Jennifer Rosas
Self: Image
Professor Doris Cacoilo
10 April 2019
AAJ
Over the last couple of weeks, we have been introduced to three amazing artists who have changed the art world in their own ways: Ana Mendieta, Andy Warhol, and Jean Michel Basquiat. Although all three artists grew up in different environments and their stories may differ one way or another; but all three have prospered through their financial and family struggles to the ultimate fame. In Ways of Seeing, Berger states, “Images were first made to conjure up the appearances of something that was absent.” Many artists tend to tell their stories, which only become known through the one thing they know how to do well, art, and these three individuals were no exception to that. The different techniques they used to express identity ultimately becomes a platform for the many artists that came after them to explore and be inspired by.
Ana Mendieta, born in Havana, Cuba (1948) just a couple of years before Castro took over, she was separated from her family and came to the United States as a refugee with her sister, Raquel. Left under the foster care system in Iowa, with a language barrier, they had only each other and art to depend on to mask away the pain and loneliness faced with being stripped away from one’s family; their identity and culture. After a couple of years, she reunited with her family and eventually graduated high school to continue her education in French and Art at the University of Iowa. It was in her college years where Mendieta realized her desire to wanting to create something more extraordinary and real from a typical form of art that she was familiar with, paintings. Her professor, Hans Breder, opened some doors for Mendieta where he had introduced her to a type of art that combines visual art with a performance that is presented to a live audience known as performance art. He had connected her to some performance art artists that could influence her to create something big and meaningful. Breder was an artist himself that he used Mendieta as a muse in one of his own pieces, La Ventosa, where she is lying nude on the beach as waves wash over her and she grasps a mirror towards her torso and reflects her outstretched leg. Mendieta used these experiences to ultimately find the passion she had for art in this way of performance.
In the book, The Art of Self Invention, Finkelstein states, “we use physical appearance and material possessions to express identity and that we accept a complimentary connection between inner character and our material circumstances (Finkelstein, 26), this is a perfect illustration to what Ana Mendieta’s work portrayed. Ana Mendieta used her body and nature to connect to her identity essentially as a woman, a human being and part of nature. I believe that Mendieta’s background story shaped her work because without the tragedy of being separated, the life struggles she faced as and saw against women, the work she created throughout her short career wouldn’t have impacted so many feminists around the world.
Andy Warhol, born and raised in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia (1928) rose to fame when he brought a whole new meaning to art with his Pop Art Movement. In the excerpt, On Photography, Susan Sontag states, “to collect photographs is to collect the world.” Warhol literally collected photographs and recreated them in a way that people would be able to remember and be inspired by. He would take branded items and used them in a dynamic way to advertise and promote it, as well as using celebrities to make their identities known again, this was known as commercial art. As talented as he was and became, things in the Warhol family weren’t always so easy. As a child he had suffered from Sydenham chorea, a disorder also known as St. Vitus dance, which is characterized by involuntary movements. Andy Warhol came from a financially struggling family; his parents were immigrants who were trying to make ends meet but that did not stop them from trying to push Andy’s dreams. Warhol attended free art classes at Carnegie Institute and eventually went on to attending Carnegie Institute for Technology. 
After graduating, he moved to New York to start his art career as a commercial artist, which he then rose to the top being known as the most successful and influential artist of the 1960s pop art movement. Although his art was less “selfie” like, pieces such as Campbell's Soup Cans indirectly tells his story as a boy. Something that would have no meaning to anyone but him became such an icon poster. For the most part, his work had underlying meanings rather than very obvious ones.
Jean Michel Basquiat, born in Brooklyn, New York (1960) made something of himself from nothing. Basquiat, unlike Andy Warhol, did not come from a totally financially struggling family. His father, Gerard Basquiat, was an accountant putting his family “up there” in society but he disapproved Jean’s decision in wanting to make art rather than perhaps continue the “white collar” route. Although his father wasn’t too fawn of his son’s decision of creating art, his mother, Matilde Andradas, introduced to him the world of art at a young age. They would frequently draw and go visit a variety of museums together like The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was a great supporter and the reason why Basquiat got into art in the first place. But feeling like an outcast to his father, Jean ran away from a lot with little to no money. At 17, Basquiat had dropped out of school and his father was furious with him that he had kicked him out of the house. Basquiat did not go back, he had left for good and used it to his advantage to improve his artistic skills in order to pursue his art career, which at first was a bit of a struggle but eventually the young artist went from not having anything to having money lying around everywhere.
After being kicked out of the house, Basquiat struggled in making money and finding a stable place to live. He made money by selling sweatshirts and postcards that had his artwork printed on them and later moved in with his girlfriend. After a few years of struggling and not knowing where his career was taking him, he became big in 1980. His work attracted people’s attention for its street art look, at the time and even still now. Street art is a form of art that sometimes artists without a proper studio and tools will resort to in order to get their message out there. Basquiat’s work says a lot about him, he visually shows the social economic issue between classes and racial issues, specifically with being a person of color but some of his paintings are illustrated to his life. With becoming such a huge star even after death, a lot of people seemed to admire his work, because it takes a lot of courage to highlight the areas people are uncomfortable talking about like social economic problems. Without Basquiat a lot of the things he shed a light on would not have been an issue worth thinking about.
The “origin” of one’s life does not really matter, whether rich or poor, great artist will always try to achieve the impossible because it is their passion. Finkelstein states, “Identity is continuously re-styled and invented to suit the circumstances but, at the same, it supposedly emanates from an inner quality that universalizes the human condition.” (Finkelstein, 3) and it is evidently true because all three used different techniques to express who they were as a human being. Even though they all struggled in their own way and wanted to make something out of it, they needed to show people new, different, real type of art. Which did happen, but unfortunately two of the three died very young and only lived a short art career. There was probably so much left in them to explore but their legacy lives on in more modern artists.
Work Cited:
"Ana Mendieta Biography, Life & Quotes." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Andy Warhol Artworks & Famous Paintings, Prints+." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web.
"Basquiat Paintings, Bio, Ideas." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2019.
Finkelstein, Joanne. The Art of Self Invention Image and Identity in Popular Visual Culture.
I.B.Taurus & Co Ltd, 2007
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