Basquiat Everywhere

Jean Michel Basquiat died in 1988, aged just 27. At the time of his death, Basquiat's talent and importance were recognized but no one could have predicted how much his work would matter today, almost 40 years later. Or that his work would be available everywhere: in museums, galleries, independent art attractions, stickers, T-shirts, handbags, even on your TV.

At this week's New York contemporary art auctions, works by Basquiat broke new records. At Phillips' auction, an eight-foot-wide painting from 1982, Untitled (ELMAR) sold for $40.2 million. At Christies, another work from 1982, The Italian version of Popeye has no pork in his dietsold for $30 million.

In recent years, The Brandt Collection, Peter Brandt's art foundation, has exhibited his extensive Basquiat collection in New York. The Broad Museum in LA has their 13 Basquiats on display (they offer Basquiat skateboard decks in the gift shop).

pleasure kingthe traveling exhibition of his life and work by the Basquiat family, features more than 200 of his works, as well as recreations of the dining room of his home and one of his studios, and has a gift shop complete with stylish wares and well-executed, including denim jackets, bucket hats, handbags, mugs, temporary tattoos, iPhone and Air Pod cases, and kitchen magnets.

Basquiat's work, its aesthetic of childlike drawings and word groupings reminiscent of a high school student's notebook, is immediately recognizable, unique and speaks to our current obsessions with identity, untold stories, the wealth and fame.

Moon Moon, the recently resurrected artist-decorated amusement park out of Los Angeles includes a Basquiat-decorated Ferris wheel, a miniature of which you can buy in their gift shop for $75.

Now you can even have works by Basquiat on your TV! This month Samsung announced a deal with the Basquiat estate for 12 works, the first to appear in digital format for its super-slim TV called Frame, which comes with a bezel that looks like a picture frame, as well as its Art Store. artwork subscription service. Art Store membership is $49.90 per year or $4.99 per month. With over 2,500 pieces of digital art, including exclusives by artists Barry X. Ball, Shepard Fairey, and now 12 works by Basquiat, it is the first time that Basquiat's works have been presented in digital format.

Among the works available to Art Store subscribers are Bird on the money (1982), Basquiat's tribute to one of his idols, the jazz musician Charlie Parker and Zulu King (1986), which is a later work, less messy, and with large blocks of color; and a 1982 dual portrait with Andy Warhol, Two Heads.

One might think that such commercialization would cheapen the brand or make Basquiat's art less appreciated. He hasn't done it.

If you're in Beverly Hills, Gagosian has a great show, Jean-Michel Basquiat: Los Angeles, of paintings and series made during Basquiat's various residences in the city. It's an excellent show, exceptional paintings and prints, certainly one of the best displays of Basquiat I've seen.

Some of the works have been described as a window into Basquiat's brain, and rightly so, as they are full of esoteric research and fan-like appreciations, as well as Basquiat's own disquisitions on racism, black history, American culture, capitalism, etc. as well as the ownership and commercialization of American popular culture. Knowing that Basquiat died of an overdose, it's also hard not to attribute some of his more messy and seemingly incomplete works to being done under the influence.

Basquiat's work appeals to many people on many different levels. It is worth noting that Basquiat began his artistic career as a graffiti artist under the nickname SAMO, whose work, even then, was distinguished by its poetic but often inscrutable phrases and combinations. Other artists of the same era, not only Keith Haring, but also Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer and Ed Ruscha have also made the text a main driver in their work.

Basquiat's enduring appeal is partly historical, due to his unicorn status as the only known black artist of his time, surrounded by white peers (of course, there are many other black artists in the US and around the world they were working). then, and many still work today, but Basquiat stood out in the popular reportage of the time).

Beyond that, Basquiat mixed his personal iconography, his rough, brushed paint, his overloaded references, in a way that begs, and at the same time, resists interpretation. This sense of mystery to be solved is a compelling factor in the popular appreciation of Basquiat's art. In this sense, I could compare Basquiat's work to the songs of Bob Dylan, whose words are important to many, but whose real meaning is inexplicable and scarce.

It is estimated that during his too short life, Basquiat made 1000 paintings and 1000 drawings. As with any artist, not every work is a masterpiece. However, there are works that at first seemed less coherent that are now recognized as great. And the number of great works that Basquiat produced in such a short time is truly remarkable.

Thirty-six years after his death, we are now experiencing peak Basquiat.