What was the real relationship between two of the world’s biggest artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol?

What was the real relationship between two of the world’s biggest artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol?

They came from two different worlds. Basquiat was from the streets of New York and found a way to capitalize off his painting and sketches with authentic original skill, determination, and work ethic. Andy Warhol was less an artist as he was an art hack. Andy was an illustrator for both Glamour and Vogue magazines where most of his work was compromised of altered copies of movie stars pictures. His ability to reproduce his “work” rapidly gained him notoriety in the art world. Andy was the epitome of “mediocre rise” empowered by pink privilege. Andy’s true ability in the art world was not his subpar sketches but his ability to latch on to more talented platforms and beautiful people. He gained access through magazines to different celebrities that kept him relevant, yet always looking for the next hottest star to capitalize from… Insert Jean Michel Basquiat.

For Basquiat to gain his name in an art world populated by pale people, he endured obscene levels of racism from those embedded in the arena of pop art. One video of Basquiat on a bottom of the barrel public television show called “Glenn o Briens TV party” shows him being taunted by a group of unremarkable “artists” for racially being discriminated against at a local theater in New York. The video ends with a caller calling Basquiat “Buckwheat” and asking if he “snatched his chain” on the subway. This was the kind of insensitivity and bigotry Basquiat had to deal with every minute to be considered an artist. Andy Warhol seeing this and recognizing his star power rising gave Basquiat what seemed like a safer space to create in his studios, as long as he worked on art projects with him.

Warhol made many cringey sexually suggestive homoerotic potraits of Basquiat.  To put it bluntly (and it is notable since Warhol reputedly took great interest in Basquiat’s sexual escapades), Basquiat was the lothario, and Warhol was the “sex is more exciting on the screen and between the pages than between the sheets”, as he famously said.

What was the real relationship between Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat? One exhibit hopes to shed light on this duo and how their work shifted pop art.

 “Basquiat x Warhol,” is a traveling show from Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, France, that focuses on the unique collaboration between Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, two figures that have all but defined the city’s downtown art scene in the 1980s.

Here are a few things to keep in mind on your visit:

You’ll Get to See Some Iconic Works

From “Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper)” to “Felix the Cat,” the new show highlights a wide variety of works that the two artists have collaborated on throughout their respective careers, each one tackling themes like colonialism, police brutality, gentrification and a vast variety of other sociopolitical issues that we are still contending with today.

Interestingly enough, some of the paintings that Warhol and Basquiat had produced together back in the ’80s were shown to the public at Tony Shafrazi’s New York gallery in 1985.

At the time, the exhibit was not received well by the media, actually convincing the creatives to put an end to their collaboration. This new exhibition seeks to confirm the strength of their relationship and their artistic output, celebrating their long-spanning careers as a duo and as single entities as well.

Warhol and Basquiat’s Relationship Was a Fruitful One

The two artists first met in 1982, when gallerist Bruno Bischofberger invited Basquiat to Warhol’s famous Factory.

The two took a photo together and, a mere couple of hours later, Basquiat produced a double portrait that’s currently part of the new exhibit.

In 1984, the artists’ collaboration officially kicked off, one that yielded close to 160 canvases.

“Meeting almost every day, the pair would work on multiple monumental canvases at once, from early hours into the evening,” reads a press release. “This enthusiastic exchange of energy is exemplified in their paintings, which illustrate a back and forth between that is both tense and complimentary.”

As explained by the artists themselves back in the day, one of them would start a canvas and include his very unique iconography on it. The other would then spend some time with it, marking it with his own recognizable style. Subscribe. Share. Stay Tuned. The revolution will not be televised 2raw4tv.tv