handlers from there forward (his team at Katalyst Media company). I struggle to frame that one up, JoePa was accountable and responsible but it is a shame because he was a great man in many other ways and the scandal literally and figuratively killed him.
Ok, so I digress into the life of Ashton Kutcher and then JoePa, but lets get back to the point or the bones of this story: The Jawbone of an Ass – a Basquiat from 1982, the print (the original is not on paper) in the background caught my eye in his autoimmune disease interview with AccessHollywood which was on CNN.com. That work on Kutcher’s wall (likely 1 of 85 prints made in 2005), what in God’s name does that mean or symbolize for him, is it meaningful or just another Hollywood trophy? Did he even pick it out and does he know anything about the work? Its like Aopkhes – another mystery to solve. The motivation and meaning for Kutcher sure it is a mystery but the message behind Basquiat’s art not at all. The Jawbone of an Ass goes back to Biblical times where Samson the Israelite fought off an army of Philistines wielding a donkey’s jaw as a weapon (strong Samson killed 1000 Philistines the story goes). This Jawbone of an Ass also ties to Oscar Wilde the famous Irish poet/playwright (1854-1900), brother of William Wilde Ireland’s leading ear and eye doctor at the time. I just walked by the Oscar Wilde Centre at Trinity College two weeks ago. I didn’t go in, but I did read up on him, and found a lot of insights. Wilde’s greatest work The Importance of Being Earnest – how to manage double lives and keep a country and a urban persona – that is interesting on so many levels and something he must have struggled with in a way. For Wilde, most difficult I would assume given his outward appearance to be maintained with his wife, two sons and his homosexuality which was not only shunned, but got him thrown in jail for two years. [Perhaps bisexual nature is more accurate which fully aligns with the Earnest theme and the duplicity theme throughout his works even going to the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. I won’t even start on Salome]. He never recovered from imprisonment and died of meningitis or syphilis or from complications of surgery for issues with his inner ear (he suffered from ear infections quite significantly, and those are not fun. Oscar Wilde passed on my birthday, November 30th, 1900 at the age of 46. It was not until 2017 that Wilde was pardoned, as the crimes he was imprisoned for surrounding his homosexuality are no longer considered offenses – known as the Alan Turing Law in Europe.
I didn’t know anything about him, not what a wild and crazy, complex guy Oscar was, but that is also for another day. Shame on you Oscar (tongue in cheek), obviously he nor I didn’t spend much time reading the bible growing up so let’s make up for that now with the story of the Jawbone of an Ass. I still don’t know how Oscar Wilde became part of this but it’s a comical aside and again, somehow everything fits together. Ok here it is: Wilde gave a lecture in the US (Washington DC) and was being berated by the audience and was so irritated he called them Philistines, then out of the back left of the hall, a voice yelled back, “Yes we are Philistines, and now I see why for the past hour you have been assaulting us with the jawbone of an ass.” That was in 1883, 99 years before Basquiat’s painting.
So, the uncultured, anti-intellectual Philistines were beaten back by the bone of an ass or donkey, still there must be more.
Samson of the bible was a big violent and proud man, flowing long hair and looked like the Dothraki Khal Drogo from Game of Thrones. He drank even though that was forbidden for Nazarites, he went on drunken rampages – he was a rebel and a rule-breaker. On one bender he tied up about 300 foxes by the tail and set them on fire in the middle of a field. That can’t be real, whoever wrote the bible is the drunk if you ask me. But because he went on a fox bender and lit everything up in a Philistine field, those Philistines retaliated and burned Samson’s father-in-law and wife (not named Delilah). Sounds like Gladiator or Braveheart to me now, much more serious. From all actions there are consequences Samson, William Wallace, Oscar Wilde.
I’m an ass sure but I know it would take more than a big bone to slay 1000 men – so I looked up more fictional renderings of Samson and while he was the Jason Mimosa or Arnold Schwarzenegger of the Nazarites, he had his glaring weaknesses also. Samson the great, who’s strength was stolen by a rare autoimmune disease (not really, it was a woman Delilah). Once under Delilah’s spell, probably in Delilah’s Den, he was blinded and enslaved by the Philistines until he found that trusty jawbone and God gave him his strength back. Was it poisoning or it really could have been an autoimmune disease like vasculitis that took Samson’s strength away – that’s my theory here as Ashton looks to have regained all of his strength and good looks in this CNN.com interview. Temporary loss of sanity or capability – those things happen all the time, or at least I hope they are temporary. They say Samson was captured by the Philistines after they bribed Delilah to use her irresistible good looks to take all of Samson’s strength in the form of giving him a haircut, but she probably took it all out of him in another way or ways. No bad haircut can be THAT bad. Anyways, Samson was imprisoned and weak until God came along and pumped him up again and he used a jawbone of an ass to kill 1000 men, then meandered back to his little village to continue drinking and rampaging as before. I didn’t read any further, seems like that is the story.
The lessons from the bible in the story of Samson are that you cannot take advantage of your gifts (in this case his strength), and that sins lead to consequences. Don’t act on impulse. And even at our weakest moments God can fill us up. I am not a God-worshipping or believing man, so I would substitute out ‘God’ for ‘those around us’ for I do truly believe we find our energy, purpose, the strength to accomplish, overcome from those around us, in the most powerful ways that we could beat back 1000 borachos or jerks with a single bone.
So that’s the story of Samson and the Jawbone, but lets go back to two other things here of note: 1) Vasculitis and then 2) Jean-Michel Basquiat who I am totally addicted to based on all the articles, movies, exhibits and multi-media noise that external influences have attacked and invaded my mind with. I am thankful for this foreign invader though because he is truly fascinating to me. And it’s a healthy addiction all things considered, like my way of keeping myself busy as Ashton did as a teen so we don’t have to address real things of substance. Like a boxer taking a fight with a lesser opponent in order to avoid defeat, or at least kick the big defeat can down the road. Taking the easy road or way out, ah it can be so falsely good. The Boxer, another great Basquiat wormhole we could go down.
Oh so vasculitis lets start with science SwS – a general term for conditions that cause inflammation in your blood vessels. Also called angiitis or arteritis. Can cause your blood vessels to weaken, stretch, close up or get bigger. Like ice cream, there’s many different flavors of vasculitis: Behcet’s disease, Buerger’s disease, Churg-Strauss syndrome, Cryoglobulinemia, Giant cell arteritis, Granulomatosis with polyangiitis, Henouch-Schonlein purpura, Kawasaki disease, Takayasu’s arteritis. I remember a company I worked for in the 2009-ish timeframe and they were into rare disease therapies and going after Kawasaki disease.
From a quick read and watch of the video interview, if Kutcher truly had something, likely it was Giant cell arteritis – inflammation of your arteries linings that affects predominantly the arteries in your head, especially in your temples. Temporal arteritis causes headaches, scalp tenderness, jaw pain and vision problems. Likely leads to hearing loss or ringing in the ears. Probably hurts like getting hit with the jawbone of an ass. Well, all in all good to see Ashton beat back this disease and thanks for showing me a nugget of Basquiat in the background from which I could riff off of.
So Basquiat, the apple of many eyes right now. I’ve seen many critic reviews or interpretations of his work, but typically they miss the mark. Not unexpected since most art critics know nothing of the reality that was Basquiat’s upbringing, life and journey. For if they had, they probably wouldn’t be art critics, sorry to generalize but you know its true.
Here’s one evaluation of the Jawbone of an Ass, nice superficial sales job at best:
He [Jean-Michel Basquiat] was brought up in a culturally diverse environment, an aspect that saw his life torn apart. The abstract and loosely connected nature of the Jawbone of an Ass screen print is an illustration of his early years. Moreover, the jawbone shown in the screen print is an indication of his fascination with anatomy. When he was seven years old, Basquiat was given a copy of Gray’s Anatomy by his mother. This saw him interested in anatomy, and therefore, the jawbone represented in the artwork is part of his fascination with anatomy.
Ok no way that evaluation is correct, and BTW there is no jawbone in the work, the closest we see is a moose. Hello ass or hello donkey. This art critic used-car salesman did a 2 minute wiki on Basquiat and hurled up a quick explanation.
Here’s another off-the-mark review from myartbroker.com, more SAMO:
The unstructured listing of ancient places, figures and events (including the Punic wars, commonly referred to as “the longest and most severely contested war in history”) many of which met a grisly fate, presents a cyclical vision of history, where conflict and catastrophe is inevitable. Not only is the world of antiquity the locus of this recurrent destruction, but towards the bottom of the list appears references to significant moments of American history including “Louisiana Purchase” and “Emancipation Proc.”
[there were actually 3 Punic Wars, and yes the trilogy was a bloody and long-standing fight between the Roman and Carthage empires]
As Leonard Emmerling notes: “The SAMO project attacked the speciousness of materialist society. Basquiat and Diaz used their made-up religion as a substitute for all the value systems which they felt had falsely represented them, these ideas and systems in truth connoting no more than base economic interests”. Even though Basquiat publicly disavowed SAMO by painting ‘SAMO IS DEAD’ on walls throughout New York in 1980, the same approach to lexical experimentation is visible throughout Basquiat’s oeuvre.
Not even Basquiat’s estate has a clue what is going on here:
The title specifically refers to a Christian passage, where Samson would claim to have slain a thousand men purely with the use of the jawbone of an ass, thanks to the incredible strength that he held. Basquiat was knowledgeable around religious topics and would use them as inspiration for his work from time to time which was relatively unusual for this period of art history, and much more common during earlier art movements such as the Italian and Northern Renaissance. This reflects the softening role of religion within western culture over the past few centuries, but for some it is stil a critical part of their every day lives.
Perhaps Jawbone is more about sin and being a rebel? Or conquests and violence? Or harnessing great power to defeat the masses for good? Could be many things, heck the piece covers the globe and over 3000 years of history. But what is the core message or feeling that led to this piece, that this piece speaks to us or screams to us? I only think Jawbone is there because of Samson, who Basquiat was feeling more and more like every day as his star shone brighter and brighter and his real world got smaller and more challenging.
Ok lets put some real research and more than 2 seconds of thought into this. The painting was completed in 1982, who was Basquiat at that time? For me that is important to understand. His arc was just forming and in 1982 Basquiat was about where Ashton scored the gig of That 70’s Show, just getting his feet under him in terms of ‘making it’ in showbusiness or for JMB in the art world. Sure he went from scrambling to find a roof and couch to crash on, change in his pocket to making hundreds and then thousands of dollars for his work, that had to be uncomfortable and exciting for him. Or was it all part of the plan which he knew would be a destiny fulfilled (he did mention many times as a teen that he would be famous, perhaps he really did know, but I doubt that). 1982, this was very early on the rise, recall that Basquiat had only 4 or 5 art shows by this time and in 1979-1980 he was still finding himself and playing in the band Gray, spray painting SAMO with Al Diaz on the streets. Basquiat was 21 or 22 at the time, and while he was hardened from a few years of navigating the streets on his own, he was now thrust into a different, complex world and game. Heck Basquiat’s first ever sold painting was in 1981 (for $200 to Debbie Harry of the punk band Blondie) and it wasn’t until late 1981 that Basquiat had a real studio to produce from (thanks to Annina Nosei). He was getting noticed, interviewed, verbally frisked by many people in the art scene that probably seemed like aliens to him. Up until this time Basquiat was a gypsy for the last 4 to 5 years, free-spirit couching it in a few random apartments and being supported nice young ladies who he was having a good time with. Turning tricks in a different way than he had in Condado as a young teen. Basquiat’s first one-man show was in late 1981 (Modena, Italy), his first one. Not until March 1982 was his first one-man show in the US (Annina Nosei gallery in NYC). Still early in the rising action although the ride didn’t last near long enough, but that’s the fault of those around him, not JMBs. There’s many who have to live with that regret, not him obviously.
In March 1982 Basquiat traveled to Italy before moving to LA for a stretch and living with art big-timer Larry Gagosian, having a west coast studio to produce from. And the Modena, Italy trip didn’t go so well, to the point that he cancelled the show feeling exploited – vulnerability. But things continued onwards and upwards as by June 1982 Basquiat was tied to Bruno Bischofberger (think art world super agent) and was in Germany by June taking part in the big-time of art shows in Kassel. Not just take part, but take over as the youngest ever to show there in Germany. In September 1982 Basquiat was in Zurich and in October 1982 he met Andy Warhol. 1982 was the year of liftoff for Basquiat. Soon he was drinking fine wine, dating Madonna (pre-fame, but he knew she would be big too) and ramping up his drug use, living the Hollywood life in 1983. He got so mixed-up in Cali that he produced a hip-hop single – that’s when you know things are going south and gravity has exited, when rappers want to be athletes, when musicians want to play ball, when artists want to be rappers – its proven, stay in your lane. So Basquiat was opening his eyes wider and had access to a new vision of the world and its booby traps, vices and spoils. Sometimes the booby traps and vices couldn’t be distinguished from the spoils or acted as both. Things were far too many and moving far too fast, so he hid, internalized, looked everywhere for escapes and ways to alleviate the pressure building up, all with that great smile and charisma, intelligence that hid everything so well. This is where he also morphed from calculated incoherence to full incoherence from which he would never recover. I have more work to do on this interpretation and that will come in a future study, there is so much here when you evaluate the figures he includes and many parallels to his life and the world and times surrounding Basquiat in 1982. Diving deeply into Alexander the Great, you see a tragic loss of mental capacity by Alexander after the death of his closest confidant Hephaestion (his Warhol), with Alexander soon dying some nine months later. Spartacus the gladiator who fought for the oppressed, Caesar who was worshipped by the middle class and assassinated by the elite.
Somewhere the Aopkhes will be explained.
Early themes of Basquiat’s work, uncomfortably breaking into the art scene with much resistance as a young black man from the streets, included police brutality and race violence, colonialism, slavery and social and economic strife. He also was a history buff, he also had influence from the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, the streets, the aspiration to produce something unique and special. He had a disorganized depth and maniacal work ethic, some organic and some chemically-assisted (PEDs for art in a way – heroin, cocaine, booze; never food, water, sleep). Basquiat struggled with his own vulnerability as a young black man, feeling the struggle of his race and the direct examples of being discredited, marginalized or questioned, maligned, discriminated, ignored completely. He faced the oppression, the bigotry and abuse which fueled his work firsthand, and was conflicted in countless interactions within the art community. He must have felt completely dirty like turning tricks again, ashamed but willing to play, and at the time of 1982-1984 this fueled his fire and heightened his vulnerability and anxiety. To the point of no return just a few years later in a final stroke, just as he had planned, well not planned, just as he had deciphered for his life - based on the struggle and weight, lessons of many others before his time – Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, etc. – all only lasted three acts of 9, to the age of 27.
Imagine a stark white Dalmatian with only a single black spot. That spot must feel like an isolated Martian.
1982 is unquestionably the peak year of Basquiat from a purely artistic standpoint – still truly himself, the autoimmune disease of fame, pressure, vulnerability had not infiltrated his skull at this point. Just getting into the game “I had some money; I made the best paintings ever” he said so himself. He was happier with nothing, makes me think of Untitled #4 here by the Avett Brothers? And it wasn’t just what he said, its how he said it, longing for that pure time, that first love that he would never see again. Life was so good and simple, just like young love, and now its adulthood and so complicated. Another song for me – Backwards with Time comes to mind, also from the Avett Brothers. Everything is a song of theirs in my mind.
Untitled #4 Lyrics (from The Third Gleam 2020):
'Cause I'm happy being me the most When I let what makes me happy go And I finally learned what I need to know I am happier with nothing I am happier with nothing I am happier with nothing
I don't need you to come back to me I don't need another memory I don't need to make the world see that I'm not crazy
I don't need to join in their games I don't need to fight to stake my claim I don't need the world to know my name It never mattered if they did
From the Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNoJNb-PqiU
Backwards With Time Lyrics (from The Gleam 2006):
Am I losing my mind? Am I growing backwards with time?
Some say with age that a purpose comes clear I see the opposite happening here Are we losing the fight? Are we growing backwards with time?
I was young and love was fun Now it's so serious Now all the fun has equal pain There's something wrong with this For all I know there's more I don't Oh the little I have learned For every year of knowledge gained Is a negative year I've earned
From Red Rocks in Co: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHgZu33Y49c
You can feel the desire to go back to a simpler time in Untitled #4 for the Avett Brothers, at this time 20 years into their careers and they have ‘made it’ and now operate in a complex environment of stardom. They were so prophetic in 2006 with Backwards with Time. Just as Jean-Michel was, knowing he was going to die young and then truly become famous. He was in quicksand, ended up there too quickly and once there, he despised it and wanted nothing more than to run away from it. Perhaps we are all growing backwards with time if we are not careful, deliberate and attentive. I know I was. And we can’t escape quicksand alone.
Going back to Jawbone of an Ass – the piece has pretty much nothing to do with Samson and that battle, or maybe everything – we will never know for sure. He just happened to place that at the top of the work, or was it deliberate as could be. I have much more work to figure that one out.
The crown – another meaning in Basquiat’s work – he wanted his father to place the crown on him, accept him. That would never happen, so instead he crowned those he admired, never to feel that from his father Gerard. For just like Alexander the Great’s father, there was a competition to please that drove them both. And just like Alexander the Great’s mother Olympia, Jean-Michel’s mother Matilda planted the idea of destiny as an artist in his head from a very young age. For both Alexander and Jean-Michel, their fathers Philip and Geraard, respectively, were never satisfied with them, they wanted the best for their princes but didn’t know how to realize that. In Gerard’s case, he beat and berated Jean-Michel, wanted the best for him but didn’t know how to positively influence, his anger and frustration got the best of him. Then Gerard kicked Jean-Michel out on the street at the age of 16 or 17. Abandoned him, took him out with the trash. Some say Basquiat ran away but that originated from his father and homelife, it is not significant to say he was thrown out or ran away, they are the same endpoint realized from the same pain. And he would never stop running. His relationship with Gerard and the industry, I believe is apparent in Pez Dispenser (1984). The T-rex (Gerard, The Industry) he crowns, as a sign of surrender,. T-rex’s arms out to punch and fight, teeth sharp blood-red eyes and mouth. This is not a Pez Dispenser, he saw an endless hate dispenser.
Before late 1982 Jean-Michel’s head was more clear. A shift begins with the work Jackson, shortly after meeting his idol Warhol, temperature rising. As he began jet-setting, his price going up, his time and energy being sucked away more vigorously by more straws, his sanity, life and talent sold off bit by bit. Pressures and pulls growing uncontrollably with his addictions and need for escape in the form of drugs, the words between his ears more constant, loud, unrelenting and overwhelming, ringing like tinnitus unable to be silenced. The spiral ensued for Basquiat, and there was no way out or back from the depths. His concurrent rise and fall are a true tragedy, another. And he would not escape it for 6 years until 1988. Kevin Bray said he didn’t want to sit there and watch Basquiat die on August 12, 1988. So he left Basquiat alone, and he just like everyone else, whether they wanted to or not, watched Basquiat die. Horrifically, some desired Basquiat’s spiral and death, for they knew the legend would grow with the value of his work. So they enabled the tragedy for personal gain, I don’t know how to classify that but would certainly use the Jawbone of an Ass to show them my king displeasure.
You also see in late 1982 his first direct reference to Egypt (although his study of, fascination with, and style derived from Egypt started much earlier – he was drawn by the Pharaohs and Egyptian dynasties, more imperialism, more enslavement, the rise and fall of greats, more of everything, more of more). His works beyond 1982, I see a change. They show more, a clutter and uneasiness that was not present in his earlier works. Pressure. And the progression of his work or better said deterioration and confusion, aligns with his life in general. He was on top outwardly but struggling so much internally, he could not exist as in The Importance of Being Ernest. You have to be very attentive and know the feelings to truly see and understand them in my opinion. He painted ghosts, he painted his desires and struggles and destiny. “If you can’t figure it out, its your problem” he said. A sage.
Basquiat is Samson, troubled and angered, longing to beat back the Philistine art world. Poisoned by himself, poisoned by others. An autoimmune condition that would never stop attacking. His art was all about pain & beauty in low places, because that’s where his mind lived and longed, where attackers pushed him, where he put himself.
Who knows what to make of it all. But it is a fun ride.