An Evening at the Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition

I'm not much of an art aficionado - I don't even know the difference between Manet and Monet. However, my girlfriend has quite an interest in the subject, so I proposed we visit the exhibition while it was in Tokyo. A cursory Google search of Jean-Michel Basquiat showed me that he was related to a lot of the culture in New York before his death, so I had an interest in the exhibition myself. We caught it at the last week or so, with the Roppongi exhibition closing on the seventeenth of November.

The Mori Art Museum is an interesting building. Situated near Roppongi station on the Hibiya line, we walked up the entrance stairs to the box office. These stairs had multi-coloured tracks, presumably used to organize visitors on busier days of business. The day we went was a Wednesday though, so the line was quite minimal and we only waited five minutes to get our tickets. Once we purchased our tickets, we were pointed to an elevator that was operated by staff members.

The elevator went up to the fiftieth floor smoothly and quickly. I felt the pressure in my ears as if I was taking off on a plane, but I didn't feel like I was moving at all. It's a small detail, but one I remember vividly. Once the doors opened, more staff pointed us to the entrance of the actual exhibition.

Before entering, there was a bag check. I couldn't understand anything the Japanese security staff said, but it seemed that they were on the lookout for liquids. They pointed to a bottle of water that was in an outside pocket, and gestured for us to put it inside the backpack.

Past the bag check, yet another suited staff member handed out cellular devices. This was for the audio tour, they explained. Once again, I only had a vague inkling of what they were talking about, but they gestured to a numbered sign with a logo of headphones and a sign that universally meant no photos. My girlfriend clarified to me later that the headphone signs were for the audio tour, and that we input the number on the sign on the device to listen to what it had to say. She also explained that certain pieces had a sign to indicate that they could have their photos taken. These are the benefits of a native Japanese significant other.

We went along the exhibit, taking our time to look at the installations in detail. I didn't know much about Jean-Michel Basquiat, and while the audio tour tried to explain everything about the artist, it was all in Japanese, so I could only understand superficial bits and pieces of what the narrators were saying. However, I had an interest in graffiti art, hip-hop, and the history of New York as a teenager, so I felt I could understand some of what the deceased artist was trying to convey with his art.

I could see with some pieces a heavy emphasis on the segregation of African-American population and the conflict against the New York authorities. I felt that there was a lot of effort put into trying to convey the struggle of early 1980's New York and into trying to promote the African-American culture. There were a lot of spiritual references, and while I don't know what system of beliefs Basquiat subscribed to in his life, I knew there was a strong presence of The Five-Percent Nation during that time, so it seemed like some of his works alluded to their teachings. That said, I could also be looking too deep into his artwork, as some of his work were completely abstract to me.

While all of his artworks were interesting in their own right, I got a great deal of amusement at observing the other visitors that night. There was one heavily-tattooed man dressed in a beret and leather pants walking around with his girlfriend while talking in a very loud voice. I couldn't understand anything he was saying, but he sounded like he was confident in explaining his opinions about the art pieces. There were also a bunch of other younger couples walking around, and they seemed to have the same attitude towards the art: brash confidence in their opinion, and perhaps not a lot of real appreciation.

My girlfriend caught snatches of their conversations, and it made me realize the disconnect between some of the visitors and what they were seeing, which is what led me to believe that they didn't really appreciate what was in front of them. She overheard one of the women asking why everything Basquiat wrote was in capital letters. Her date replied in a matter-of-fact tone that it was just what foreigners do. Still others looked blankly at the paintings, and I watched as two men literally looked at each other, shrugged, then posed to take a selfie with one of the paintings behind them.

On top of that, it seemed that the audio tour sometimes focused on explaining some incredibly superficial things about some of the paintings. My girlfriend briefly translated one of the tracks, saying that they explained the meanings of random English words on the installations. There were some valuable explanations though, such as when they explained Basquiat's collaboration with Andy Warhol, or his inspiration from Louis Armstrong.

I don't blame them for not appreciating the art; Basquiat lived in a different world after all. I can't say I fully appreciate everything in his art either. It was simply interesting for me to observe how people reacted to something completely foreign, whether it was with over-enthusiasm or with dismissive disinterest. Overall though, I enjoyed my experience at the exhibition, and the people added to my enjoyment.

Thanks for reading! This post was made for City Cost first, but will be posted on my personal blog as well, where I write about my experiences in Japan and other countries, as well as mobile game reviews.