Jean-Michel Basquiat

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (New York, USA, 1960 - 1988).
"Maurice 1983", 1986 and "Famous black athletes 1981", 1986.
Offset on paper. Copies 2/250 and 200/250.
With dry stamp "State to M. Basquiat".
Signed in plate.
Measurements: 50 x 70 cm (x2).
A prolific artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat began drawing at the age of three, inspired by urban culture with the cars, cabs and buses that roamed the streets, as well as through television and comics. He captured this look for his surroundings in his paintings throughout his life, especially in the form of vibrant lines, intense strokes, figures cut in black, facial expressions pushed to the limit, etc. During the early 1980s he began to emerge as an artist, at a time when the reign of conceptual art and aesthetic minimalism in all its forms was predominant. The presence of urban culture and graffiti mixed with the European figurative tradition. His first solo exhibition took place in 1982, at the Annina Nosei Gallery in New York's SoHo. This marked the beginning of a series of solo and group exhibitions that brought together his work with that of other important contemporary artists, such as Julian Schnabel and David Salle. During these years he made more than two hundred canvases with portraits of influential people belonging to that culture, among them Muhammad Ali or Dizzy Gillespie. It is at this time that his works begin to be highly valued, and logically his presence is demanded in the most exclusive events of the time. It is worth mentioning his close relationship with Andy Warhol, who had a powerful influence on their work. The intensity with which Jean-Michel Basquiat created had an exact reflection in his life. A fan of drugs and nightlife since his adolescence, his consumption increased to such an extent that he developed a strong addiction to heroin and cocaine, which led to his death in 1988. From his first solo exhibition to the present day, his work has toured the world's most famous museums. His media power, the scandalous figures that some of his works have reached at auctions and his visual intensity continue to move crowds. The strong influence of his canvases, graffiti and writings in contemporary art explains the enormous interest that his figure awakens. He is currently represented in museums and institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Gagosian Gallery, the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona - MACBA in Barcelona, the Guggenheim Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Bilbao, The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Fort Worth, the Castellani Art Museum in Lewiston, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Santa Monica, the Fondation Carmignac in Paris, the Fukuoka Art Museum in Fukuoka, Japan, as well as in numerous private collections, such as that of David Bowie.