Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/05/05/basquiat-barbie.html
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I’m still kicking myself for not getting ‘the birds’ barbies.
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I never could have imagined reading the words “Barbie celebrates esteemed artist Jean-Michel Basquiat,” and now that I’ve done so, I can’t even because my brain is broken.
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I don’t know how to feel about this.
On the one hand, the artist Basquiat was highly underrated while he was alive, and deserves all the recognition he can get… on the other, Mattel is corporate evil profiting off his memory.
I mean I guess I should just be grateful the Barbie is Black with Afrocentric features.
They could have done what they did with Bowie:
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I’ve been lusting after these Basquiat skate decks ever since I saw them at the Centre Pompidou last November…
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I feel similarly after hearing Suicide’s music used in a TV commercial.
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If they do a “Barbie Andy Warhol” they can bring it all full circle since Bowie portrayed Warhol in Basquiat.
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Don’t get me started; you know how I feel about Warhol.
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Let’s not open that can of soup then.
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Yeah, I mean there are two possibilities here: either Barbie has become subverted into a kind of hip, arts-friendly, fundamentally counter-cultural force, or Basquiat has become safely commodifiable, such that even a major corporation can make use of him. And I’m pretty sure it ain’t the first option. If an artist had made a “Basquiat Barbie” that would have been one thing, but when Mattel does it, it’s something else entirely.
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A true heroin heroine of the art world.
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Of course if you want the black barbie you have to pay a premium for the limited edition!
For better or worse my five-year-old loves dressing up narbies. They also talked incessantly about Basquiat for three weeks after learning about Basquiat in an art history class. Obviously that puts me in a unique situation with regards to the doll’s value. That said I hate getting new things so much that I’m glad it’s sold out. Sort of the best of both worlds from my perspective - it exists, but I don’t have to have it…
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“Narbies?”
Seriously though, it’s hard to avoid and we all make our exceptions for our kids.
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Reminds me of the John Varley short story The Barbie Murders.
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lol…I remember.
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I haven’t changed.
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What stuck with me about that story was the difficulty in going undercover. 
It was an interesting environment with members of the colony committed to the role. It made me wonder why the need for individuality (or conformity) is stronger in some people than in others.
Rammellzee would agree circa 1983
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