Armand Yahyapermana

Professor Anne Kingsley

English-126
December 7, 2015
Duality of Culture according to Banksy and Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy are few of the most influential graffiti artist. They are two of
the few in the world who are brave enough to share their opinion throughout the world, while
also being criticized and judged by the entire society. Basquiat was known for putting a phrase
consisted of poet, sarcasm, and short phrases across the streets of Downtown Manhattan. His
artworks are mostly connected to political criticism and supporting the class struggle such as the
black peoples race. On another part of the world, Banksy is known for his controversial arts
which contain critiques toward worlds society and politics. His arts are well-known for its
sarcastic and dark humored content. Although he uses dark humor and sarcastic graffiti, he has
his own purpose of doing it that way, which is to deliver political and social criticism such as
anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-establishment. His art is also able to be called as a rebellious
action against the politics and the governments. Despite both artist living in different countries,
they shared the same purpose of creating arts, to enlighten people of the rough reality that the
world we are living on does not only consist of happiness but also riot.

SAMO does not cause Basquiat

Before changing his style into a canvas artist, Basquiat was known as Samo who creates
various graffiti on the street of Downtown of Manhattan. In one of his work called Samo does
not cause cancer in laboratory animals, it represents a quote that critique towards the
experiment on animals. His graffiti consist of only black and white color which contains a
sarcastic quote. Although his graffiti depicted only quotes and words, Basquiats graffiti still has
a meaning behind it. He was trying to say that doing graffiti is better than doing experiments on
animals as doing graffiti doesnt cause harm. Examining his graffiti and canvas art, the element
of sarcasm he used on the graffiti are applied into his canvas artwork.

Irony of Negro PolicemanBasquiat

Apart from graffiti, Basquiat also did various canvas painting with neo-Expressionism art style.
In one of his Neo-Expressionism painting called Irony of Negro Policeman, it depicted a man
wearing a hat as the main character. Basquiat uses several dark color such as black, and dark
blue. What is the purpose of creating this art? The whole painting represent a sharp critique on
members of his own race. By depicting a black policeman, he is making an effort to show how
African-Americans are controlled by the white people in America. According to Bell hooks, she
states the ugliness conveyed in Basquiats painting is not solely the horror of colonizing
whiteness; It is the tragedy of black complicity and betrayal (pg. 38). When she was stating on
the word ugliness, she was pointing towards the bad side of white colonization. The hat around
the black policeman depict a cage as there is a bar or wires around the head. The cage symbolize
the restraint of the black policeman caused by the white colonization that they must follow the
orders of the white race. On the right side of the painting are the words Irony of Negro
Policeman, and to the bottom right of the painting is the word Pawn, clearly stating his
opinion on the conflicted position of a black policeman. The word PAWN clearly intended to
represent one of the chess piece in chess board game, states that the black policeman are being
used as a sacrifice by the white race. Looking at the body of the black policeman, almost half
part of the body are separated. Here, Basquiat is trying to represent the dehumanization of the
black policeman. He found it ironic that any African-American would be a policeman, working
to enforce rules that were meant to enslave themselves. The society did not realize of what was
happening and they did not think much of the situation. They just accused on the black race
without knowing anything. As what Bell hooks states For what Basquiat unmasks is the
ugliness of those traditions (pg. 38), he was trying to unmask the ugliness of racism and the
impact on the whole society. Using this art, he might help people to realize the chaos of white
colonization that they are only using the black people or more specifically the black policeman
as a slave/sacrifice. The white might have feel at peace, but the black race are at chaos as they
have to carry the burden as a sacrifice by enslaving their own race.

Soldiers painting peaceBanksy

When it comes to graffiti, majority of people judge that it was not a type of style but as a
vandalism. They think that those who broke the law are dreadful and one who follows the rule
are respectful. Thinking with this perspective, majority of people assume that graffiti is a crime
and conclude that Banksy is dreadful and a criminal. Is he a criminal? According to Banksy
himself, he states The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking rules
but by people following the rules. Its people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre
villages (pg. 51). He believes that those who follows the order of killing each others are the one
who are dreadful. This is the evil within the righteous. Majority of mindset are being tangled by
the statement that law is always right. Here is one of his artwork which depict soldiers and a
peace sign. Banksy addresses the fraught connection between art and war. Connecting graffiti as
physical violence against buildings and conceptual violence against ideas of social order, the
image asserts its disobedience. Putting the soldiers alongside the peace sign makes the soldiers
physical presence into a symbol of war, and makes a political statement against the
dehumanization of soldiers. Demonizing soldiers by training them for the purpose of war and
achieving peace is what he is trying to criticize as the main point. Banksys label of black
silhouettes reinforces the symbol of the color red. The dripping paint overtly references the
bloodshed of war, drawing attention to the uncertain role of the military in achieving peace.
Some people may not know where peacefulness came from. By creating this piece, Banksy is
trying to untangle the complexity of it. Even though the peace itself is a form of happiness,

achieving peace using destructive force such as war is the form of chaos. In this case, Banksy is
trying to enlighten people of the rough reality on peace.
Observing from both artists work, their purpose are similar. While Banksys message are about
the criticism against the war and Basquiat messages are about racism in his country, both artists
have the same purpose of trying to enlighten people of the duality. By sharing graffiti throughout
the streets or the other part of the world in Banksys case, they might change the condition into a
better situation or possibly change the societys perspective. Both artists are trying to untangled
the confusion between happiness and chaos that both principals are different. At some point,
people might tend to misinterpret the information they gained. Some people assume that being in
a situation in peace is a good thing. However, if those peacefulness are achieved from the result
of war, then its not worth to call it peace. Achieving peace with truce is what both artists are
trying to do. They created graffiti not because they wanted to vandalize streets, but because they
wanted to show the world the rough reality and it is the only way of creating another peace. They
assume that graffiti is harmless, unlike the war that have taken an enormous amount of victims.
As it has been mentioned, both artist are trying to untangle the duality of culture. They are
pointing at the truth that racism and war would demonize the society. Basquiat and Banksy are
the Martin Luther King of art, trying to reduce the influence of confusion of duality by using
graffiti and paintings. They are not scared to vandalize the walls because the message they left
behind those graffiti arts are the message that would help people realize of the unmasked reality.

Cited Work:
Hooks, Bell. Altars of Sacrifice: Re-membering Basquiat. Art in America. Code and Theory,
June 1993. 3447. Print
Banksy. Banksy: Wall and Piece. archive.org. Jason Scott. 3 March 2014. Website. 24 October
2015. <https://archive.org/details/fp_Banksy-Wall_And_Piece>