Crafting a Canon of Color

By Zindzi Harley, Cohort ’24

During their Summer residency at Spannocchia, first-year students had the privilege of engaging with Dr. Jordana Moore Saggese, a preeminent Basquiat scholar and Director of the David C. Driskell Center. Dr. Saggese's lecture, "Fault Lines: Jean-Michel Basquiat and the History of American Art," explored Basquiat's radical approach to art. She framed it as a critical window into understanding appropriation, Black artists’ interactions with the American art canon, and the boundaries between high and low art. 

Dr. Saggese opened by contextualizing Basquiat’s role as a cultural provocateur, emphasizing appropriation as both a creative technology and a subversive tool. She argued that Basquiat’s art often subverts expectations through appropriation, redefining notions of authenticity and originality. She said this becomes apparent in Basquiat’s use of a Xerox machine to replicate and manipulate his own imagery — a legacy that challenges the notion of a single, authentic masterpiece. By repeating his image, Basquiat created new layers of meaning and visibility, aligning with broader traditions in African American art where copying is imbued with creative potential.

Highlighting appropriation’s complexity, Dr. Saggese traced its roots to movements like the Pictures Generation, whose artists include Jack Goldstein. Goldstein (1945–2003) was a Canadian-born American conceptual artist known for his pioneering work in appropriation art, particularly his vivid, cinematic paintings, sound recordings, and films that explored themes of spectacle, technology, and mass culture and explored appropriation in their works. For Basquiat, however, appropriation was a conceptual exercise and an act of improvisation akin to jazz. Dr. Saggese’s comparison of Basquiat’s artistic process to jazz improvisation was particularly illuminating — an art form where rhythm, spontaneity, and call-and-response are essential components. This perspective invites a more profound recognition of Basquiat’s improvisational genius and his engagement with music as both a subject and structural model in his practice. 

The artistic analysis extended to Basquiat’s iconography, drawing attention to his recurring motifs from anatomy, hands, art museum catalogs, comic books, and music. She illuminated how Basquiat synthesized these seemingly disparate elements into what she termed “sound sculptures” and “sound collages” — visual expressions that mimic the layered textures of music. Her discussion of the beatbox 4x4 rhythm as a structuring metaphor for Basquiat’s visual compositions enriched our understanding of his ability to blend the personal and historical, improvisational and structural, in powerful ways. Her exploration of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work also illuminated the deeply personal dimensions that inform his art, making her scholarship as emotionally resonant as it is intellectually compelling.

Through her examination of Basquiat’s recurring motifs (hands, anatomical drawings, art history references, comic book iconography, and music). Dr Saggese revealed the complex web of influences that shaped his artistic vision. Basquiat’s fascination with art history was not merely an intellectual pursuit but an act of reclamation. He situated himself within a lineage of masters while simultaneously highlighting the narrative of the outcast artist, a position he understood all too intimately. This duality (of mastery and marginalization, visibility and obscurity) infused his work with tension, brilliance, and vulnerability. Dr. Saggese emphasized how Basquiat’s ability to produce an utterly original style that honored artistic traditions and shattered established norms unearthed a new visual culture. His work speaks to the plight of those marginalized by society, transforming personal and collective struggles into powerful visual language. Basquiat’s art defied technical standards imposed by dominant artistic institutions, challenging the viewer to recognize beauty, genius, and defiance in unexpected forms. Dr. Saggese’s nuanced insights into Basquiat’s motivations and technical achievements offered a reminder of the artist’s humanity—a humanity marked by both deep respect for artistic heritage and an irrepressible drive to redefine it on his own terms. This understanding added profound layers to our appreciation of Basquiat’s legacy, positioning him as a bridge between tradition and transformation. 

A key theme in Dr. Saggese’s lecture was the historical and systemic exclusion of Black artists from the canon of American art. She posed the critical question: how do Black artists like Basquiat enter the canon, and how are they subsequently included, excluded, or transformed within it? Basquiat’s meteoric rise and posthumous acclaim, juxtaposed with the erasure of many contemporaneous Black artists, underscore the art world’s ongoing reckoning with race, inclusion, and representation. Dr. Saggese invited IDSVA students to consider appropriation not merely as a tactic of mimicry but as a form of resistance and self-assertion for marginalized artists. Her lecture was not only an exploration of Basquiat’s legacy but also a call to reexamine the methodologies and assumptions of art history. Dr. Saggese’s work underscores the urgent need to center diverse narratives, acknowledge appropriation’s dual role as a tool of innovation and subversion, and to honor the contributions of Black artists who challenge, reshape, and expand our understanding of art. This engaging session at Spannocchia offered invaluable insights into the intersections of music, art, improvisation, and identity in Basquiat’s work. Dr Saggese’s presentation provided a profound entry point for contemplating appropriation’s complexities and its enduring impact on the field of art history. Her visit highlighted the transformative power of rigorous, thoughtful scholarship that refuses easy categorizations and embraces the fault lines where creativity thrives. 

Dr. Jordana Moore Saggese’s work is powerful and profoundly relevant in today’s art world, where the rapid canonization of Black contemporary artists, the proliferation of Black art exhibitions, and a marked increase in the market value of works by Black artists are unmistakable. Her research underscores the importance of celebrating these advancements and interrogating the systems and criteria that determine who and what enters the art historical canon. The nuances in how Black artists are canonized compared to their white counterparts deserve deeper examination. Dr Saggese’s analysis invites us to question how capitalism and white supremacy both shape and distort these processes, often upholding a narrow, commodified interpretation of Black art that risks diluting its radical potential. By overlooking the complex contributions of Black artists, institutions and markets not only do a disservice to their legacies but also deny themselves access to an integral, transformative enclave within the American art canon. More research and critical engagement are necessary to challenge these structures, ensuring that the inclusion of Black artists extends beyond superficial gestures and meaningfully reshapes the landscape of art history.

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