Jean-Michel Basquiat Quotes

I wanted to be a painter, somewhere between Abstract Expressionism and Pop.

When I was growing up, all the art that touched me was lens-generated, like Gerhard Richter, or Polke, Rauschenberg, Warhol.

We weren't art students, but we definitely created our own style and were pretty influenced by Andy Warhol and all the stuff we read and saw and made fun of, you know.

Andy Warhol defined Pop Art.

For me, Warhol made so much sense.

While I don't script and I don't use other performers, I think my taste for underlying precision gives me something in common with Allan and George Brecht.

As far as the style, I was fascinated by surrealism.

I love Damien Hirst. I respect his work a great deal, and I am happy that the polka dots I started using have become a symbol of love and peace around the world with everybody joining hands to use them in this way.

The paintings by Van Gough and Chagall had a big influence on me.

I influenced the BG style by not being able to draw perspective. The BG artists developed cool graphic painting styles to make my bad backgrounds look like they were that way on purpose.

Warhol had a huge effect on me. It wasn't that I sought it out. It was more of a natural evolution.

I had a Stuart Davis poster growing up.

Paul Smith's artwork was so elegant and so graphic, so I think that's always had a strong effect on me, especially starting out.

All I care about these days is painting — photography has never been more than a way into painting, a sort of instant drawing.

My inspiration came from the land, ... and, of course, from Paul Klee . . . and the poetics of his paintings.

Because it's visual art, a lot of it comes from childhood experience but then a lot comes from the visual language - in advertising and stuff like that - which is around us.

In the end I'm in love with it [Western European easel painting]. And that's where a lot of the influence from the work comes from.

Leger was not only the first artist I ever met but also the first pop artist, and he blew our minds.

I like drawing from all kinds of territories in art.

That was really the Fifties for me - that whole spirit of flicking the paint on the canvas.

I steal from every single movie ever made. I love it - if my work has anything it's that I'm taking this from this and that from that and mixing them together. If people don't like that, then tough titty, don't go and see it, all right? I steal from everything. Great artists steal; they don't do homages.

Warhol influenced me because of his writing. If I had never read his writings and interviews, I would never have understood his work.

My mom is an artist and my own fiction is deeply visual.

I had seen "Force Majeure" and I just love that movie so much. And I really wanted to artistically give a little hello to the filmmakers, and that kind of back and forth dialogue between artists that say, "I loved your movie. I was influenced by your movie. If I didn't have this job, I wouldn't be thinking of that. Do my TV show and then one day I'll make a movie where I can play with some of the visual themes in "Force Majeure."

I had my first exhibition in September, 2012. This was when I first introduced the public to my style of the incorporation of cloth in my paintings. It was well received and everyone was fascinated with the work on display. I also invited other young aspiring artist to display they work which was also well received.