View source for Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart)

{{Short description|1983 painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Defacement
| image = Basquiat-defacement.jpg
| image_size = 400px
| other_title_1 = The Death of Michael Stewart
| artist = [[Jean-Michel Basquiat]]
| year = 1983
| medium = Acrylic and marker on wood
| subject = [[Death of Michael Stewart]]
| height_metric = 63.5
| length_metric = 77.5
| owner = Collection of Nina Clemente
}}
{{italic title|noerror|all=yes}} <!-- template after the infobox to prevent the display of error message -->
'''''The Death of Michael''' '''Stewart''''', known as '''''Defacement''''', is a painting created by American artist [[Jean-Michel Basquiat]] in 1983. The artwork is Basquiat's response to anti-Black racism and [[police brutality]]. It memorializes the [[death of Michael Stewart]] at the hands of [[New York City Transit Police]] for allegedly writing graffiti in the subway. No graffiti was found, according to Stewart's girlfriend at the time of his death.
==Background==
Aspiring artist and model Michael Stewart was arrested by transit police for writing graffiti in the [[First Avenue station (BMT Canarsie Line)|First Avenue station]] of the [[New York City Subway|New York subway]] on September 15, 1983.<ref name=":2" /> He was brought to [[Bellevue Hospital]] [[Hogtie|hogtied]] and in critical condition. After thirteen days in a coma, Stewart died from his injuries on September 28, 1983. His death sparked outrage concerning police brutality. Jean-Michel Basquiat was deeply affected by the story and said to friends that "it could have been me."<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|last=Nielson|first=Erik|date=September 16, 2013|title='It Could Have Been Me': The 1983 Death Of A NYC Graffiti Artist|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/16/221821224/it-could-have-been-me-the-1983-death-of-a-nyc-graffiti-artist|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150523015748/http://www.npr.org:80/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/16/221821224/it-could-have-been-me-the-1983-death-of-a-nyc-graffiti-artist |archive-date=2015-05-23 |access-date=2020-09-21|website=NPR|language=en}}</ref> He had started off as a street artist writing graffiti as [[SAMO]].<ref name=":3" /> Basquiat was not close to Stewart, but they shared a circle of friends. At the time of his death, Stewart was dating Basquiat's former girlfriend, [[Suzanne Mallouk]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=McClinton|first=Dream|date=June 28, 2019|title=Defacement: the tragic story of Basquiat's most personal painting|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jun/28/defacement-the-tragic-story-of-basquiats-most-personal-painting|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190628230707/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/jun/28/defacement-the-tragic-story-of-basquiats-most-personal-painting |archive-date=2019-06-28 |access-date=2021-01-19|website=the Guardian|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Haden-Guest|first=Anthony|date=November 1988|title=BURNING OUT|url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1988/11/burning-out|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200419160442/https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1988/11/burning-out |archive-date=2020-04-19 |access-date=2020-09-21|magazine=Vanity Fair|language=en-US}}</ref> Basquiat painted ''Defacement'' on the wall of artist [[Keith Haring]]'s [[NoHo, Manhattan|NoHo]] studio days after Stewart's death. Haring cut the artwork out of the [[drywall]] when he moved out in 1985.<ref name=":3">{{Cite magazine|last=Schjeldahl|first=Peter|title=Basquiat's Memorial to a Young Artist Killed by Police|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/basquiats-memorial-to-a-young-artist-killed-by-police|access-date=2020-09-21|magazine=The New Yorker|date=27 June 2019 |language=en-us}}</ref> He had [[Sam Havadtoy]] add an ornate frame a year after Basquiat's death in 1989. It was hanging above Haring's bed at the time of his death in 1990.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Mitter|first=Siddhartha|date=July 30, 2019|title=Behind Basquiat's 'Defacement': Reframing a Tragedy|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/30/arts/design/basquiat-defacement-guggenheim-curator.html|access-date=2020-09-21|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
== Analysis ==
''Defacement'' depicts two pink-faced policemen in blue uniform, one with sharp predator teeth, with batons clobbering a black silhouette. The word "¿DEFACEMENT©?" is written above them. The shadowy figure is Stewart, but it could also represent any black man who has been brutalized by the police. The tags of graffiti artists Daze and [[Zephyr (artist)|Zephyr]] are on the artwork.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Solomon|first=Deborah|date=June 28, 2019|title=Review: A Better Basquiat Show|url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/review-better-basquiat-show/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190629161557/https://www.wnyc.org/story/review-better-basquiat-show/ |archive-date=2019-06-29 |access-date=2020-09-21|website=WNYC|language=en}}</ref>
While Stewart was still in a coma, artist [[David Wojnarowicz]] created a flyer for a rally protesting Stewart's then "near-murder" in [[Union Square, Manhattan|Union Square]] on September 26, 1983.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Sam|first=Ben-Meir|date=|title=Basquiat's Story We Need to Hear|url=https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/jean-michel-basquiat-defacement-death-michael-stewart-guggenheim|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829111100/http://www.jacobinmag.com:80/2019/08/jean-michel-basquiat-defacement-death-michael-stewart-guggenheim |archive-date=2019-08-29 |access-date=2020-09-21|website=Jacobin|language=en-US}}</ref> The flyer portrays the officers with skeletal faces beating a handcuffed black man with batons. It was taped all around downtown which may have inspired Basquiat's ''Defacement'' painting.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Shaw|first=Anny|date=February 18, 2019|title=How a protest poster by David Wojnarowicz may have inspired Basquiat's Defacement|url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/it-could-have-been-me-the-story-behind-basquiat-s-defacement|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-09-21|website=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>
In the years since ''Defacement'' was created, it has taken critical resonance with the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Basquiat's Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) becomes the centerpiece of conversations about Black Lives Matter at WCMA|url=https://artmuseum.williams.edu/news-item/basquiats-defacement-the-death-of-michael-stewart-becomes-the-centerpiece-of-conversations-about-black-lives-matter-at-the-williams-college-museum-of-art/|access-date=2020-09-21|website=Williams College Museum of Art|language=en-US}}</ref>
== Exhibitions ==
''Defacement'' was never sold and has seldom been displayed in public. It is owned by Nina Clemente, Keith Haring's goddaughter and daughter of the Italian painter [[Francesco Clemente|Francesco Clement]].<ref name=":0" />
In 2016, [[Chaédria LaBouvier]], an independent curator, partnered with her alma mater [[Williams College Museum of Art]] in Massachusetts to bring the painting to the campus. It hung in the Reading Room, which is part of the college's first library.<ref name=":1" /> In 2019, LaBouvier organized ''Basquiat's 'Defacement': The Untold Story'' at the [[Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum|Guggenheim Museum]] in New York. The exhibit centered around the painting and the reaction of the downtown community to the death of Michael Stewart. Artwork by Stewart was displayed for the first time.<ref name=":0" />
==See also==
* [[List of paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat]]
* [[1983 in art]]
==References==
<references />
==Further reading==
Chaédria LaBouvier, Nancy Spector, J. Faith Almiron. ''Basquiat's Defacement: The Untold Story'', 2019. {{ISBN|9780892075485|}}
{{Jean-Michel Basquiat}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart)}}
[[Category:Paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat]]
[[Category:1983 paintings]]
[[Category:New York City Police Department corruption and misconduct]]
[[Category:Political art]]
[[Category:Paintings about death]]
[[Category:Paintings of African-Americans]]