At times, Jean-Michel Basquiat looks bored with the questions asked by the interviewer, credited here as Dr. Marc H. Miller, Currator, Adjunct Proffesor of Art History at New York University. In part his response is understandable, as Miller fails to get in synch with Basquiat, or ask anything other than tick-box questions that offer no mutual connection.

According to the blurb on You Tube:

‘This interview was conducted in early 1983 in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s studio on Crosby Street in SOHO. Taped at about 3pm shortly after Jean-Michel woke up for the day, it begins slowly and picks up as the artists begins to wake.’

Okay, that as may be, Basquiat does look surly enough to have been awoken from his slumber, but part of the time he is being flip to the worst of Miller’s questions.

Also, why was the interview filmed mainly as a 2-shot? What purpose, other than self-promotion, does it serve the audience to see Miller in frame? It’s Basquiat we want to see, not some anonymous academic.

However, that said, there is fun to be had in Basquiat’s facial expressions, which often say more than his answers (someone should write a book about the significance and meanings of facial tics during TV interviews), and thirty minutes with Basquiat is still worth the price of admission.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Jean-Michel Basquait: ‘The Radiant Child