If you enjoy art, history, and just a good documentary, you have come to the right place! Welcome to Documentaries for Teens, where I review documentaries for you, well, teens! In honor of Black History Month, I wanted to highlight a prolific artist of his time, Jean-Michel Basquiat, in The Radiant Child.
Let’s begin!
In this hour-and-a-half documentary, we learn about the rise of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s prolific career that took place within a ten-year span, starting off from graffiti to one-man art shows. The documentary is pieced together via interviews and footage of the artist by one of his friends, Tamra.
This was such an exceptional documentary. Basquiat was a familiar name to me, and after watching this, I am in awe of him. He was only 17 when he left his parents, couch-surfed, and survived by searching for money on bar floors, eating snacks, and making friends through his work. How crazy is that? Friends, art sellers, and his agent talk about how he poised himself and made the right movies to further his career, leading him to do art shows, be part of exhibits, and collaborate with Andy Warhol. Yes. THE Andy Warhol, who was an inspiration from the beginning of Basquiat’s career, became a best friend and cohort, respectively.
I am not an art person, but I absolutely loved watching this piece. You are so immersed in the world of art that lives in the epicenter of New York City that you feel like you yourself are looking over Basquiat’s work in his hay day, and it makes you a little jealous that you never had the chance to do so.
I hope you enjoy this documentary as much as I did!
To watch this documentary, click here.
