Cultural Differences and Similarities of Jorg Immendorff and Jean-Michel Basquiat - Essay Example

What does the work of these two artists tell us about the culture and society within which they are working? Jorg Immendorff - Café Deutschland (1984) Illus. 1 Jean-Michel Basquiat - Untitled Skull (1984) Illus. 2 According to Sandler (1996), one of the ways in which Immendorff reflected his culture is that he was confronting Germany post WWII. He was obsessed with the divided nation, his bold, but somber imagery filled with jagged edges and memorials to what was lost. In the upper right hand corner of his Café Deutschland, the image of a Nazi uniformed man sits as if in a dream, watching over the chaos of his creation. According to Bernstein (2004), “Immendorff paints pictures with strong narrative elements crammed with symbols and human figures”(174). The work he produced reflected his feelings of frustration over the way in which his nation was torn between ideologies and literally divided by the Berlin Wall. His focus is culturally relevant, as the Berlin Wall would come down in 1989. Jean-Michel Basquiat was an Haitian-American artist who created work that incited new ideas within the art world of the 1980’s. Before his entrance into the art community, pop art had been the dominating form of expressions where artist had begun creating art that sometimes more a response to economic demand than to a sense of artistic expression. Although, “an important turning point came with Basquiat’s first contact with Andy Warhol”(Emmerling 2006; 14). His work was influenced by the culture of the pop artists, but the raw and naïve work that included graffiti and bold expressions of simple ideas reflected the expressive nature of the period. The work he produced reflected a culture that was frivolous on the surface, but more complex and with a seedy underbelly as exampled in the drug abuse that would take his life. The dark images of death that were seen beneath the bold and expressive painterly strokes created significant work within a new framework. For many critics, Postmodern art of the kind discussed here signifies a relapse into an obsolete past. Others celebrate it as a release from the strictures of Modernist painting. Which opinion do you hold? I do not agree with those who believe that Postmodern art is a relapse into an obsolete past. The way in which the Modernists viewed art was with a sense of elitism that required abstraction and then a lack of any form of representation in order for work to be considered art. Art became less about skill and more about a sense of formulated theory. This is not to say that artists had no skill, but it is to say that the way in which artists were expected to approach art excluded a great deal of talent from inclusion in this era. When the Postmodernists began to experiment with new ideas and forms, the elitist attitude was shunned and culturally relevant work began reflecting the mundane. Art regained its sense of humor, or rather, perhaps found it for the first time. While much of this began from the Modernists, a transition into the Postmodern era of art created a freedom from the tenets that created a code for the Modernists. The definition of art became more flexible as it began to reflect a culture that was becoming more material and consumerist. Roy Lichtenstein - Whaam (1963) Illus. 3 Within Postmodernism, the viewer is acknowledged to be an active participant in an explicit dialogue between the artist, the artwork, oneself, and ones cultural context. How does a concern about the way in which an artwork is received affect the practice of these two artists? For Basquiat, acceptance was a desirable position. While his work appears to reflect only his own desires, his involvement with Andy Warhol and the Factory reflects a need he had for acceptance into that world. Although, it is questionable whether Warhol or Basquiat received the better experience in having the other as their friend. While Basquiat sought acceptance into the art world through his associations with artists, he denied the value of the art collectors. A story that Warhol told showed Basquiat’s lack of interest or respect for those who would buy his work. “He told me a story about how he wanted to buy a pack of cigarettes so he did a drawing and sold it for $.75 and then a week later his gallery called and said they had this drawing of his there and should they buy it for $1000. Jean Michel thought it was funny”(Negrón-Muntaner 2004; 123). While he denied the importance of the financial end of his work, he did have ‘his gallery’ where he sold his work and did participate in actively showing his work, so a dichotomy is present where the consumerism that is involved in art must exist in order for an artist to become known, while the elitism of the art world promotes the idea that contempt should exist for the non-artists who purchase the work. It is a conflict to suggest that an artist whose work becomes famous during his or her lifetime has no interest in the way in which the viewer receives the work. Yet, so many make public statements that suggest that the viewer is immaterial to the intent of the art. Immendorff was more interested in the world outside of himself than was Basquiatt. He participated in politics, made clear his opinions on culturally relevant topics, and used his work to make specific commentary on the climate around him. In an interview that can be found in Stiles (1996), he states that “Several known pictorial signs create a first “skin contact” with the viewer. The second step, which opens an encounter, goes below the skin. That which goes under the skin is the sum of the painting: composition, technique and brushwork, colors, etc.” (256). Immendorff goes on to say that his work comes from within, but then shifts to the needs of the viewer. He speaks of not being in isolation when he creates, but in an understanding of the connectivity he has with the climate and culture of his time. How can we judge the work of these two artists? Can we now accept that art is to be judged by criteria that reside outside the formal stuff of the canvas and the materials? An acceptance of the larger grace that is the topic of art is the essence of the movements that began with Modern art period. As artists were released from the concept that they were to use technique in order to be representational and as the confines of religious topics were broken so that expressions of culture and emotional content could leave the realm of the religious for the secular, art became a reflective medium for culture over a skill and talent for light and shadow. In dissecting the meaning of the artistic experience, freedom from the restraint and covert nature of expression that had long held sway over artists allowed for the internal world to become more important than the external world. Basquiat was an artist who did work that want against the social order, but his defiance was intertwined with the demons of his own spirit. The work he did had a quality that was not highly evolved in technique, but in content and contextual meaning. The materials he chose were not the point of his work, but the emotional content and expression was the central focus. Immendorff did work that had more technique involved, but the central focus of his work was the running commentary on his experience within his social framework. He used the materials and tools that he had available to him to vent his frustration and express the way in which he saw the chaos of the world. References Behr, Shulamith, David Fanning, and Douglas Jarman. 1993. Expressionism reassessed. Manchester [England]: Manchester University Press. Bernstein, Eckhard. 2004. Culture and customs of Germany. Culture and customs of Europe. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. Emmerling, Leonhard. 2006. Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1960-1988. Köln: Taschen. Negrón-Muntaner, Frances. 2004. Boricua pop: Puerto Ricans and the latinization of American culture. Sexual cultures. New York: New York University Press. Sandler, Irving. 1996. Art of the postmodern era: from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. New York: Icon Editions. Stiles, Kristine, and Peter Howard Selz. 1996. Theories and documents of contemporary art: a sourcebook of artists writings. California studies in the history of art, 35. Berkeley: University of California Press. List of Illustrations Illus. 1 Jorg Immendorff. Café Deutschland. (1984). Available at http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/File:Jorg-Immendorff-Cafe-Deutschland.jpg Illus. 2 Jean-Michel Basquiat. Untitled Skull. (1984). Available at http://en.wikiped ia.org/wiki/File:Untitled_acrylic_and_mixed_media_on_canvas_by_--Jean- Michel_Basquiat--,_1984.jpg Illus. 3 Roy Lichtenstein. Whaam. (1963). Available at http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/File:Roy_Lichtenstein_Whaam.jpg Read More