Q:I just read your article on Basquiat's aesthetic and its influence on this generation. Though well written I find some fundamental flaws in your line of thinking. I'll argue that there is nothing truly novel about Basquiat's aesthetic to a non-western audience. You are aware that within Western society there is a very myopic , stiffling view of "blackness". This is a bitter legacy of a cruel era. Not sure where you're from but in that piece you take an outsider's view of "black" culture.

Anonymous

At first I was confused by what you meant when you said I took an outsider’s view to black culture. But I see where you’re coming from now, I think. Yes, the article is not necessarily pro-black in it’s approach. Basquiat is my favorite artist, and I am a self-described afrocentric, but I tried to approach the piece as one based upon observation of a cultural phenomena and a resulting commentary.

I agree that Basquiat’s aesthetic is not necessarily novel to a non-western audience. But you seem to make that statement with a dualist worldview - the “western audience” and the “non-western audience”. Countless cultures that are not western would still perceive Basquiat’s aesthetic as novel.

My article was written within the context of the western world and it’s tradition, it’s the world that Basquiat, myself, and most of my readers exist within.

I’m Nigerian by birth. But I moved to Bahamas at 3 and America at 8, so I’ve lived among and interacted with three, distinct black cultures. Hence, I don’t really see myself as distinctly Nigerian, Bahamian, or African-American.

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