Fans of Jean-Michel Basquiat will have to hurry.
"Our Friend Jean," an exhibit of early artworks, poems and partial screenplays by the 1980s art superstar at the Dillard University art gallery opens Monday and closes Sunday. The exhibit is also closed Thanksgiving Day.
The collection of small works, presented by The Bishop Gallery in Brooklyn, is traveling to six historically Black colleges and universities.
Basquiat rose to fame in the 1980s New York art scene, with agitated, expressive paintings that included themes of racial and economic inequity, alienation and anxiety. Though Basquiat died of a drug overdose 34 years ago, he remains a touchstone for many contemporary painters.
John H. Barnes Jr., Dillard University associate professor of visual arts discusses ‘Our Friend Jean,’ an exhibit of early works by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
“Basquiat is still important, because we keep getting waves of his influence with every generation,” said John H. Barnes Jr., Dillard University associate professor of visual arts, as he provided a preview glimpse of the show. Basquiat’s talent, Barnes said, “is the gift that keeps on giving.”
“He was so prolific in such a short time,” Barnes said, that unknown Basquiat artworks continue to be revealed by individuals across the world. Many of the drawings and collages in "Our Friend Jean," were gathered by Basquiat’s former girlfriend and roommate, Alexis Adler.
Wandering the exhibit, Barnes said, might be a little like visiting the couple’s apartment decades ago. At the time, the future celebrity only dreamed of fame and fortune. He was still in the process of inventing his style and world view.
“We see the building blocks, the elements,” Barnes said. “And the innocence.”
In a small painted collage, labeled “Public Enemy Number One,” Basquiat displayed his political leanings, when he replaced the faces on a wanted poster with an American flag and a Coca-Cola logo.
His miniature portrait of actor Rock Hudson, one of the first celebrities to reveal that he’d contracted AIDS, is spattered with black ink, ominously symbolizing the spread of the deadly epidemic.
In a sketch titled “Little Monkey,” Basquiat coupled a splintery human figure with a splotch of yellow spray paint, possibly indicating his allegiance with graffiti writers.
Barnes said the exhibit organizers did not provide images of sample works from the show and prohibited photos, though all of the works can bee seen on The Bishop Gallery website.
Basquiat’s art is often considered an example of the neo-expressionism popular around the world in the 1980s. Barnes described it in New Orleans style.
“I see it as jazz,” he said. “It’s full of improvisation, and there’s an absence of rules.”
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“Our Friend Jean”
WHERE: Dillard University, 2601 Gentilly Boulevard, Cook Communications Center, Room 106
WHEN: From 10 a.m. to 4, Nov. 21 to 27, closed Thanksgiving Day
FREE
‘Our Friend Jean,’ an intimate exhibit of early works by the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at the Dillard University art gallery takes place only between Nov. 21 and 27