Basquiat at the AGO

Oona and I took in the Basquiat exhibit at the AGO this weekend. We even managed to maintain normal, art-going behaviour for a few minutes, before all the this-is-boring's and why-are-we-doing-what-you-want-to-do?'s set in.

To be honest, it was a bit boring. Or at least underwhelming. I kept looking at the dates, reminding myself why this stuff would have been so hot with the New York art market.

And I do get it –– the time and the place and the historical significance. And all that. Plus the kid had a good story.

Still, for me, his iconography is better than his painting. "They look like skeletons playing basketball," Oona said of Basquiat's paintings, but his eye for symbolism, for the bewitching graphic element, is bang on. And in that way he's the first graphic artist superstar.

Anyway –– Oona got some chocolate milk and cantaloupe out of it, in the end, so we made out okay.

Other Oona/Toronto stuff here (password is still "goofballs").

Also: helium.

Comments

the indisputable weight of the ocean

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Oona Balloona (doesn't care about new tables)

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glamour, by extension

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red-handed

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