Editors: Delia Ciuha et al.
The American painter and draughtsman Jean-Michel, 1960-1988, ranks among the most compelling personalities of recent art history. Inspired by music or comic strips, his powerful compositions combine the mundane with the magic of his African roots.
Hatje Cantz, 2010; 244 pp.; EN; ills. b/w & col; hb
hb € 49,80
Comprehensive retrospective in celebration of the artists fiftieth birthday
American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (19601988) quickly became one of art historys most luminescent personalities; his friendships with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Madonna, as well as his tragic death at the age of twenty-seven, are the stuff of legend. This retrospective publication traces the artists unique career and pinpoints his important position in art history. Basquiats works are marked by the kind of intensity and energy that also determined the course of his brief life. In just eight yearscomparable to the career of Egon SchieleBasquiat not only managed to create an extensive oeuvre, but also to establish new figurative and expressive elements alongside Conceptual and Minimal Art. At the age of twenty-one, he became the youngest artist ever to be invited to the documenta, while his work also anticipated that of Germanys Junge Wilde movement and the art of the nineties.