Word: hoban
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...Phoebe Hoban...
...think you have heard the last of the mid-nineties Jean-Michel Basquiat craze that Julian Schnabel started with his film Basquiat, you are wrong. Or at least, Phoebe Hoban, author of the most recent sensationalist Basquiat biography, hopes you are. Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art retraces the steps of Basquiat's quick rise to fame in the midst of the hyper-consuming New York art world of the 1980s. After chalking up Basquiat's success to the happenstance of being in the right trendy scene at the right time and the prevalence of the art world's "reverse...
...back of the jacket cover boasts a quote from Chuck Close, the well known contemporary painter: "Hoban's book is not just the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat but an insightful and devastating portrait of the 1980s art world, its movers and shakers, as well as Basquiat's manipulators, hangers-on, and a precious few genuine friends." Perhaps if this book had been "just the story of Jean-Michel Basquiat" it would have been a more successful biography. This quote, like the biography itself, implies that "Basquiat's manipulators," et al. are, for some reason, more significant or compelling than...
...unclear who these few genuine friends are that Close speaks of. The biography is riddled with quotes from people who claim to have been Basquiat's friends, yet speak of him as some sort of exotic wild child. Hoban slips into this mode, as well. It seems as if Basquiat's hair (he had dreds during his most famous years) or penis size (puportedly large) is mentioned every other page. While Hoban recognizes the racism evident in a few specific encounters, she never gives any sort of profound analysis of the racism that structured Basquiat's most significant relationships, both...
Even through Hoban's bizarre, vulgar-Freudian analysis of Basquiat's artistic ambition as a misplaced search for his father's approval, the meaning of Wright's quote is clear. The danger that Wright refers to is not the danger that Hoban depicts through stories of Basquiat's drug-induced tantrums and unprofessionalism. The danger that Wright speaks of is embodied more in Basquiat's work than in his own damaged body. Hoban lacks the critical eye or artistic sophistication necessary to do any close reading of Basquiat's work. Often, when the opportunity presents itself, because a piece...