The Broad “Time Decorated: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat”
THE BROAD ANNOUNCES NEW VIDEO SERIES
TIME DECORATED: THE MUSICAL INFLUENCES OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
FIRST SEGMENT JAZZ AND BEBOP FEATURES TERRACE MARTIN AND QUINCY JONES PRODUCTIONS
NEW BASQUIAT INSTALLATION FEATURES ALL THIRTEEN PAINTINGS IN THE BROAD COLLECTION FOR THE FIRST TIME
WATCH HERE
“Art is how we decorate space, music is how we decorate time”
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988)
The Broad announces Time Decorated: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a three-part video series dedicated to the famed New York City artist. The video series includes three segments, Jazz and Bebop, Punk and No Wave, and Bebop to Hip-Hop via Basquiat, where musicians, creatives and scholars discuss the impact of each music genre on Basquiat’s now iconic style. All three segments were filmed at the Broad, in newly installed Basquiat galleries displaying the museum’s uniquely deep representation of the artist’s work.
Home to an unparalleled collection of Basquiat’s art, The Broad seeks to honor his legacy by exploring its musical foundations. For the first time in the museum’s five-year history, all thirteen paintings by Basquiat in the Broad collection will be on view when the museum reopens to the public, including Horn Players, Untitled 1981, and With Strings II. New digital tours and a segment of the series Up Close with The Broad’s Curators will give the public access to the Basquiat installation as well as a deeper look at his works while the museum is currently closed due to COVID-19.
Launching on January 21st, across The Broad’s digital platforms, the first video segment of the series, Jazz and Bebop, was produced, co-directed and written by Alyssa Lein Smith of Quincy Jones Productions and features LA jazz musician Terrace Martin, as well as input from Quincy Jones himself. Martin delves into how the bebop genre, birthed in New York City much like Basquiat, played a role in his artistic vision.
Founding Director Joanne Heyler said, “The Broad’s new series, Time Decorated, offers nuanced insights from commentators whose expertise and knowledge in jazz and bebop, hip hop, and afro-punk illuminate music’s bedrock role in Basquiat’s life and art. The series explores the wealth of music references in his paintings, and the themes of justice and resistance inseparable from those references. As the museum with the deepest representation of Basquiat’s work in the United States, the Broad strives to present programming to bring to our audience a clear understanding of his achievements.”
Quincy Jones said, “We’ve got to know where we come from in order to get where we want to go, and institutions like The Broad are essential to helping us achieve that goal.” He added, “The museum building may be temporarily closed, but informative exploration never is, and that’s exactly what the Time Decorated series is all about. It’s always an honor to work with my brother Terrace Martin and The Broad!”
The series includes works by bebop artists such as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach. Music for this segment includes Ornithology by Parker, Hot House by Parker and Gillespie, Ol Man Rebop by Gillespie, and music from Martin’s Dinner Party.
On January 28, The Broad will launch Punk and No Wave, hosted by James Spooner, co-founder of the Afropunk Festival and who ran an underground club on Canal Street in the early ‘90’s. The segment features tunes by James Chance and The Contortions, Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, Basquiat’s band Gray, Liquid Liquid,DNA, and Mars. Following Punk and No Wave comes Bebop to Hip-Hop Via Basquiat, featuring Professor Todd Boyd of USC. He will speak about the through lines from bebop to early hip-hop via use of particular iconography in Basquiat’s paintings and showcase musical pillars such as Public Enemy, Rammellzee, and Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
During the temporary closure of the museum due to COVID-19, the Broad has introduced new ways to present its unparalleled collection to the public including Talks & Conversations, Artist Spotlights, and Family Art Workshops. Last fall the museum unveiled L.A. Intersections, a three-part video series, filmed at the Broad, that incorporated music, poetry, and dance into the museum’s galleries. the Broad’s digital programming is available on demand at thebroad.org/fromhome.
(Art Credit: Jean-Michel Basquiat)
Terrace Martin: Jazz and Bebop
A three-time GRAMMY-nominated artist/producer/multi-instrumentalist from the Crenshaw District, Terrace Martin is renowned as being one of the top jazz musicians in the world and has become a creative engine at the epicenter of LA’s progressive hip-hop scene. His noteworthy production credits include major collaborations with Kendrick Lamar (good kid, M.A.A.D. city & the GRAMMY-winning To Pimp a Butterfly), Travis Scott, Stevie Wonder, Snoop Dogg, Herbie Hancock, and many other influential artists. Among the most versatile musicians and producers of his generation, Terrace’s path is leading him in parallel with the greats including Quincy Jones and Dr. Dre, while also launching his vibrant, progressive, genre-crossing record label, Sounds of Crenshaw.
Quincy Jones Productions:
Quincy Jones Productions (QJP) is a full-service entertainment company, which is home to various branches such as artist management; licensing & endorsements; live, film, & television production; international joint ventures; and investments. The licensing division includes a state of-the-art line of consumer electronics with Harman International (JBL); piano teaching software with Playground Sessions; Qwest TV, Jones’ first SVOD platform; and more. In addition, QJP opened Quincy’s first-ever music venue, Q’s Bar & Lounge, at the Palazzo Versace Hotel in Dubai, and is set to open additional venues around the globe. During the past three years, QJP’s production slate has included everything from ABC’s Taking the Stage: Changing America (the official celebration concert for the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture); Soundtrack of America (The Shed’s five night opening concert series at Hudson Yards); The Broad’s Soul of a Nation Celebration; Q85: A Musical Celebration for Quincy Jones on BET/VH1; and more. QJP was also responsible for the release of the 2014 film, Keep On Keepin’ On, which won the top prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, was sold to Radius, and shortlisted for the Documentary (Feature) Academy Award, as well as Netflix’s QUINCY (directed by Jones’ daughter, Rashida Jones, along with Al Hicks). The film garnered international acclaim, and won the AAFCA Best Documentary Award; the BFCC Best Documentary Award; the Black Reel Outstanding Documentary Award; the Critic’s Choice Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary Award; and landed Jones his 80th Grammy nomination and 28th Grammy win, in the category of Best Music Film. With Quincy Jones (one of 21 EGOT—Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, & Tony—holders in history) at the helm, QJP is modeled after an inimitable legacy of excellence.
James Spooner: No Wave and Punk
James Spooner is a tattoo artist, illustrator, and filmmaker. His graphic novel memoir entitled The High Desert is slated for release spring 2022 with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He directed the films White Lies, Black Sheep and the seminal documentary AFRO-PUNK. Both films premiered at national and international film festivals, including Toronto International and The American Black Film Festival, and garnered various awards. James is also the co-founder of the Afropunk Festival, which currently boasts audiences in the hundreds of thousands around the world.
Spooner’s work has been recounted in various publications, including NPR, Vice Magazine, The Village Voice, The New Yorker, Vibe, Fader Magazine, MTV, NBC News, and Variety, and he was a recipient of the ReNew Media Rockefeller Grant. He has been a guest curator for The Broad in Los Angeles and previously programmed for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
Spooner is also a contributor to RazorCake Punk Magazine, and he continues to screen AFRO PUNK at colleges around the country, giving talks on punk and Black identity.
Dr. Todd Boyd: Bebop to Hip-Hop via Basquiat
Dr. Todd Boyd, a.k.a. “Notorious Ph.D.,” is the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies in the University Of Southern California School Of Cinematic Arts. Dr. Boyd is a media commentator, author, producer, consultant and scholar. He is especially well known for appearing as a commentator in numerous documentaries. Some recent documentary appearances include The Last Dance (ESPN/Netflix), winner of the 2020 Emmy award for “Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series,” The Movies (CNN, 2019), I Am Richard Pryor (Paramount Network/Comedy Central, 2019),Sammy Davis, Jr.: I Gotta Be Me (American Masters/PBS, 2019), Shut Up and Dribble (Showtime, 2018), The Nineties, and The History of Comedy (CNN, 2017) among numerous other titles. Dr. Boyd also appeared in Twenty Feet From Stardom (2013), winner of the 2014 Academy Award for “Best Documentary Feature” and the 2015 Grammy Award for “Best Music Film”. Dr. Boyd was Executive Producer of the Netflix documentary, At All Costs: Life Inside AAU Basketball (2016), and he was writer/producer on the Paramount Pictures celebrated cult classic film The Wood (1999). He has written over one hundred articles, essays, reviews, and other forms of commentary, with his work having appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Chicago Tribune and ESPN, among other publications.
Dr. Boyd’s seven books include The Notorious Ph.D’s Guide to the Super Fly 70s, Young Black Rich and Famous, The New H.N.I.C, and Am I Black Enough For You?
About The Broad
The Broad is a contemporary art museum founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. The museum offers free general admission and presents an active program of rotating temporary exhibitions and innovative audience engagement, all within a landmark building designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. The Broad is home to 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and contemporary art and welcomes more than 900,000 visitors a year.
The 120,000-square-foot building features two floors of gallery space and is the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation’s worldwide lending library, which has been loaning collection works to museums around the world since 1984.
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