NewsWorldWarhol-Basquiat, a pictorial fusion

Warhol-Basquiat, a pictorial fusion

A fusion of artistic and personal complicity, in which Warhol’s capitalist logos join Basquiat’s protest graffiti, the Louis Vuitton Foundation show also reflects the social and political concerns of the first half of the 1980s

It all started as a ‘blind date’, in October 1982, with a meeting orchestrated by their common gallery owner Bruno Bischofberger, at the Factory, for a union of artistic convenience.

But the ‘crush’ between the 2 artists was immediate. Jean-Michel Basquiat left Andy Warhol’s studio and just two hours later one of his assistants handed him the painting with the original title in Spanish ‘Two Heads’.

A declaration of admiration and friendship, which left Warhol surprised by the speed of execution of the work, as well as its quality.

Warhol would respond with several portraits of Basquiat, represented as Michelangelo’s David.

The long-awaited collaboration promoted by Bischofberger became a reality with a third artist, the Italian Francesco Clemente. But after performing 15 works, the trio separated at the end of 1983, to be reduced to a duo.

The veteran Wahrol and the emerging Basquiat

The veteran Warhol, whose notoriety was beginning to fade, and the young Basquiat, an emerging star of the ‘underground’ movement and in search of a more universal fame, are going to carry out a unique experience for two renowned artists: painting hand by hand and at the same time. same time on the same canvas. In the previous stage, with Clemente, each one embodied their ideas separately according to the principle of the exquisite corpse of the surrealists.

The symbiosis between the two artists is such that starting in 1984, they will meet almost every afternoon to paint together. According to Basquiat, more than 1,000 works were born from this merger, in reality there would be about 160, almost all of them in large format; 80 of these paintings, in addition to other individual works by each one and by other artists, can be admired in the exhibition dedicated to them by the Louis Vuitton Foundation, in Paris until August 28.

Warhol was usually the one who started the work and left gaps for Basquiat who sometimes, like a naughty child, painted over it; Whereas when Basquiat was first, Warhol respected his space.

A complicity in the relationship that can also be seen in a video projected in the exhibition; Andy Wahrol, 32 years older than Jean-Michel Basquiat, scolds him for going out until the wee hours of the morning, although he was also a regular at the New York parties of the 80s in the famous nightclubs that marked that time.

The two encouraged each other, Basquiat sometimes painting on the floor, while the walls were occupied by Wahrol to keep up the pace, the latter even returning to the brushes he had abandoned since the mid-1960s in favor of screen printing.

Wahrol’s fetish logos, symbol of triumphant capitalism, join Basquiat’s graffiti, with strong social and political claims; sometimes opposed, sometimes complementary in a pictorial dialogue.

To the point that their techniques become confused in their latest works, such as in the striking installation ‘Ten punching bags’, ‘Ten punching bags’ with ten faces of Jesus, to denounce as many injustices as racism and violence, in a decade also marked by the AIDS epidemic, which killed many of his friends. A work that Wahrol kept in his possession until his death.

‘Paramount’, which refers to the trip of the then president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, to China in 1984, is another example of this perfect synthesis.

Touching on more trivial subjects, ‘Eiffel Tower’, which represents the iconic Parisian monument surrounded by frogs, ‘frogs’ in English, as the Anglo-Saxons tend to derogatorily call the French, shows that Basquiat’s mischief also infected Wahrol.

In 1985, Andy Wahrol reveals to Bruno Bischofberger that he and Jean-Michel Basquiat have been painting together and asks him to organize an exhibition for them. This will take place at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York in September.

The public appreciates the new artistic couple; art critics, quite the opposite.

The ‘Times’ even calls Basquiat Wahrol’s ‘pet’. Disappointed, the young artist puts a stop to the collaboration until its total cessation.

But the friendship, although more distant, endures.

Andy Wahrol’s death in 1987 after surgery is a shock to Basquiat; he dedicates ‘Gravestone’ to her, a mortuary triptych freely inspired by the religious works of Catholicism, the faith that Wahrol professed. He only survives her by 18 months. He died of an overdose at the age of 27.

Their scars of life, they also carried on their body.

In May 1968, Basquiat is hit by a car, in serious condition they have to remove his spleen; In June 1968, a woman shoots Warhol, nearly losing her life. Both retained the stitches on their bellies; Wahrol never showed them, Basquiat exposed them, even in his paintings.

Source: Euronews Espanol

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