BASQUIAT · 40th Ed.

The legend of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) continues intact. A symbol of New York in the 1980s, the artist began his career in the late 1970s under the pseudonym SAMO , filling the city's walls with graffiti containing scathing messages and fragments of poems. He was part of a booming underground scene made up of all kinds of artists, who were dedicated to the plastic arts, gratifi, hip-hop, post-punk and amateur cinema. A painter with a powerful personal voice, Basquiat quickly found success in more conventional settings, exhibiting in galleries around the world.

Basquiat's expressive style was based on rudimentary figures to which he added words and phrases. His work inspired a whole cast of celebrities from jazz, boxing and basketball, with esoteric references and street life. When asked about the main theme of his work, Basquiat replied “royalty, heroism and the streets” . In 1983 she began collaborating with the art world's most famous star, Andy Warhol , and in 1985 she was on the cover of The New York Times Magazine . When Basquiat died at the age of 27, he had already become one of the most successful artists of his time.

Originally published in the XXL edition, this previously unpublished approach to Basquiat's art is now available in a compact and accessible volume. Through impeccable reproductions of his most outstanding paintings, drawings and sketches, you can admire in detail the artist's complex signs and cryptic doodles and delve into his world thanks to an introduction by the editor Hans Werner Holzwarth and a signed essay on his themes and creative evolution. by curator and art historian Eleanor Nairne . Organized by years and lavishly illustrated, the chapters trace Basquiat's life with quotes from the artist himself and reviews that give the reader both personal perspective and historical context.