Essay 'On Jean-Michel Basquiat's Horn Players'

Basquiat uses his painting as a telephone. Ross says of Basquiat “you speak in the language of color and hue” offering two beautiful contradicting ways of communication. Language implies the use of words, and color and hue refer to a painting or image. Regardless of the use of words or color and hue, he suggests that some type of communication is happening. In the poem “On Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘Horn Players’”, Ross describes aspects of the asper mentioned painting “Horn Players” to show the power of communication through different mediums. In the poem, Ross makes references to both word’s and image’s abilities to connect and communicate with the world. However, he makes it clear that images can convey more than words. As a result, “On Jean-Michel Basquiat’s ‘Horn Players’” argues that images are the most powerful means of connecting with the world.

Ross uses a lot of music imagery to describe those figures he sees on the triptych. For example, in the second stanza, he describes the three figures as “a choir, a jazz trio”. Additionally, he references Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, two icons of jazz music. Of course, he uses a lot of jazz imagery to stay true to his source material of the original painting, but he also uses it for specific purposes. For example, Ross uses the jazz imagery when he says “mixing spit and air hoping to make gold” to refer to people’s desire to make rich music that will resonate with people. Using “spit and air” allows him to show the work that goes into trying to make rich music, but also allows the reader to imagen an instrument being played. The point of this music imagery is not to over shadow images as the best way of communicating with the world, but to highlight the ability of the artist to capture the spirit of music in the image. It allows the artist to borrow from the emotions aroused by music to add to the deeper meaning of his own