Basquiat: Boom for Real | Barbican

posted by Alice Harrison October 17, 2016

Come September 2017 the rare opportunity to experience the enigmatic art of the pioneering prodigy Jean-Michel Basquiat will be offered to the people of Britain, as the artist makes his UK debut, unveiling Basquiat: Boom For Real, hosted by the Barbican. The retrospective is set to be magnificent in scale, showcasing an outstanding selection of more than 100 works, which promise to highlight an unseen focus, shedding light on Basquiat’s complex archive of cultural references which influenced his political vision and inspired his gritty graffiti art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Man from Naples, 1982. Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Basquiat first captured the media’s attention in 1978, once he teamed up with classmate Al Diaz to graffiti ambiguous statements across the city via the collective pseudonym SAMO©, prior to becoming one of the most celebrated and significant artists of his generation. Famed for his combination of energetic complexity, knowledge of art history, politics and his downtown origins, Basquiat became a cultural figure, whose works sampled an extraordinary breadth of source, from bebop jazz to anatomical drawing.

Jean Michel Basquiat Self-Portrait, 1984. Yoav Harlap Collection © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Jean Michel Basquiat The Ring, 1981. Private Collection, Courtesy Acquavella Galleries © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Basquiat: Boom For Real is set to showcase specific works never seen before within the UK, including a partial re-staging of the first body of work in which Basquiat exhibited in 1981, for Diego Cortez’s watershed group show New York / New Wave.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Loin, 1982 © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Jean Michel Basquiat. Irony of a Negro Policeman, 1981. Private Collection © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Curated by Dr Dieter Buchhart, Eleanor Nairne and Barbican Art Gallery and organised in collaboration with the Schirn Kunsthalle Basquiat: Boom for Real will be available to the public from 21st September 2017 – 28th January 2018. Additionally, the exhibition will run at the same time as the film season, The Grime and Glamour, which will explore New York throughout the 70s and 80s.