In the linked article from GQ I copied the section below because it’s inspiring to me. The artist Jean-Michel Basquiat immersed himself into mastering his craft and didn’t stop. The section below describes what he surrounded himself with to perfect his craft.

Basquiat was fascinated by identity and image. One of the reason that he’s had such an incredibly lasting influence is because it’s actually a very post modern thing to be able to understand identity as a very fertile ground for experiment,” says Nairne. Over his career, Basquiat amassed one of the largest collections of video cassettes of any artists in that period, full of surrealist film, silent film and early Japanese film. When at home or in his studio, he always had something on the television. “Normal today, but unusual then,” says Nairne. He also had a huge library of books and art books and an extensive record collection to refer to. He would reference freely in his work – brands, logos, music, African art, cartoons, other artists. It’s strangely appropriate then how frequently others today pay homage to him in their work.”

Sources:

How Jean-Michel Basquiat predicted our identity-obsessed digital age

Lou Stoppard – http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/jean-michel-basquiat

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