Andy Warhol Self Portrait with Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982, Polaroid photograph 7.3 x 9.5 cm Collection Bischofberger, Männedorf-Zurich, Suisse / Bischofberger Collection, Männedorf-Zurich, Switzerland
In 2018, the Fondation Louis Vuitton featured the “Jean-Michel Basquiat” exhibition, a huge success that drew an estimated 700,000 visitors.
In 2023, Fondation Louis Vuitton with Basquiat x Warhol continue its exploration of the work of Jean Michel Basquiat, revealing, this time, his collaboration with Andy Warhol.
Between 1984 and 1985, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) and Andy Warhol (1928-1987) created around 160 paintings together in tandem, “à quatre mains”, including some of the largest works produced during their respective careers. Keith Haring (1958-1990), who witnessed their friendship and collaboration production, would go on to speak of a “conversation occurring through painting, instead of words,” and of two minds merging to create a “third distinctive and unique mind.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat et Andy Warhol, Collaboration (Crab), 1984- 1985, Acrylic, silkscreen ink, and oilstick on linen 40,6 × 50,8 cm The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh ; Founding Collection. Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Dollar Sign / Don’t Tread on Me, 1984-1985 Acrylic, silkscreen ink, and oilstick on linen 51 x 41 cm The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh; Founding Collection, Contribution The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
At the Fondation Louis Vuitton, “Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands” is the most important exhibition ever dedicated to this extraordinary body of work. Curated by Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer, in partnership with Olivier Michelon, curator at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the exhibition brings together more than three hundred works and documents including eighty canvases jointly signed by the two artists. Also featured are individual works by each as well as a set of works by other major artists (Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Kenny Scharf, Michael Halsband…). The exhibition also features photos, including the famous “Boxing Gloves” series of photographs by Michael Halsband produced for the poster of the Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol exhibition in 1985.
Exhibition View of “Basquiat x Warhol, Painting Four Hands”, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper), 1985-1986 Acrylic and oilstick on punching bags 106,7 × 35,6 × 35,6 cm The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh
Michael Halsband, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat #3 New York City, July 10, 1985, 1/7, 2019-2023, 50.8 x 40.64 cm Courtesy of the artistMichael Halsband, Andy Warhol & Jean-Michel Basquiat #143 New York City, July 10, 1985, 1985 Gelatin silver print, 2022, edition 1/1 plus 1 AP 152,4 × 121,92 cm, Courtesy of the artist
The exhibition will open with a series of portraits of Basquiat by Warhol and of Warhol by Basquiat. It will continue with the early collaborations. These works, initiated by the two artists’ dealer, Bruno Bischofberger, benefited from a collaboration with the Italian artist, Francesco Clemente (born in 1952). After completing these fifteen paintings together with Clemente, Basquiat and Warhol pursued their collaboration on an almost daily basis, with enthusiasm and complicity. The energy and force of their incessant exchanges will be the driving force of the exhibition, running through works such as Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) or the 10-meter-high canvas African Mask.
Jean-Michel Basquiat Brown Spots (Portrait of Andy Warhol as a Banana), 1984 / Brown Spots (Portrait of Andy Warhol as a Banana), 1984, Private collection. Courtesy Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Männedorf-Zurich, SwitzerlandAndy Warhol Portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat as David, 1984, Synthetic polymer and silkscreen ink on canvas 228.6 × 176.5 cm, Collection of Norman and Irma Braman
Basquiat admired Warhol as an elder, a key art world personality, and the pioneer of a new language and of a groundbreaking relationship to pop culture. Warhol, in turn, found in Basquiat a renewed interest in painting. Thanks to him, he went back to painting manually on a very large scale. Warhol’s subjects (newspapers, logos of General Electric, Paramount and the Olympic Games) serve as the basis for a whole series of artworks that punctuate the exhibition.
Andy would start one (painting) and put something very recognizable on it, or a product logo, and I would sort of deface it. Then I would try to get him to work some more on it, I would try to get him to do at least two things
explained Basquiat.
Jean-Michel Basquiat et Andy Warhol, Win $1,000,000, 1984 Acrylic and oilstick on canvas 170 × 288,5 cm, Bischofberger Collection, Männedorf-Zurich, Switzerland
I drew it first and then I painted it like Jean-Michel. I think those paintings we’re doing together are better when you can’t tell who did which parts
Joseph Bannan, Partner and Curator of Woodbury House in London, talks to Lee Sharrock about a new solo exhibition showcasing a rediscovered photographic archive of Andy Warhol photos by the late William John Kennedy.
