Beschreibung:

Jean-Michel-Basquiat and Andy Warhol Third Eye 1985 Acrylic on canvas. 80 3/4 x 128 3/4 in. (205.1 x 327 cm.)
Provenance The artists, New York; Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich; Acquired from the above by the present owner Exhibited Lyon, Maison Lyon, 2ème Biennale d’Art Contemporain, September 3 – October 13, 1993, p. 265 (illustrated in color); Kassel, Museum Fridericianum and Munich, Museum Villa Stuck, Collaborations Warhol ∙ Basquiat ∙ Clemente, February 4 – September 29, 1996, p. 90 (illustrated in color); Torino, Castello di Rivoli, Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Collaborations: Warhol Basquiat Clemente, October 17, 1996 – January 19, 1997, p. 139 (illustrated in color); Zurich, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Jean-Michel-Basquiat & Andy Warhol – Collaborations, December 10, 1998 – March 13, 1999; Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Warhol Basquiat Clemente – Obras en Colaboración, February 5 – April 29, 2002, p. 86 (illustrated in color); Milan, Fondazione La Triennale di Milano, The Andy Warhol Show, September 20, 2004 – January 9, 2005, p. 282, no. 208 (illustrated in color) Literature Art Press 183, International Edition, 1993, p. 38 (illustrated in color); M. Dachy, T. Raspail and T. Prat, 2ème Biennale d’Art Contemporain, Et Tous Ils Changent Le Monde, Lyon, 1993, p. 265 (illustrated in color); Atelier Magazine, No. 802, Japan, 1995, pp. 64-65 (illustrated in color); I. Gianelli, J.B. Danzker, T. Osterwold, T. Fairbrother et al., Collaborations Warhol ∙ Basquiat ∙ Clemente, Ostfildern and Torino, 1996, p. 139 (illustrated in color); T. Osterwold, Collaborations Warhol ∙ Basquiat ∙ Clemente, Ostfildern, 1996, p. 90 (illustrated in color); J.M. Bonet, R.D. Marshall and E. Juncosa, Warhol Basquiat Clemente – Obras en Colaboración, Madrid, 2002, p. 86 (illustrated in color) G. Mercurio and D. Morera, The Andy Warhol Show, Milan, 2004, p. 282, no. 208 (illustrated in color) Catalogue Essay Please note that this work has been requested and promised to be included in the forthcoming exhibition Warhol and Basquiat at the Arken Museum of Modern Art, Denmark from September 3, 2011 to January 14, 2012. The exhibition will be curated by Dieter Buchhart, the curator of the Basquiat Retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler 2010-2011. Jean-Michel-Basquiat and Andy Warhol were two of the most brilliant artists of their generations, if not the most brilliant. Basquiat and Warhol’s friendship began just as Warhol’s career was beginning to calm down from the frenzy of the 1960s and 70s and Basquiat’s career was beginning to explode. With the Collaborations, the foremost art figure of the previous two decades was joining artistic forces with the wild-child of the 1980s. Much like Warhol, Basquiat first became famous for his art and then became famous for being famous. Basquiat began his career as a graffiti artist, under the tag name SAMO (Same Old Shit). At that time, the purpose of graffiti art was to obtain a level of fame — a certain status and recognition and this was always Basquiat’s goal. He saw Andy Warhol as being number one and he wanted that same level of fame and respect. And he would indeed achieve that level of celebrity in an incredibly short period of time — within a span of two years he went from living on the streets to being a millionaire and celebrity. Basquiat’s life was a whirlwind of extremes. He “captured the downtown pulse of his time, for good and ill, and defined some key cultural crossovers. The son of Haitian and Puerto Rican parents, he embodied the emerging doctrine of multiculturalism and jumbled up various traditions with devilmay- care energy…He did not have much formal training as a painter and did not pretend otherwise, perhaps sensing that without a long apprenticeship, pretenders to the high tradition become derivative artists. Instead, he developed a distinctive, rough style that has the aura of a self-taught, sui generis outsider who lives in the middle of nowhere. Except, of course, that this smart naïf lived in the heart of the New York art world” (M. Stevens, “American Graffitti,” New Yor