Jean-Michel Basquiat. 40th Ed.
Eleanor Nairne is the Barbican Art Gallery's curator. She has contributed to a number of critically lauded exhibitions and publications, including Basquiat: Boom for Real (2017) and Imran Qureshi: Where the Shadows are so Deep (2017). (2016). Prior to joining the Barbican, she was curator of Tate's Artangel Collection. She is a regular catalogue essayist, frieze writer, and former Jerwood Writer in Residence.
Hans Werner Holzwarth is a modern art and photography book designer and editor. Collector's Editions by Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Albert Oehlen, Ai Weiwei, and David Hockney SUMO A Bigger Book are among his TASCHEN products, as are monographs such as the XXL-sized Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Jean-Michel Basquiat's legend is as powerful as ever. The artist, who became synonymous with 1980s New York, first debuted in the late 1970s under the moniker SAMO, spraying caustic comments and fragmented poems across the city's walls. He was a part of a burgeoning underground community of visual arts and graffiti, hip hop, post-punk, and DIY cinema that intersected in a dynamic art world. Basquiat quickly established himself as a painter with a distinct personal voice, exhibiting in galleries all over the world.
Basquiat's expressive technique was centered on raw figures with words and phrases interwoven. When asked about his subject matter, Basquiat replied, "royalty, heroism, and the streets." His work is influenced by a pantheon of superstars from jazz, boxing, and basketball, with references to ancient history and the politics of street life. In 1983, he began cooperating with Andy Warhol, the most famous of art icons, and in 1985, he was featured on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. Basquiat was one of the most accomplished artists of his generation when he died at the age of 27.
This extraordinary glimpse into Basquiat's art, first published in a XXL edition, is now available in a compact, accessible volume in celebration of TASCHEN's 40th anniversary. It offers vivid proximity to Basquiat's intricate marks and scribbled words, with pristine reproductions of his most seminal paintings, drawings, and notebook sketches, and is further illuminated by an introduction to the artist from editor Hans Werner Holzwarth, as well as an essay on his themes and artistic development from curator and art historian Eleanor Nairne. Year-by-year chapter breaks follow the artist's life and quote from his own remarks and current reviews to provide personal history as well as historical perspective. Jean-Michel Basquiat. 40th Ed. is one of the best books on art history.
Author: Eleanor Nairne and Hans Werner Holzwarth
Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Basquiat-40th-Anniversary-Eleanor-Nairne/dp/3836580926/
Ratings: 4.9 out of 5 stars (from 1255 reviews)
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#1 in Individual Artist Monographs
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#4 in Art History (Books)
