In celebration of what would have been Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 61st birthday on December 22, his family is releasing tickets to the first-ever showing of their personal collection of the iconic artist’s works.
The exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© is opening April 9 at the Starrett-Lehigh building with over 200 never-before or rarely seen paintings, drawings, ephemera and artifacts that give an intimate and multidimensional portrait of Basquiat, one his family says can only be told by them.
The family recently announced that architect David Adjaye OBE, who designed The National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington DC,will be the exhibition’s designer. The exhibition’s identity has been created by Abbott Miller of design firm Pentagram, which has collaborated with the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Metropolitan Museum, and Rizzoli Electa will release the accompanying book, also titled Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure©.
The exhibition will be divided into the seven themes:
1960 - INTRODUCTION- This section of the exhibition introduces audiences to Jean-Michel, his family and his heritage with several self-portraits on display.
KINGS COUNTY- This section provides an overview of Jean-Michel’s childhood in Brooklyn and Puerto Rico. It will include an environmental evocation of Jean-Michel’s childhood home, ephemera and works by Jean-Michel including newsletters from City-as-School, sketchbooks, personal notes and effects, home movies, interviews with family members, early drawings and sculptures.
WORLD FAMOUS- This section details Jean-Michel’s meteoric early success and includes paintings and other ephemera.
IDEAL - 57 Great Jones Street Studio (August 1983) Studio Recreation- Jean-Michel’s Great Jones Street studio will be recreated and include paintings, drawings, sketches, personal effects, his furniture, bicycle (his main method of transportation since he had trouble catching a cab), and his videotape and book collections.
ART GALLERY- This section will consist of several thematically arranged galleries with approximately 100 paintings and drawings. All works are owned by the Estate and most of them have never been seen before.
PALLADIUM- In 1985, Jean-Michel created two paintings, Nu-Nile and Untitled, for iconic NYC nightclub Palladium’s VIP area, the Michael Todd Room. The exhibition will recreate this space including video and soundtrack.
PLACE JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT- This gallery will contain oral histories from members of Jean-Michel’s family and a close circle of friends as well as posthumous awards and exhibitions.
VICE, Spotify and Phillips are sponsoring the exhibition.
To participate in this month’s presale, you mustsign up to the exhibition’s mailing list.
