Name: Widow Basquiat
Rating: 4.533333333333333 (15 reviews)
ISBN: 9781841951652

Jennifer Clement

Widow Basquiat

Sarah Christine Gill

THE GIRL REtURNS to NEW YORK Dressed with a glamorous Audrey Hepburn scarf on her head and large sunglasses, Suzanne arrives at the Pyramid Club straight from the airport, carrying her suitcase. She hopes she can find someone to take her in for the night. Jean-Michel is there with Shenge. He walks up to Suzanne and says in a fast, desperate kind of way, I am very rich now and I have a big loft in SoHo-please come and live with me.' Shenge and Jean-Michel clean up the loft and place flow- ers everywhere. The refrigerator is filled with pastries. Every morning Jean-Michel leaves the loft to go and paint in the basement of Annina Nosei's gallery. He returns every two hours to see Suzanne and bring her some cakes. Then he comes home every evening at six. Jean-Michel lets Suzanne wash his dreadlocks when he sits in the bathtub. They take a long time to dry like sponges. Suzanne pats them and squeezes them in a towel for an hour.

LUCKY STRIKE Suzanne sees Michael at a club on 9th Street called Lucky Strike, where Madonna is a bartender. They have a few drinks. Suzanne tells him that she is sorry that she is always going back to Jean-Michel, but that she can't help it. Michael is very Sweet and gentle and just strokes her arm and says, Yes, yes?

GOING to THE FISH MARKET After cubbing, at four in the morning, Suzanne and Jennifer take a taxi down to the fish market. Dressed in their black nightclub dresses they walk among the barrels filled with fish. Their feet get caught in the wet nets on the ground. They listen to the fishermen boast and brag about their biggest catch and look into the dull, large eyes of dead fish. Suzanne and Jennifer like to watch the sun rise. They like to examine the strange things that come out of the sea, accidentally caught in the nets: squid, crabs, a small shark, a yellow blouse, a turtle, an orange, oyster shells. They don't talk about the clubs or the boys they met or did not meet. They don't talk about where they might be in ten years. They ooh and ahh over the shimmer of fish scales and talk and giggle with the fishermen. One night after clubbing Jennifer andI went down to the docks to talk to the fishermen. This was something we did quite often. I renmember one time someone had caught an enormous red and purple octopus. It lay inside a net. When we got up close to look, it suddenly let out a great stream of black ink that spattered all over our shoes. 167

Ivana Varesko

I realized that a book can reach out and embrace you like an arm and make you walk away from everything you thought you understood.

An exploration of the achievements and tragic early death of New York artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is presented through the story of his relationship with his lover and muse, Suzanne Mallouk. Original. 25,000 first printing.

A Love Story

orpheus

“You of all my children were made like an angel. But you want to look over the edge to hell. Always know where that line is and never cross it.” Told in ethereal vignettes, this is less of a biography on Basquiat and more of a tale of the woman caught in his orbit. Suzanne, the titular ‘Widow’, tells the story of the 80’s art scene and the toxic romance she shared with the late artist smothering it in an empathetic gaze. Despite the short length, this is not an easy book to get through. The ups and downs of their relationship reflect the drug addiction that fueled them and sent the paragon Basquiat to his grave. Jean is maddening in his treatment towards her and even to himself as the pages sailed to the dreaded denouement. Yet, he leaps from the page, entrenching us in his grip as he had Suzanne and the art world. ( A parasitic relationship that exists to this day with the artist’s pieces selling for increasingly large prices to private collectors. The kind of people he would have despised if he were alive and spited as he drenched his Armani suits in the paints he used to craft his masterpieces.) As an admirer of his works, it has given me much to think about. It’s a darkly beautiful book and Jennifer Clement really adds poetic gravitas to her friend’s story. One of an artist taken in his prime by the very drug that fueled himand of his muse who fought for her own voice and legacy who now assists modern artists in addiction as a psychiatrist. “It is a tale of temple bells, sounding at sunset before the image of Buddha, it is a tale of love and loves, it is a tale of tears.”

An incredibly well written memoir filled to the brim with emotion, love and understanding. An extremely candid look into the 1980’s art scene and life of Jean-Paul Basquiat through the eyes of his muse, love and “widow” Suzanne. At the end of the day this is both a tragedy and a love story and one you should take the time to consume.

Astonishing. Haiku-like one page chapters, a total masterclass in storytelling. (Obviously) insane stories, scenes, people. Wow! 

Elif Ergül

Madonna. Andy Warhol. Keith Haring. Fab 5 Freddie. Debbie Harry. Julian Schnabel. Jean-Michel Basquiat's transition from the subways to the chic gallery spaces of Manhattan brought the artist into the company of many of New York's established and aspiring stars. Unable to deal with the demands that his new fame brought, in 1987, at the age of 27, Basquiat, the most successful black visual artist in history, died from a heroin overdose.

Widow Basquiat is an exploration of the artist as seen through the eyes of his muse, Suzanne. It is a love story like no other.

A Memoir

Leila

kiko

MADONNA. ANDY WARHOL. KEITH HARING. FAB 5 FREDDIE. DEBBIE HARRY. JULIAN SCHNABEL. Jean-Michel Basquiat's transition from the subways to the chic gallery spaces of Manhattan brought the artist into the company of many of New York's established and aspiring stars. Unable to deal with the demands that his new fame brought, in 1987, at the age of twenty-seven Basquiat, the most successful black visual artist in history, died from a heroin overdose.Widow Basquiat is an exploration of the artist as seen through the eyes of his muse, Suzanne. It is a love story like no other.

Widow Basquiat

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