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An intimate look at Jean-Michel Basquiat's art, courtesy of his family

A 1983 photo of then 23-year-old visual artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Lee Jaffe
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Courtesy of the Basquiat family
A 1983 photo of then 23-year-old visual artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

A recently opened exhibition in New York City celebrates the blazing, beloved artwork of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. It includes 200 rarely and never-before-seen paintings, drawings and artifacts. They've been put on display by his sisters – giving an intimate, familial look at the artist's life and career.

There are rooms built into the "Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" exhibition that recreate specific places from his life. Like A VIP room from the Palladium nightclub, studded with photos of the young artist enjoying the high life with his celebrity pals, plus two massive panels Basquiat painted for the club.

One of the panels Basquiat created for the now-shuttered Palladium nightclub in Manhattan, now installed at the "King Pleasure" exhibition.
/ Courtesy of the Basquiat family
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Courtesy of the Basquiat family
One of the panels Basquiat created for the now-shuttered Palladium nightclub in Manhattan, now installed at the "King Pleasure" exhibition.

On the Lower East Side of the early 1980s, visual artists and musicians of all stripes happily commingled. Basquiat had his own experimental band, Gray, that he founded with filmmaker Michael Holman; another Gray member was actor and director Vincent Gallo. One of Basquiat's friends and early buyers was singer Debbie Harry of Blondie. She in turn cast him as a DJ in the video for Blondie's song "Rapture"; he appears just as she begins rapping about their mutual close friend, artist Fab 5 Freddy.

Another space in "King Pleasure" is a recreation of Basquiat's studio on Great Jones Street, in a space he rented from his friend and collaborator Andy Warhol. The room is scattered with his paintings and art books open all over the floor. A TV shows clips from some of his favorite movies, while the music of one of his heroes, Miles Davis, plays overhead. In one corner, one of Basquiat's trench coats is hung up — a potent reminder of the missing artist, who died in 1988 of a heroin overdose at age 27.

The recreation of Basquiat's studio at 57 Great Jones St. in Manhattan within the "King Pleasure" exhibition.
Ivane Katamashvili / Courtesy of the Basquiat family
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Courtesy of the Basquiat family
The recreation of Basquiat's studio at 57 Great Jones St. in Manhattan within the "King Pleasure" exhibition.

These recreations are just one of the ways in which this isn't a typical fine arts exhibition. "King Pleasure" was curated by Basquiat's two younger sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, who oversee their late brother's estate, with the exhibition space designed by noted architect David Adjaye.

Lisane says that the immersive show offers their perspective on Jean-Michel Basquiat. "What we're able to do is provide context," she says, "and to have people who appreciate Jean-Michel's work get a fuller understanding of who this man was on a personal level — where he came from, the family that he was brought up through, and the context within which he started his journey."

Jean-Michel Basquiat's sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux (L) and Lisane Basquiat. The two now oversee their late brother's estate.
Miranda Penn Turin / Courtesy of the Basquiat family
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Courtesy of the Basquiat family
Jean-Michel Basquiat's sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux (L) and Lisane Basquiat. The two now oversee their late brother's estate.

Alongside the paintings and drawings, the show includes many mementos of their family life. But the main draw is still his art: the quick, sure hand that he displayed even as a teenager. The exuberant colors. The trenchant commentaries on race and hierarchy. The smart, sometimes cynical phrases he rendered in text on his canvases. Centuries of artistic and historical references crammed in next to skulls, anatomical drawings and cartoonish cars, ideas pinging off each other just as in the bebop music he loved. His anointing of great Black cultural figures as kings. He sometimes literally crowned them in his work, says his sister Jeanine.

One of the corridors at the "Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" exhibition features works by Basquiat alongside artist Andy Warhol's portrait of his longtime friend and colleague.
Ivane Katamashvili / Courtesy of the Basquiat family
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Courtesy of the Basquiat family
One of the corridors at the "Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" exhibition features works by Basquiat alongside artist Andy Warhol's portrait of his longtime friend and colleague.

"For him, it was very important that Blacks were portrayed in a positive light," Jeanine says. "And so I think that was the main reason that not only did he crown himself, he crowned those heroes." Heroes like Jessie Owens, Joe Louis, and one of his particular idols, saxophonist Charlie Parker.

Writer and Basquiat specialist Chaedria LaBouvier says that "King Pleasure" is a chance for the public to see many works that they wouldn't otherwise get to see. "I thought it was a wonderful display of just quantity," she notes. "When you're talking about Basquiat, 90 percent of his works are in private collection, and most of those are in Europe."

Basquiat's 1983 painting <em>Jailbirds</em>.
/ Courtesy of the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
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Courtesy of the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Basquiat's 1983 painting Jailbirds.

In 2019, LaBouvier curated a Basquiat show for the Guggenheim Museum in New York, as the first solo Black curator to helm an exhibition there. (LaBouvier later accused museum leadership of racism, after which the Guggenheim's artistic director and chief curator, Nancy Spector, left "to pursue other curatorial endeavors and to finish her doctoral dissertation" after more than three decades at the institution. The museum conducted an independent investigation of Spector that cleared her of those charges, though LaBouvier did not participate in that investigation.)

LaBouvier says she wishes that there were more opportunities for scholars to engage with Basquiat's work and his legacy, even as he has become a reference point in pop culture. She notes that the artist's works were often snapped up, just after they were completed, by private collectors in the heated 1980s art market. "How else are you going to see or have access to those works?" she asks. "But there's also this imbalance — when there's not a lot of academic research or scholastic research, our understanding of the artist is compromised."

A 1982 portrait of Basuqiat by photographer James Van Der Zee.
James Van Der Zee / The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
A 1982 portrait of Basuqiat by photographer James Van Der Zee.

What "King Pleasure" doesn't do is evoke the most troubling elements of Basquiat's biography, including his heavy drug use, his mercurial personality, and the accusations he made to friends and interviewers that he had been physically abused by his parents, father Gerard and mother Matilde, as recounted in Phoebe Hoban's 1998 biography, Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art.

Basquiat's sisters deny the abuse accusations. In a written statement to NPR, Lisane said: "We grew up in the 1960s when spanking was a common form of disciplinary action. That doesn't overshadow the incredible passion and commitment that they demonstrated to the three of us. Our parents loved us. They didn't always get it right. but they put their heart and soul into helping us become the best we could be."

Moreover, as a very young, Black man of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat became a superstar in a mostly white high art world that frequently othered and belittled him, even as the market value of his work skyrocketed. His sisters say that the exhibition is a celebration of how much he did accomplish in such a short time.

"That's the story that Jeanine and I wanted to tell is the story of this really complex human being," says Lisane.

"He was very purposeful, and he was very determined," Jeanine adds. "He said, 'I will one day be famous.' And boy, did he make that happen. He was determined."

Tickets for "Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" in New York are currently on sale through the beginning of September.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Corrected: May 3, 2022 at 9:00 PM PDT
An earlier version of this story stated that Chaédria LaBouvier was the first Black woman curator to helm an exhibition for the Guggenheim Museum. In fact, she was the first Black curator.
Anastasia Tsioulcas
Anastasia Tsioulcas is a reporter on NPR's Arts desk. She is intensely interested in the arts at the intersection of culture, politics, economics and identity, and primarily reports on music. Recently, she has extensively covered gender issues and #MeToo in the music industry, including backstage tumult and alleged secret deals in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations against megastar singer Plácido Domingo; gender inequity issues at the Grammy Awards and the myriad accusations of sexual misconduct against singer R. Kelly.