Good Essay On Jean-Michel Basquiat And Diego Rivera: Artworks

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an artist who emerged from New York as a street-smart and gritty graffiti artist who grew to become an internationally known artist whose artworks grace the circuits of international art galleries. His rise from a street graffiti artist to one of the world’s most celebrated artists was meteoric. On the other hand, Diego Rivera mastered the art of creating visual images that helped him express his beliefs and ideas. His work focused on defining his life and Mexican culture through his writings and art. Diego’s art served both political and artistic purposes.
During his artistic career, Diego was a dominant figure in Mexican muralism. Specifically, Mexican muralism is a large-scale public art initiative whose origin can be traced to 1920s in the emergence of the Mexican Revolution. Diego utilized his artistic talents to fuel Mexican muralism with passion. Many of his murals are still displayed in Museums and art galleries. Diego’s paintings often depict the struggles of the people across the globe but have a special focus on Mexicans.
Through the incorporation of pre-Columbian imagery into his work, Diego succeeded in creating a cultural and visual identity for the present day Mexico. His art depicts his support for Marxism and socialism. His large murals that appear on the surfaces and walls of public buildings propelled him to fame. Diego’s art focused on Mexican subjects, including the daily life and history or ordinary Mexicans such as farmers and factory workers. Furthermore, it drew upon Mexico’s native traditions. To make his paintings captivating to the eye, Diego used varied textures and colours.
Basquiat’s art depicts the way an early 80s counter-cultural, graffiti-based practice or American Punk could grow to become a fully recognized and artistic phenomenon that is widely celebrated. His art also had an “unstudied appearance,” but Basquiat succeeded in bringing together various practices, traditions, and styles to develop a unique art. All his pieces of art have a message even when some of them have spontaneous compositions.
Basquiat’s art, during his troubled and short life, played a significant role in the rise of the Neo-Expression and Punk Art in the New York art scene. The larger public was more intrigued and captivated by Basquiat’s art; therefore, he became an overnight celebrity. Many people referred to his art as “ethnic gritty” or “nail” but it had important links to expression artists such as Twombly Cy and Dubuffet Jean. When placed in social context, the Basquiat’s work serves as a lens that allows the viewer to perceive the beauty of urban space as well as social injustices lurking within it.
Basquiat’s art tend to be thematic and carry social messages for the public. For example, his paintings delve into various themes such as capitalism, bigotry, mortality, jazz, and drug abuse. Furthermore, socioeconomic and racial inequality themes seem to be pervasive in Basquiat’s art. Various paintings in Basquiat’s illustrious but brief career emphasize textual and visual imagery. On the other hand, Diego Rivera succeeded in creating a visual identity for Mexican culture through his art. His work portrayed Mexico as a colourful, exotic, and cultural country. His style, murals, and subject referenced ordinary Mexicans as extraordinary individuals and heroes. Besides, his art celebrates the diversity and history Mexicans and illustrates the challenges and struggles that confront ordinary people.