Widow Basquiat (Canons): A Memoir

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Magical…. Widow Basquiat conjuresreal characters, a real time and real place. It’s not theory – it’s representation. … The life of Basquiat … is a joyous lightning bolt when it is described in true detail, as it is in Clement’s extraordinary as-told-to poem.”— Glenn O’Brien, Artforum

No…life is not all about rainbows, fairy dust, and unicorns…But honestly I’m not sure what the message in this book was suppose to be…Other than to remind us that Suzanne Mallouk was part of Jean’s life. I still remember the first time I heard this saying. And how I instantly hated it: why wasn't it the other way around? Why did we only hear about great men and never great women? At the young age of 15 Suzanne Mallouk left her family and home in Canada for the bright lights and gritty streets of NYC. It wasn't long before she became lover and muse to the wonderfully talented Jean-Michel Basquiat who was on the verge of blowing the art world away. Their turbulent, passionate and ultimately doomed love affair was on-again, off-again for the next 8 years, from his rise to art world acclaim and deep into his downward spiral with drugs and depression.

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All the time, Basquiat was becoming more successful, more wealthy and famous. And yet he still couldn’t reliably hail a cab in the street. Fine: limos instead. He bought expensive wines, Armani suits to paint in, like any artist who has suddenly made it big, yet the anecdotes about his spending were passed on with a casual glaze of racism, as if there was something unusually revealing about his appetites. Jennifer Clement is the President of PEN International and the first woman to be elected since the organization was founded in 1921. Clement grew up in Mexico City, Mexico. She studied English Literature and Anthropology at New York University and also studied French Literature in Paris, France. She has an MFA from the University of Southern Maine. Lewis, Miles Marshall (17 July 2001). "Portrait of the Artist's Girlfriend". The Village Voice . Retrieved 1 January 2021. Each of these subscription programs along with tax-deductible donations made to The Rumpus through our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, helps keep u s going and brings us closer to sustainability. The Rumpus is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of The Rumpus must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

He was fond of extravagance, excess and eccentric whims and would buy Suzanne expensive cakes and flowers. He would paint in expensive Armani suits and then throw them away and ride everywhere in a limousine. All of the quirks and chameleon-like aspects of Basquiat’s personality show through in this narrative, along with the chaotic, exhilarating art circles that they both moved in. Jean-Michel Basquiat He smells of leather, oil paint, tobacco, marijuana and the faint metallic smell of cocaine. He wears handmade wool sweaters and long Mexican ponchos. He never walks in a straight line. He zigzags wherever he is going."- Jennifer Clement, Widow Basquiat He smells of leather, oil paint, tobacco, marijuana and the faint metallic smell of cocaine. He wears handmade wool sweaters and long Mexican ponchos. He never walks in a straight line. He zigzags wherever he is going. Suzanne follows behind him. She feels like a Japanese woman.

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Apart from her relationship to Basquiat, Mallouk's own story is one worthy of being read. With heartbreaking honesty, she shares with us both her own personal demons as well as intimate moments spent with Basquiat, the good, the bad, and indeed the ugly. Prayers for the Stolen was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice Book, First Selection for National Reading Group Month’s Great Group Reads and appeared internationally on many “Best Books of the Year” lists, including that of The Irish Times. The novel was awarded France’s Grand Prix des Lectrices Lyceenes de ELLE, The Sara Curry Humanitarian Award and was finalist for 2015′s PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. I wasn't that familiar with Jean-Michel Basquiat and his art, other than hearing his name mentioned in other non-fiction books set around the same time period that he lived and worked. The 60's-80's NYC art scene was the perfect setting for artist memoirs. But this memoir isn't really his story, but the story of his muse Suzanne Mallouk instead. As many East Village artists in the 1980s, Mallouk had more than one creative pursuit. In New York’s post punk 1980s anyone could do anything. She had a short but successful career as the singer Ruby Desire, and was signed to Capitol Records, as an electronic dance artist. She performed at Area, Madame Rosa’s and the Palladium and also toured Europe. Artists' biographies are usually some of the most boring books you will ever read. I know this, having spent three years powering through them at university. The artist is born, usually into a wealthy family, and they then go to an art college or an academy where they learn nothing and develop their own style as a rejection to everything they have been taught. Then they become famous and die. There it is - every artists' biography ever.