Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of my top 10 favourite artists of all time. The year 1&2’s have been exploring the iconic ‘Pez Dispenser’ (1984) as inspiration for their projects this term. Using the picture books ‘Radiant Child’ and ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me‘ we have been learning about the life and artwork of Basquiat and his career in New York City in the late 1970s-1980s, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Andy Warhol and David Bowie on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

My aim was to give students a choice as to the materials and techniques they wanted to use for their drawing project – recreating the ‘Pez Dispenser.’ So we did a series of experiments. The experiments gave students the chance to trial different materials and evaluate which materials were most suitable for their individual masterpiece. The other challenge was to push students to draw BIG so that the ‘Pez Dispenser’ was the subject matter and focal point of their artwork…this proved to be difficult!

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s style is reflective of the emergence of street art and graffiti art in New York during this time. The idea to use newspaper as the surface that students drew on was to represent billboards and paste ups found in the streets at the time. Basquiat was famous for drawing and painting on lots of different surfaces. His style is child like and characterised by his quick drawings which can be described as swift and expressive.

As always the student’s work is exceptional and plays homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat.