MAN MADE, two-lined, Photo: Thomas Ruff

SAMO© and I met in October 1979 in NYC. He was 18, a musician, not the painter, he later become. When I went back to Berlin, he wrote in my suitcase: SAMO© ESTA EN ALGO, SAMO© on to something, which is an enigma, and allows formation of words in three other languages. I crossed out words so people would pay attention, he said. The line through the letters ASNG, what sense does it make? From ASNG you can make SANG french for blood, GANS, german für goose and SANG for sang. With blood and red ink he drew a riddle in 1981, in which the word WALA is written. WALA appears in the diptych SAMO© ESTA EN ALGO as TO AND FROM WALA. WALA? Two Aboriginal deities in northern Arnhem Land, Australia. One female and one male. It sounds cryptic, in return it has a simple and brilliant logic. His paintings where deliberate Enigmas, Prof. Robert F. Thompson, Yale,  in “A Radiant Child”, by Tamra Davis, on youtube, at 1:28:00 min. 

Spanish words in the trunk of a German Sax-Player?” If we want to speculate on what might Constitute some female forces in Basquiat’s work, it would be the continious chatter en espanol, Dr. Kellie Jones,  “Lost in Translation”: Jean-Michel in the [Re] Mix, Catalogue, New York, Brooklyn Museum, of 2005.                                                              The MAN MADE blurring with spit? The Yoruba believe spit contains Ashe, God`s power to create action, writes Dr. Hazzard-Donald, Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University. “He believed in the magic of the moment, in a cosmic synergy, the use of matched mind and

September 1979

was able to make it visible. He was a magician, not as a hoax: He followed his supernatural instincts. The Loa, the voodoo gods, were known from Haiti and from Charlie Parker’s music, and he knew that the African gods had adapted to modern times. He believes in talismans and sympathetic magic. Glenn O`Brien, Catalog Beyeler Foundation, Hatje Cantz, 2010.  That he spreads water in the MoMA, as a magic ritual and not want to speak about it, you can hear in this Swiss-Tv doc at about 17:00 min. Also fine: Glenn O`Brien`s “The show must go on”.