the times | Saturday April 9 2022 saturday review 9
naturally to him and a voice that was
natural for him. He wanted to be heard and
he wanted to be seen. I think he would be
blown away and pretty happy and proud,
as he should be.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure
is now open at the Starrett-Lehigh
Building, New York. Tickets are
available at kingpleasure.basquiat.comthe exhibition’s Instagram page with
messages, and who give their brother
the adoration few visual artists could
dream of.
Do they wonder what Jean-Michel
would have made of it all? “He stated to
many that he wanted to be famous,” Jea-
nine says. “He wanted to make his mark
in this world with a craft that came soDuring Basquiat’s lifetime there was a
lot of racism in the critical reception of his
work, including the use of loaded terms
such as “primal” to describe his style, and
snooty dismissiveness, including an infa-
mous review of his collaboration with
Andy Warhol that labelled him an “art
world mascot”. Today he is revered, the
subject of retrospectives across the world,
and his work is rocketing in value: in 2017
an untitled work sold for $110.5 million —
the highest sum fetched at auction for a
work by an American artist.
He has become even more of a pop star
posthumously, thanks to hip-hop artists
such as Jay-Z bringing mainstream atten-
tion to his work (“I’m the new Jean-
Michel,” he sang on Picasso Baby in 2013).
The estate has collaborated with fashion
brands from Coach to Uniqlo, letting fans
own a Basquiat for $20. Last month Bas-
quiat was a big presence in the Ryan
Murphy-produced Netflix docu-
mentary The Andy Warhol Diaries;
and was depicted on stage in The
Collaboration, Anthony McCarten’s
play at the Young Vic in south
London about his partnership with
Warhol. It is to be turned into a film.
A biopic has also been announced
— Samo Lives, which takes its name
from his graffiti tag.
The estate’s strategy, Jeanine
says, is to embark on projects that
expand the artist’s reach and fund
the estate’s expenses without sell-
ing the paintings, because “the
work is his legacy and it is our wish
to pass that on to our family”. The
estate has been criticised for such
licensing deals, however.
Last year a Basquiat painting
in duck-egg blue appeared in a
Tiffany & Co advertisement
starring Jay-Z and Beyoncé, and
Tiffany’s vice president, Alexan-
dre Arnault, suggested that the
blue might have been a Tiffany’s homage.
The sisters say that they are not affected
by such social media storms. “We are
doing for our brother, and in honour of
our parents and our family, what we
believe is the right thing to do — and
that’s it,” Lisane says. Instead, they say,
they are thinking of the fans, who floodis, imagining what kind of energy it
would have taken to create, it speaks
to how bold and courageous he was
and how committed he was to mak-
ing a stand,” Lisane says. “One thing I
would want people to leave with is
inspiration. Jean had unwavering
determination to be what he wanted.
I think that’s a beautiful thing, to
sacrifice anything for your passion.”
Fans will also love the many por-
traits of jazz musicians and other black
heroes Basquiat celebrated in paint-
ings and drawings, including Charlie Park-
er, Grace Jones, Jesse Owens, Sugar Ray
Robinson and Miles Davis. His famous
crown motif often appears in these pic-
tures. Jeanine writes in the catalogue: “He
painted his pantheon of black heroes as
royalty — that is why there are crowns
throughout his work.”
STEPHANIE DIANI FOR THE TIMES; ARTWORKS COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT/LICENSED BY ARTESTAR, NEW YORK
crowning glory
Jean-Michel Basquiat
and Andy Warhol at the
Area nightclub in New
York in 1984. Above
right: Charles the First,- Below: the poster
for the exhibition
htM m a C p L W A — f s e t i w t e l i T s T dk- bl