
Los Angeles jazz musician Terrace Martin, photographed in the new Jean-Michel Basquiat installation at the Broad, has been inspired by the artist. (photo by Moses Berkson)
The Broad announced “Time Decorated: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” a three-part video series dedicated to the famed New York City artist. The video series includes three segments, “Jazz and Bebop,” “Punk and No Wave” and “Bebop to Hip-Hop via Basquiat,” where musicians, creatives and scholars discuss the impact of each music genre on Basquiat’s now iconic style. All three segments were filmed at the Broad, in newly installed Basquiat galleries displaying the museum’s uniquely deep representation of the artist’s work.
Home to an unparalleled collection of Basquiat’s art, The Broad seeks to honor his legacy by exploring its musical foundations. For the first time in the museum’s five-year history, all 13 paintings by Basquiat in the museum’s collection will be on view when the Broad reopens to the public, including “Horn Players,” “Untitled 1981” and “With Strings II.” New digital tours and a segment of the series Up Close with The Broad’s Curators will give the public access to the Basquiat installation as well as a deeper look at his works while the museum is currently closed due to COVID-19.
Launching today, Jan. 21, across the Broad’s digital platforms, the first video segment of the series, “Jazz and Bebop,” was produced, co-directed and written by Alyssa Lein Smith of Quincy Jones Productions and features L.A. jazz musician Terrace Martin, as well as input from Quincy Jones. Martin delves into how the bebop genre, birthed in New York City, played a role in his artistic vision.
“The Broad’s new series, ‘Time Decorated,’ offers nuanced insights from commentators whose expertise and knowledge in jazz and bebop, hip-hop and afro-punk illuminate music’s bedrock role in Basquiat’s life and art,” Broad Director Joanne Heyler said. “The series explores the wealth of music references in his paintings, and the themes of justice and resistance inseparable from those references. As the museum with the deepest representation of Basquiat’s work in the United States, the Broad strives to present programming to bring to our audience a clear understanding of his achievements.”
“We’ve got to know where we come from in order to get where we want to go, and institutions like the Broad are essential to helping us achieve that goal,” Jones said. “The museum building may be temporarily closed, but informative exploration never is.”
The series includes works by bebop artists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Max Roach.
On Jan. 28, the Broad will launch “Punk and No Wave,” hosted by James Spooner, co-founder of the Afropunk Festival and who ran an underground club on Canal Street in the early ‘90’s.
The segment features tunes by James Chance and The Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Basquiat’s band Gray, Liquid Liquid, DNA and Mars. Following “Punk and No Wave” comes “Bebop to Hip-Hop via Basquiat,” featuring Professor Todd Boyd of USC. He will speak about the through lines from bebop to early hip-hop via use of particular iconography in Basquiat’s paintings and showcase musical pillars such as Public Enemy, Rammellzee and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
For more information, visit thebroad.org.
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