La Fondation Louis Vuitton avait déjà été à l’origine de l’exposition Jean-Michel Basquiat en 2018. L’exploration continue avec un focus sur sa collaboration déterminante avec Andy Warhol au début des années 80 dans un parcours qui électrise.
Un duo marquant de l’art des années 80
C’est peu dire que la période collaborative entre Warhol et Basquiat fut aussi brève que féconde. En un an, de 1984 à 1985, ce sont pas moins de 160 toiles qui ont été peintes ensemble, à 4 mains, pour un résultat considéré comme définitif aujourd’hui. L’amitié entre le maitre du Pop Art et l’artiste clochard des rues de New York auto proclamé Samo n’avait pourtant rien de l’évidence. Mais se sachant considéré comme daté et fini à l’orée des années 80, Warhol a voulu se réchauffer à la flamme du talent de son cadet, le prenant sous son aile pour lui faire rencontrer les gens qui comptent dans l’univers de l’art moderne. Basquiat × Warhol, à quatre mains est rien de moins que l’exposition la plus importante jamais consacrée à cette œuvre majuscule à deux. Elle regroupe plus de 300 œuvres et documents dont 80 toiles signées conjointement. L’exposition propose également des œuvres individuelles de chaque artiste et des œuvres des artistes de ce temps fertile de la scène new yorkaise des années 80 comme Futura 2000, Michael Halsband, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer et Kenny Scharf. L’exposition débute avec la série de portraits croisés qui sont restés dans la légende, Basquiat par Warhol, Warhol par Basquiat, chacun tentant de représenter l’autre à la hauteur de ce qu’il en évalue, plus ou moins subjectivement/objectivement. Puis c’est le temps des premières collaborations initiées par le galeriste des 2 artistes Bruno Bischofberger. Les œuvres s’adjoignent un troisième larron en la personne du peintre italien Francesco Clemente pour une quinzaine d’œuvres à 3. Basquiat et Warhol ont poursuivi leur collaboration avec force et énergie dans des échanges incessants qui enthousiasment les visiteurs tout au long du parcours. Des jalons marquants apparaissent comme la sculpture monumentale Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) ou la toile de 10 mètres de African Mask.
Basquiat admirait Warhol comme le personnage incontournable du monde de l’art qu’il était. L’ainé a vu en Basquiat une nouvelle étape marquante de la culture populaire, sortie des ghettos et de l’underground pour trouver toute sa place. L’exposition souligne ces allers-retours dans un dialogue de styles qui préfigurent l’insertion de la communauté afro-américaine d’aujourd’hui dans le récit nord-américain. L’exposition est à ne pas manquer jusqu’au 20 aout à la Fondation Louis Vuitton.
Publireportage:
| BASQUIAT X WARHOL. PAINTING 4 HANDSFrom April 5 to August 28, the Fondation will continue its exploration of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, revealing, this time, his collaboration with Andy Warhol | |
| B-ROLL FOOTAGE: B-ROLL FOOTAGE IS AVAILABLE FREE OF CHARGE AND WITHOUT COPYRIGHT RESTRICTIONS. B-ROLL FOOTAGE INCLUDES GVS OF EXHIBITON AND INTERVIEWS WITH CURATORS: 00:00 – 02:14: GVs of the exhibition02:15 – 03:54: IV Paige Powell, friend of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol03:55-05:18: Dieter Buchhart, Curator of the ‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’ exhibition05:19-06.08: Suzanne Page, Artistic Director of the Fondation Louis Vuitton06:09-06.48: Olivier Michelon, Associated curator of the ‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’ exhibition B-roll available for download via Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10309542 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT THE 10 GROUP ON +44 (0) 207 637 0656 natasha@the10group.com | +44 7958135223 ellie@the10group.com | +44 7530 007300 |
Thursday 5th April – Paris, France: In 2018, the Fondation Louis Vuitton featured the « Jean-Michel Basquiat » exhibition, a huge success that drew an estimated 700,000 visitors.
In 2023, from April 5 to August 28, the Fondation will continue its exploration of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, revealing, this time, his collaboration with Andy Warhol.
Between 1984 and 1985, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) and Andy Warhol (1928-1987) created around 160 paintings together in tandem, « à quatre mains », including some of the largest works produced during their respective careers. Keith Haring (1958-1990), who witnessed their friendship and collaboration production, would go on to speak of a « conversation occurring through painting, instead of words, » and of two minds merging to create a « third distinctive and unique mind. »
In the spring of 2023 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, « Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands » will be the most important exhibition ever dedicated to this extraordinary body of work. Curated by Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer, in partnership with Olivier Michelon, curator at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the exhibition will bring together more than 300 works and documents including 80 canvases jointly signed by the two artists. Also featured will be individual works by each as well as a set of works by other major artists (Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Kenny Scharf, Michael Halsband…) in order to evoke the energy of the New York downtown art scene of the 1980s. The exhibition will be further enriched and interspersed with photos, including the famous « Boxing Gloves » series of photographs by Michael Halsband produced for the poster of the Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol exhibition in 1985.
The exhibition will open with a series of portraits of Basquiat by Warhol and of Warhol by Basquiat. It will continue with the early collaborations. These works, initiated by the two artists’ dealer, Bruno Bischofberger, benefited from a collaboration with the Italian artist, Francesco Clemente (born in 1952). After completing these fifteen paintings together with Clemente, Basquiat and Warhol pursued their collaboration on an almost daily basis, with enthusiasm and complicity. The energy and force of their incessant exchanges will be the driving force of the exhibition, running through works such as Ten Punching Bags (Last Supper) or the 10-meter-long canvas African Mask.
Basquiat admired Warhol as an elder, a key art world personality, and the pioneer of a new language and of a groundbreaking relationship to pop culture. Warhol, in turn, found in Basquiat a renewed interest in painting. Thanks to him, he went back to painting manually on a very large scale. Warhol’s subjects (newspapers, logos of General Electric, Paramount and the Olympic Games) serve as the basis for whole series of artworks that will punctuate the exhibition.
« Andy would start one (painting) and put something very recognizable on it, or a product logo, and I would sort of deface it. Then I would try to get him to work some more on it, I would try to get him to do at least two things » explained Basquiat. « I drew it first and then I painted it like Jean -Michel. I think those paintings we‘re doing to gether are better when you can‘t tell who did which parts « noted Warhol.
The exhibition will show these back and forths – a dialogue of styles and forms that also tackles crucial subjects such as the integration of the African-American community into the narrative of North-America – a continent in which Warhol was a leading manufacturer of icons.
-The End-
The Broll can be downloaded free of charge from – https://vimeo.com/showcase/10309542 – and you can download imagery from here.
For more information, please contact The 10 Group on:
natasha@the10group.com | +44 7958135223
ellie@the10group.com | +44 7530 007300
Notes to Editors
Press kits are available to download here:
French : https://presse.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/basquiat-warhol-a-quatre-mains/
English : https://presse.fondationlouisvuitton.fr/basquiat-warhol-painting-four-hands/?lang=en
About Fondation Louis Vuitton
The Fondation grounds its commitment to the contemporary arts within an historical perspective. In 2006, the LVMH Group and its companies opened a new chapter in their history of patronage with the creation of the Fondation Louis Vuitton. The building itself was inaugurated on 24 October 2014, the result of nearly 25 years of commitment to the arts, culture and heritage.
Driven by its mission to serve the public, the Fondation is committed to making art and culture accessible to all. To promote the arts both nationally and internationally, it hosts temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, presents works held in its collection, commissions artists to create site-specific pieces, and stages events across the cultural spectrum (concerts, performances, conferences, film screenings, dance and more).
