Editing Jean-Michel Basquiat (section)

===Heritage===
Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage was one of his many sources of inspiration. He often incorporated Spanish words into his artworks like ''[[Untitled (Pollo Frito)]]'' (1982) and ''[[Sabado por la Noche]]'' (1984). Basquiat's ''[[La Hara (1981 painting)|La Hara]]'' (1981), a menacing portrait of a white police officer, combines the [[Nuyorican]] slang term for police (la jara) and the Irish surname O'Hara.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ben-Meir|first=Sam|date=August 21, 2019|title=Basquiat's Story We Need to Hear|url=https://thewire.in/the-arts/basquiats-story-we-need-to-hear|access-date=January 12, 2021|website=The Wire}}</ref> The black-hatted figure that appears in his paintings ''[[The Guilt of Gold Teeth]]'' (1982) and ''Despues De Un Pun'' (1987) is believed to represent [[Baron Samedi]], the spirit of death and resurrection in Haitian Vodou.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Saggese|first=Jordana Moore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o1UlDQAAQBAJ&q=Baron+Samedi+basquiat&pg=PA56|title=Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art|date=May 30, 2014|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-27624-6|pages=56|language=en}}</ref>

Basquiat has various works deriving from [[African-American history]], namely ''Slave Auction'' (1982), ''[[Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta]]'' (1983), ''[[El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile)]]'' (1983), and ''[[Jim Crow (1986 painting)|Jim Crow]]'' (1986).<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 1, 2020|title=Iconic Artworks: Basquiat's Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta|url=https://magazine.artland.com/iconic-artworks-basquiats-undiscovered-genius-of-the-mississippi-delta/|access-date=September 30, 2020|website=Artland Magazine|language=en-US}}</ref> Another painting, ''[[Irony of Negro Policeman]]'' (1981), illustrates how African-Americans have been controlled by a predominantly [[White American|white]] society. Basquiat sought to portray that African-Americans have become complicit with the "institutionalized forms of whiteness and corrupt white regimes of power" years after the [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow era]] had ended.<ref name="Frohne1999">{{citation|last=Frohne|first=Andrea|title=The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities|date=1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkUZqSBlXM4C|pages=439–451|author-link=Isidore Okpewho|editor1-last=Okpewho|editor1-first=Isidore|chapter=Representing Jean-Michel Basquiat|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkUZqSBlXM4C&pg=PA441|edition=1st|location=Bloomington, Indiana|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-33425-1|editor2=[[Carole Boyce Davies]]|editor3=[[Ali Mazrui|Ali Al'Amin Mazrui]]|mode=cs1}}</ref> This concept has been reiterated in additional Basquiat works, including [https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-michel-basquiat/created-equal-1984 ''Created Equal''] (1984).

In the essay "Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix," Kellie Jones posits that Basquiat's "mischievous, complex, and [[Neologism|neologistic]] side, with regard to the fashioning of modernity and the influence and effluence of black culture" are often elided by critics and viewers, and thus "lost in translation."<ref name="Jones">''Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix'', by Kellie Jones, from the book ''Basquiat'', edited by Marc Mayer, 2005, Merrell Publishers in association with the Brooklyn Museum, {{ISBN|978-1-85894-287-2}}, pp. 163–179.</ref>