„Mister Basquiat– the real one“, a travellogue 2019 in Düsseldorf`s artist associaton MALKASTEN, founded 1848, narrating why SAMO© left himself in my suitcase with ESTA EN ALGO, when I went back to study in Berlin 1979. The performance and exibition was a testimony to the prejudices of the so called sophisticated media. And the success of art dealers‘ „keep it simple and stupid“ art marketing: wild, naive, primitive and so on. However, the daily newspaper with the highest circulation BILD reported, „According to Gössling, the greatest value of the suitcase is that the signature allows for a deeper understanding of the African-American artist’s work“.
2011 the Frankfurter Allgemeine published with „It’s not a suitcase, it just looks like one“ a rather clichéd report. VOGUE spared itself the inanities. SAMO© and my suitcase 1979, dyptic 1981. Photo of the young poet and musican who only started painting on canvas a year later ©Gerard Pas. Jean running Dec 1980 ©Bobby Grossman, suitcase 2010 ©Thomas Ruff.
Thirty years after his death, I rediscovered the suitcase in which he wrote so that he would always be with me. Spanish– I don’t know that language. The two-line MAN MADE he smudged with his salvia, drew lines, smudged the dots and connected them with his saliva in a zigzag pattern. It`s an enigma, a love and protection spell for both of us.
„Basquiat´s mother tongue“, Dr Kellie Jones essay „Lost in Translation“ Retrospective, Catalogue Brooklyn Museum 2005.
His camouflage recipe
Stanley Moss published „The New Wave Cook Book“ with recipes from the NYC scene in 1980. Michael Holman, Amos Poe, Anita Sarko a.o… Each contributor received 5$. For SAMO©s cryptic contribution food had not to be bought. Mixing well in the only way that offers sense: upside down. STAGNANCY: his surface that confirms clichés: wild, chaotic, primitive– his camouflage. He can only become a catalyst when his hidden narratives are known. Why Stan cut the „I“? The J is transformed into a 5 which and is superimposed with a vertical line is subtly reminiscent of 5 $, I assume.
Stan`s card in my diary and the one he made for me. In 1980 Jean performed a poem at the Mud Club: „Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, Men have named you a second-class citizen tea-stained and brown with missing pages if shown the motor each man would use two hundred pounds of effort denied the logic of „a primitive cartoon„. The poem is one of many evidences that show, he has been neglected by art historical research.
„Soundtracks“ the title of an exibition in Paris, which was in Montreal before titled „Seeing Loud“. It should be called „Seing silent“, I informed the responsible curator and museum directors. A very fine, differentiated view, knowledge and uncorrupt research are essential to be able to read his hidden narrations and to convey his causal connections.
the original „Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa“
was sung by Nat King Cole. He altered the lyrics to suit his purposes. A music curator, an expert on jazz, should have been able to recognise that, I assume. Like the Hits in one of his masterpieces „Da Vinci greatest Hits“. But first you have to know which Hits are meant. Dr Susanne Reichling already conveyed this in her dissertation in 1999, which remained unknown. Responsible, the curator of the two current Paris exhibitions.
Sun Ra, an American jazz composer, bandleader and poet known for his experimental music and „cosmic“ philosophy, who lived in NYC Lower East side: „a catalyst changes everything what remains unchanged“. Jean and Sun Ra with Nubian Pointed Pyramids. The Greeks called the land on the Nile „Kemet“ the black land, people with distinctly dark pigmentation lived there. Egyptians as non-Africans were an invention of science according to Dr Cheikh Anta Diop. For more information, please contact the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar. Or visit the ongoing exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum NYC, which wrote „it pays homage to Diop by presenting masterpieces from the Museum’s collections from west and central Africa alongside art from ancient Egypt for the first time in The Met’s history“.
Adolf H., the Austrian placed himself above the divine law, the 10 Commandments, so Jean places him above a tent that also has the shape of a pointed pyramid. One of his substitute for divine justice is the Ark of the Covenant, which was hold in a tent. The burning house appears later in his work, it is a Swiss house informs the title. How SAMO© got into my suitcase? To be discovered through the Karin Luner Tribute. Photo ©Fernando Natalic.
