Warhol/ Basquiat

Warhol / Basquiat 

We saw Warhol previously when we talk about pop art, here we will mainly talk about Jean Michel Basquiat and the artist relationship that connected the two artists.

Basquiat, this genius

He was born in New York City on December 22 1960.

Jean-Michel Basquiat had an amazingly diverse cultural heritage from Haitian- American father and his Puerto Rican mother. This multicultural heritage influenced his work. 

He started painting at a young age encouraged by his mother and got a lot of attention with his "SAMO" gratifies in NYC. 

He started his career by selling items grafted with his art, and then his career increased when he met Andy Warhol in the mid-1980s.

One of the motifs that define Basquiat is the yellow crown he used to paint as his signature. This symbol referred to the majesty of black people.

The Albertina

About this crown artist, Francesco Clemente said: "Jean-Michel’s crown has three peaks, for his three royal lineages: the poet, the musician, the great boxing champion. Jean measured his skill against all he deemed strong, without prejudice regarding their taste or age."

He was the head of a new artistic movement, Abstract expressionist painting. 

One thing which was very particular in his art was the material he used. 

He used a lot of collage in his work with garbage material found on the street. He used every type of material and express his emotions through them.

Basquiat had main subjects that you can find in all his work. He represented mortality, and race, and sell identity and religion.

Poverty and Power

He mostly represented subjects who touches him and of which he wants the world to be aware. 

He portrays in a lot of painting colonialism and slavery, and with those representations, he showed his vision and reality behind those topics.

Jean Michel Basquiat died in 1988 in New York, only a year after the death of Andy Warhol.

Basquiat x Wharol 

The two artists met in 1982, through the connection of Keith Harring that we see previously. Harring loved the work of Basquiat and find it promising and decided to present him to Wharol. With this meeting, the amazing story we know today began. At first, the two artists were in a kind of friendly competition and push themselves to develop their art.

Starting in 1985 Basquiat and Wharol began working together.

With their different worlds, they created a new kind of perspective and mixed their particularity to create something new.  Wharol pop art and Basquiat's contemporary style, at first intrigued people and fascinated them at the same time. Due to the age gap between the two artists, a lot of people criticized their work and this affected their work together. 

They progressively stopped painting at 4 hands but stayed very close friends.

Today, their work together is still exposed and will be at The Louis Vitton Foundation in Paris from April 4th to August 2023.