Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol’s fruitful partnership explored in Paris

Exploring the fruitful relationship between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, ‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’ is at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris until 28 August 2023, building on the venue’s 2018 show, ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat’.

Curated by Dieter Buchhart and Anna Karina Hofbauer, in partnership with Olivier Michelon, curator at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the exhibition encompasses more than 80 paintings jointly signed by both artists. It is a snapshot of the duo’s productive period between 1983 and 1985, which resulted in 160 paintings created together, including some of their largest works. The pieces are shown alongside photographs, documents and work from other artists, including Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Lady Pink, Futura 2000, LA II, and Kenny Scharf. 

‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’

An exploration of the stylistic influences both artists had on each other’s work is at the heart of the retrospective, which was originally sparked by a Basquiat self-portrait, showing himself with Warhol, that was admired by the president of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Bernard Arnault. Created in 1982, it marked the duo’s first meeting, arranged by Warhol’s gallerist Bruno Bischofberger. 

Says Arnault, ‘In New York, [Bischofberger] regularly arranged for Andy Warhol to meet young artists he also represented, and on 4 October 1982, he introduced Jean-Michel Basquiat to Andy Warhol, whose work at the time largely centred on portraits. Warhol often finished these meetings with a painting of the person he had met. This time, however, he found the tables turned when Basquiat abruptly declined to join them for lunch and went directly to his studio to paint this double portrait, presenting himself as an equal to his elder. Two hours later, his assistant brought the barely dry painting to Warhol. “Oh, I’m so jealous! He’s faster than me,” the artist exclaimed.’

The subsequent collaborations were subject to a relaxed choreography, with the artists creating together and responding to each other’s pieces in a way of working Keith Haring later termed a ‘conversation’. With one artist taking over from the other during sessions, the influence of both is naturally felt in these works, from Basquiat’s use of silkscreen in his polyphonic art to Warhol’s re-embracing of brushwork.

‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’ traces this journey, beginning with the original portrait that marked the start of their collaboration, Dos Cabezas, and proceeding through to explicit examples of their partnership. Included is Olympic Rings, painted by hand by Warhol and featuring Basquiat’s interventions, such as his blackening of some of the rings and making a black face visible, a theme seen throughout. Work considers the integration of the African-American community into the north American culture narrative, contemplated again in African Masks, thought to be a reworking of the 1984-85 New York Museum of Modern Art exhibition, ‘“Primitivism” in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern’.

The pieces are shown alongside works from other artists in a real-time replication of the environment, in often playful riffs on contemporary culture. Futura 2000 and Kenny Scharf’s partnership muses on the creativity in collaboration, while photographer Michael Halsband’s series, made at Basquiat’s request, depicts the two artists as boxers. A context is provided by Jenny Holzer and Lady Pink’s spraypainted canvas, and Keith Haring and Warhol’s 1985 collaboration, both joyfully indicative of downtown New York’s 1980s art scene. 

‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting 4 Hands’ 5 April – 28 August 2023, Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, Bois de Boulogne, Paris

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