JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT | AGO
The Art Gallery of Ontario will be the first Canadian museum to host the late New York painter Jean-Michel Basquiat’s retrospective exhibition.
With over 140 pieces of art, the show will display the pioneering artist’s radical visual language and subject matter that grapples with race and class issues in 1980s New York City. Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now's the Time will run from Feb. 7 to May 10, 2015, before travelling to the Centro Cultural Banco Do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro.
Son of a Puerto Rican mother and Haitian father, Basquiat first garnered attention in his late teens as a graffiti writer tagging desolate buildings in lower Manhattan under the pseudonym SAMO (short for “same old s---.”). A few years later, his provocative paintings would come to feature some of the critical phrases he used on the street (“SAMO is an escape clause”).
In 1980, when he was 20, Basquiat was featured at The Times Square Show, which brought the young artist to the attention of several major New York art dealers. In the 80s, Basquiat enjoyed a rapid rise to art-world fame, became allied with the burgeoning Neo-Expressionist movement, and enjoyed crossover achievement as a celebrity figure. In his early 20s, he became a close friend and collaborator with Andy Warhol, shared ideas with David Bowie, briefly dated Madonna, and graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine. Basquiat completed more than 3,000 works by the time he died of a heroine overdose at the age of 27.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, A Panel of Experts, 1982, acrylic and oil paintstick and paper collage on canvas with exposed wood supports and twine, 60 × 60 in.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, Obnoxious Liberals, 1982, acrylic, oilstick, and spray paint on canvas, 68 × 102 in.
