INTERVIEW MAGAZINE

Found this discussion between, Jean-Michel Basquiat and famed Metropolitan curator Henry Geldzahler. Read more HERE! or regret!!

HG: Did you have any idea about breaking into the art world?

JMB: No.

HG: Do you feel a hectic need to get a lot of work done?

JMB: No. I just don't know what else to do with myself.

HG: I heard you've been spreading a rumor that you wanted to have a boxing match with Julian Schnabel.

JMB: This was before I'd ever met him. And one day he came into Annina's gallery. And I asked him if he wanted to spar.

HG: He's pretty strong.

JMB: Oh yeah, I thought so. But I figured even if I lost, I couldn't look bad.

HG: Whose paintings do you like?

JMB: The more I paint the more I like everything.

HG: Are you drawing on good paper now or do you not care about that?

JMB: For a while I was drawing on good paper, but now I've gone back to the bad stuff. I put matte medium on it. If you put matte medium on it, it seals it up, so it doesn't really matter.

HG: Do you find your personal life, your relationships with various women get into the work?

JMB: Occasionally, when I get mad at a woman, I'll do some great, awful painting about her...

HG: Who's harder to get along with, girlfriends or dealers?

JMB: They're about the same, actually.

HG: Is there anger in your work now?

JMB: It's about 80% anger.

HG: But there's also humor.

JMB: People laugh when you fall on your ass. What's humor?