Widow Basquiat (Canons): A Memoir

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This is a very intense book, it really is. I'm not used to reading books that are very heavy on drug content and self-destruction, and despite already knowing the outcome to Basquiat's story it was really a tough story to wrap one's head around. My heart especially went out to Suzanne and what she was forced to go through. Provocative…With short, episodic chapters, Clement ( Prayers for the Stolen, 2014, etc.) delivers real insight into the life of the brilliant artist as well as the glittering—but ultimately chaotic—world that consumed him…Disturbing and poetic.”— Kirkus She did however, pose for the Italian artist, Francesco Clemente, who painted several paintings of her, some of which were used in the collaboration between Andy Warhol and Basquiat., at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich. She is depicted in Basquiat’s paintings and drawings, “Self Portrait with Suzanne”, “Big Shoes 2”, “Cheese Popcorn” and “Panel of Experts” In the latter two works Basquiat referred to her as Venus. The painting “A Panel of Experts” inspired the name of our consulting company. She has been photographed by Andy Warhol and these photos are in the Andy Warhol Museum Archive. When Suzanne Malouk was 15 she left her home in Canada and came to New York. That's where she met Jean-Michel Basquiat and where they fell in love. Jean-Michel is made for the night, like a mole. The daylight hurts, the sun hurts, but at night he is transformed into a magician, a Merlin with everything wound up tight and sparkling. Nights are for drugs. Drugs are for nights. In daylight he looks for his shadow and crawls up inside it."

In 2014 Jennifer Clement published a novel, Prayers for the Stolen. It’s about women in Mexico’s drug culture, and it was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. The renewed attention to Widow Basquiat may have less to do with Basquiat than with Clement herself. Her prose is as much a character in Widow Basquiat as Mallouk or Basquiat. Clement has published several books of poetry, a fact that is reflected in the cadence and lyricism of her writing. Consider the following (line breaks added for emphasis): I’m an American artist whose work developed in Bermuda. I was born in Nicaragua. Culturally I’m West Indian and Hispanic. I celebrate my regions, and it's many cultures. He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions. I have always loved Basquiat's work. Glamorized his life and time in NYC. Knew he was barbaric to his women. To Suzanne.The narrative switches between the words of seamless biographer Jennifer Clement and the words of his long-suffering lover and muse Suzanne Mallouk. This story is both Suzanne’s: a poor, violent and love-starved upbringing and also Jean-Michel’s, with its similarly violent and chaotic early years. You can see that they were drawn to each other by this trauma, like two damaged war orphans. I have no doubt that Jean and Suzanne had a deep love for each other, I just wish this book had concentrated on that a little bit more.

The Canongate Prize for New Writing 2001, UK (judged by The Herald, The Sunday Herald, Waterstone's, Channel Four, BBC, and Canongate Books) The accidental drug overdose and death of Basquiat in 1988 and the AIDS epidemic were catalysts for Mallouk to leave the East Village.She has stated this is how she managed her grief. I realized that a book can reach out and embrace you like an arm and make you walk away from everything you thought you understood.'Like Just Kids it manages to be both an intimate portrait of two young, flawed and talented people and the love they have for each other, and a snapshot of a lost New York: the underground scene of the 1980's. 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. The most refreshing aspect of Widow Basquiat was its effort to not become hagiographic. Clement and Mallouk never once place Basquiat on a high pedestal. He was a controlling and unstable drug addict. He treated his closest friends awfully. He gave Mallouk P.I.D. which caused her to become sterile for life. But he was also a genius who had the art market in his hands. He was insecure and always thought about his image. The flamboyant Basquiat is also shown, how he would wear Armani suits when he painted and then would throw them away and his insistence, in his final years, to travel everywhere by limousine. Mexican-American writer, Jennifer Clement, elected first woman president to lead PEN International as John Ralston Saul steps down after six years". The PEN. 15 October 2015. Prayers for the Stolen came out in 2014 and became 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 The Irish Times. [8]

Jennifer Clement (born 1960) is an American-Mexican author. In 2015, she was elected as the first woman president of PEN International, an organization that was founded in 1921. Under her leadership, the groundbreaking PEN International Women's Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created. [1] She also served as President of PEN Mexico from 2009 to 2012. [2] Clement's books have been translated into 36 languages. Two…The only thing that made “Widow Basquait” a love story… is the fact that Suzanne and Jean both loved taking drugs. Jennifer Clement bore witness to the glorious, grimy utopia of the 70's and early 80's created from nothing, spitting out geniuses. She is also the author of several books of poetry: The Next Stranger with an introduction by W. S. Merwin (1993), Newton's Sailor, Lady of the Broom (2002) and Jennifer Clement: New and Selected Poems (2008). Her prize-winning story A Salamander-Child is published as an art book with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy. 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, ArtforumWalker, Rebecca (9 February 2014). "From Muse To Outcast, A Woman Comes of Age In 'Widow Basquiat' ". NPR.