Hanh Truong on January 21st, 2021

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The Broad today released the first of three installments in its new video series, “Decorated Time: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat,” a commemoration of the late New York City artist in honor of the museum’s fifth anniversary.

The segments explore three different musical genres and how each impacted Basquiat’s notable style. The first video, “Jazz and Bebop,” produced by Quincy Jones Productions, discusses the contemporary artist’s references of bebop, a form of jazz from the 1940s, in his work.

It features commentary from Terrace Martin, a Grammy-nominated jazz artist from Los Angeles, and famed record producer Quincy Jones. Martin dives into the history of bebop and the musicians that made up the genre, such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, describing their role in some of Basquiat’s famous paintings, like “Horn Players (1983).”

“There was no way you can divorce jazz music from the musician’s treatment in society and Basquiat felt the same with his art,” Martin says in the video, referring to the country’s racist mindset in the 1970s. “Basquiat once told an interviewer that he painted from 80 percent anger and he was devoted to bebop as it was a restlessly inventive genre, unable to be put inside a box no matter how outside forces try.”

The Broad will release the following installment, “Punk and No Wave,” later in November. Hosted by James Spooner, the co-founder of Afro-Punk, the segment puts a spotlight on the avant-garde movement of the no wave genre. It features no wave hits from artists such as James Chance and the Contortions, Liquid Liquid and Basquiat’s experimental band, Gray.

Dr. Todd Boyd of USC, aka “Notorious Ph.D.” (the Katherine and Frank Price Endowed Chair for the Study of Race and Popular Culture and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies), closes out the series on Feb. 4 with “Bebop to Hip Hop via Basquiat,” where he probes the connection of bebop and early hip hop using specific elements and symbols of Basquiat’s art.

The videos were filmed at the Broad and feature the recently installed Basquiat galleries. The museum plans to showcase its entire collection of 13 paintings by the artist for the first time in its five-year history when it reopens to the public.

||| Watch: Time Decorated: The Musical Influences of Jean-Michel Basquiat | Part 1 with Terrace Martin