Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition, CCBB São Paulo, 2018, photos Alexander Moers
Jean-Michel Basquiat Exhibition, CCBB São Paulo, 2018, photos Alexander Moers

Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the greatest Artists of 20th-century. In the mid-1970s, Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz founded their own graffiti culture under the name SAMO©, an acronym for the same old shit. In the late 1970s, Basquiat proclaimed SAMO© is dead” – instead of street art, he turned more to painting and in the early 80s Basquiat was considered an absolute newcomer star of the New York art scene. Like Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, he quickly became a celebrated member of the entourage around pop art icon Andy Warhol and part of the Factory movement.

I am not a black artist, I am an artist

Basquiat quickly produced new works during the last years of his life. He sat down with his origins and the everlasting discrimination of the black population in his pictures and collages. With increasing success, Basquiat‘s rejection of the art market grew. After his mentor Andy Warhol died, Basquiat retired from the art scene. The Paintings from this time are reduced and less colorful. Jean Michel Basquiat died at the age of 27. Thirty years after his death, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil de São Paulo shows a selection of his works. Another retrospective takes place in the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.

HOMAGES TO JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT ♦ January 25 – April 7, 2018 Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil de São Paulo

BASQUIAT. BOOM FOR REAL ♦ February 16 – May 27, 2018 Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt