“Time Decorated: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat” at The Broad

Jean-Michel Basquiat music and art. The Broad (Los Angeles) has produced 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 Jean-Michel Basquiat music foundations.

For the first time in the museum’s five-year history, all thirteen paintings by Basquiat in the Broad collection will be on view when the museum 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.

Jean-Michel Basquiat music and art

Launched on January 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 LA jazz musician Terrace Martin, as well as input from Quincy Jones himself. Martin delves into how the bebop genre, birthed in New York City much like Basquiat, 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,” The Broad Founding 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.” Quincy Jones said, “The museum building may be temporarily closed, but informative exploration never is, and that’s exactly what the Time Decorated series is all about. It’s always an honor to work with my brother Terrace Martin and The Broad!” 

The series includes works by bebop artists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach. Music for this segment includes Ornithology by Parker, Hot House by Parker and Gillespie, Ol Man Rebop by Gillespie, and music from Martin’s Dinner Party.

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.

Jean-Michel Basquiat quote:

“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time.”

Terrace Martin: Jazz and Bebop

A three-time GRAMMY-nominated artist/producer/multi-instrumentalist from the Crenshaw District, Terrace Martin is renowned as being one of the top jazz musicians in the world and has become a creative engine at the epicenter of LA’s progressive hip-hop scene.

James Spooner: No Wave and Punk

James Spooner is a tattoo artist, illustrator, and filmmaker. His graphic novel memoir entitled The High Desert is slated for release spring 2022 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

He directed the films White Lies, Black Sheep and the seminal documentary AFRO-PUNK. Both films premiered at national and international film festivals, including Toronto International and The American Black Film Festival, and garnered various awards. James is also the co-founder of the Afropunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands around the world.

Dr. Todd Boyd: Bebop to Hip-Hop Via Basquiat

Dr. Todd Boyd, a.k.a. “Notorious Ph.D.,” is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Dr. Boyd is a media commentator, author, producer, consultant and scholar. He is especially well known for appearing as a commentator in numerous documentaries.

Dr. Boyd’s seven books include The Notorious Ph.D’s Guide to the Super Fly 70s, Young Black Rich and Famous, The New H.N.I.C., and Am I Black Enough For You?

About The Broad

The Broad is a contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. The museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement, all within a landmark building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. The Broad is home to 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and contemporary art and welcomes more than 900,000 visitors a year.

The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library, which has been loaning collection works to museums around the world since 1984.