You only have a few days left to enjoy the first European retrospective of the Urban King of New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat at the beautiful Beyeler Foundation in Basel (closing 5th September 2010).
Basquiat's life was short, Basquiat's life as an artist was shorter. Across his meteor eight years of active artistic production the charismatic and controversial genius managed to paint 1000 paintings and 2000 drawings, using various technics and tools. Amongst these treasures, less than 200 artworks are featured in this amazing exhibition. My sources tell me that it's been really hard for Dieter Buchhart and superman Sam Keller to select them, given that too many collectors wanted to lend their private pieces. Only a few wanted to buy Basquiat when he was alive, everybody was now insisting to lend their million-dollars' jewels. It's quite ironic and does sound Van Gogh's familiar.
What's even more curious is that there had never been any retrospectives in Europe of the artist's oeuvre. “As one of the greatest artists, it’s incredible that there has never been a major show about Basquiat in Europe” said Dieter at the opening night, a sentence that encapsulates the power of the Beyeler Foundation. In fact, which institution would have been able to put up such a perfect show if it hadn't been the Beyeler Foundation?
This retrospective also marks what would have been Basquiat's 50th birthday and showcases the mixed influences of the self-taught artist: from his Haitian and Puerto Rican origins to the New York underground graffiti and music scene. The simple skulls, the vibrant colours and the naive figures will always fascinate me.
