Chris Simonite's Cubo-Weirdism Blog! A Blog about Chris Simonite's Art by Chris Simonite. Who the Hell else?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the fact that there are not really any celebrity artists anymore. Of course there are celebrities that are regularly referred to as artists–I'm looking at you pop music world. And side note, I've actually met visual artists who resent that use of the term for people who are not part of the contemporary art world. But to them I say: "get over it!" Art is everywhere. But anyway, as I said in that blog post, I can't think of a single living contemporary artist (or fine artist if you prefer) that is a bona fide household name.

But someone did point out to me that Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso are not the most recent artists who fit that description. That honour falls to Andy Warhol. Duh! How did I forget Warhol? Well, my excuse is that I write these blog posts in the morning and mornings are not my best brain-time. Anyway, this post is not about Warhol (although I did do a painting of him, which I'll post to social media on Thursday). This post is about an artist who was a friend and collaborator of Warhol's: one Jean-Michel Basquiat. 

Now in the case of Basquiat, I would suggest that he is another bona fide celebrity, although I'm not sure he's quite at the level of household name. Is he a household name? Tell me what you think in the comments. The reason I'm not sure is, he is another artist I had never heard of before I went to art school. I'm kind of ashamed to admit that, and I probably shouldn't be so honest. But I have written before that before I went to art school, I considered myself to be a hack cartoonist and had never been particularly interested in contemporary art or even fine art of the past. Art school opened up a whole new world to me, and I definitely felt like I had missed out.

In fact these days I like nothing better than to spend a day visiting galleries and museums. I even plan trips to places like Italy around this activity. Or at least I did before Covid. In those days if my wife and I visited her family in Southern Ontario, I would make a point of getting to Toronto to see some art! Including the time I saw the giant Basquiat retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario (see what I did there?). And that show was packed! If he is still not a household name, he has a lot of fans, of that there is no question.

Now as I say, I can't think of a living artist who is a celebrity, but if Basquiat had survived he would have only been 61 at the time of this writing. So he could have fit that bill. But as it is he is immensely popular. In fact, I recently read that there is a new biopic (and of course there is one from '96) and a limited TV series based on his life. So he is just about to become even more famous.

Basquiat, 11" x 14", oil on canvas, 2022.

Of course, as you can guess I did a painting of him recently. This one is based on the most iconic photo taken of Basquiat during his short life. But one thing I don't want is for any major museums to buy this painting and add it to their collections. Which is definitely a thing that could happen. Yeah, sure it could. Major museums read this blog! No? Okay, I know it's never gonna happen anyway, but I mention it because the late-great Jean-Michel Basquiat is, as I understand it, not in the collection of any major museums. And that is a travesty. So MOMA, Tate Modern and all you other major galleries: you can't have this painting until you purchase some Basquiats! And then you can have mine. For a million bucks. That's my price! But if you're a private citizen, I'll sell it to you for substantially less. DM me if you're interested! See you next week!