<p></p>
<p>The
Fondation Louis Vuitton looks back on a legendary collaboration with more than
300 works</p>
<p></p>

Matthieu Jacquet

Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat: two Americans in Paris

<p>In collaboration with <em>Numéro art</em></p>
<p><a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6751/Andy-Warhol">Andy Warhol</a> (1928–1987)
and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6731/Jean-Michel-Basquiat">Jean-Michel Basquiat</a> (1960–1988) might never have met. In addition to a
32-year age gap, the two artists came from completely different backgrounds.
The first, a native of Pittsburgh, graduated in fine arts and made his debut in
advertising and shoe design in New York in the 1950s. The second grew up in
Brooklyn in the 1960s, raised in a family of Haitian origin, and started his
career as a street artist under the now famous alias, SAMO. </p>
<p>Although 1982 is often cited as the year the two first met over lunch, they had in fact already met three years earlier. At the time, Basquiat was only 17 and spent his days on the street trying to sell postcard collages to passersby. One day, he saw Warhol with Henry Geldzahler, then director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in a restaurant in Soho, New York. Basquiat took matters into his own hands and approached them with two of his artworks, which they bought for $1 each. Although that moment was unforgettable for Basquiat, it wasn’t as memorable for Warhol, who remained rather dubious about the young artist’s potential over the following years.</p>

<p>In 1983 while Basquiat was staying at Bruno Bischofberger’s place in St. Moritz in Switzerland, the gallery owner was amazed to discover the New York painter’s marks on the drawings of his three-year-old daughter. A brilliant idea came to him: to invite the young art prodigy to create works with other renowned painters, in order to allow his talent to shine through. When he presented the idea to an enthusiastic Basquiat, the latter immediately mentioned Warhol. </p>
<p>This project came at just the right time for Warhol, who, after flourishing in the 1960s, was now more discreet, less daring, and mainly making portraits for celebrities and rich businessmen. Bischofberger also suggested <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/6899/Francesco-Clemente">Francesco Clemente</a>, who was close to Basquiat, as a third participant. From 1983 to 1984, the three artists agreed to produce about 15 pieces together and their six-handed project was launched. </p>

<p>The three-way collaboration took a new turn when Warhol and Basquiat decided to extend it as a duo. At the Factory, the two painters produced artworks together this time. Their brushstrokes became freer as the format of their canvases increased to 8 meters wide (<em>Chair</em>, 1985) and almost 3 meters high (<em>6.99</em> and <em>Mind Energy</em>, both 1985). They blurred the line between fine art and mass visual communication and the compositions have large expressive areas of bright, complementary colors. According to the artistic director of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Suzanne Pagé, the works combine the ‘raw and direct,’ aesthetic of Basquiat, and the ‘distance, even indifference, not without irony,’ of Warhol. Both men found their own rhythm, producing an extensive series of works. </p>
<p>From one painting to the next, recurring elements arise. For instance, we find Warhol’s reproduction of the GE logo, from the American multinational energy company General Electric, and a map of China – a country that had fascinated the artist for over a decade because of its culture, Chairman Mao, and the visual codes of communist propaganda. As a tribute to Warhol’s iconic album cover for <em>The Velvet Underground</em> <em>&</em> <em>Nico</em> (1967), Basquiat regularly brings bananas into the picture, along with African masks – to which the two painters devoted an entire piece in 1984.  </p>


<p>The two artists often respond to each other with their respective interpretation of the same subject – Basquiat’s grinning mouth full of sharp teeth echoes Warhol’s smooth dentures, while the lightning bolt logo of the electronics brand Zenith crosses paths with bodies convulsed by electric shocks. Opening the exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, is the artwork <em>Arm and Hammer II </em>(1985), named after the eponymous brand of cleaning products. The work explicitly shows this mirroring: two versions of the circular red Arm & Hammer logo sit side by side on a golden background – to the one on the right, Warhol has added a muscular arm lifting a dumbbell, while Basquiat has painted a saxophonist inside the circular red frame on his side. Although the curves of the instrument echo those of the biceps, the two elements offer two conceptions of masculinity, with the precise logo contrasting with the more expressive figure.</p>

<p>In
the spring of 1985, Bischofberger was surprised to see how successful his idea
had been – to the extent that the two artists had taken it over without even
informing him. When he exhibited around 20 of these works for the first time a
few months later, the critical reception was almost unanimously negative. The
radical approach of the young Basquiat was still a long way off winning over
the public, while the art institutions, were ‘not yet ready’ for him according
to the gallery owner and were completely uninterested. Only a few collectors
saw the potential of the encounter between an established artist and his protégé.
Basquiat, who was very sensitive, was deeply affected by the lukewarm reception
of the work. He decided to put an end to his collaborations and distance
himself from his elder. More seasoned and used to criticism, Warhol nonetheless
saw the limits of the collaboration when the<em> New York
Times</em> described Basquiat as his ‘mascot,’ who he had
manipulated to obtain this rich bounty of work.</p>

<p>Although the two artists never worked together again after 1985, this episode in their careers gave a new and salutary impetus to their practices. Basquiat’s mission, which was to give Warhol a taste for painting, was accomplished. Lamenting the end of their collaboration, the king of Pop art confessed that the young man got him ‘into painting differently.’ ‘Warhol was an old wild animal, but he became even wilder under the effect of his enthusiasm for Basquiat,’ Bischofberger acknowledged, seeing in the former’s new solo paintings the trace of their collaborations, but without the latter’s touch. Basquiat, for his part, kept developing his silkscreen and ceramic practice using the process he had previously employed with his idol, and he went on to work with other artists on the New York scene such as <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8196/Keith-Haring">Keith Haring</a>, Stefano Castronovo, and <a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8201/Kenny-Scharf">Kenny Scharf</a> on posters, fabric, vases, and even clothing. </p>
<p>Warhol and Basquiat remained friends until they both passed away in the late 1980s, a year apart – without ever imagining the huge posthumous success their collaborative works would enjoy.</p>

<p>This article is part of a yearlong collaboration between Paris+ par Art Basel and <em>Numéro art</em>. Click <a href="https://www.numero.com/en/art/exposition-collaboration-basquiat-warhol-fondation-louis-vuitton-paris">here</a> to read the original article.</p>
<p>‘Basquiat x Warhol. Painting four hands’<br>Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris<br>Until August 28, 2023<br></p>


<p>English translation: Numéro art.</p>
<p>Published on April 27, 2023.</p>
<p>Caption for full-bleed images, from top to bottom: 1.&nbsp;Jean-Michel Basquiat, <em>Brown Spots (Portrait of Andy Warhol as a<br>Banana)</em>, 1984.&nbsp;Courtesy of Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Männedorf-Zurich.&nbsp;© Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Licensed by Artestar,&nbsp;New York,&nbsp;© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. /&nbsp;Licensed by ADAGP, Paris 2023. 2.&nbsp;Andy Warhol, Francesco Clemente, Jean-Michel Basquiat,&nbsp;<em>Premonition</em>, 1984. Courtesy of&nbsp;Hubert Burda Foundation.&nbsp;© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. /&nbsp;Licensed by ADAGP, Paris 2023 © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Licensed by Artestar, New York. 3.&nbsp;Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, <em>Arm and Hammer II</em>, 1985.&nbsp;Courtesy of&nbsp;Galerie Bruno Bischofberger,&nbsp;Männedorf-Zurich.&nbsp;© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by ADAGP, Paris 2023 © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Licensed by Artestar, New York. 4.&nbsp;Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, <em>OP OP</em>, 1984.&nbsp;© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by ADAGP, Paris 2023 © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Licensed by Artestar, New York.</p>

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The Fondation Louis Vuitton looks back on a legendary collaboration with more than 300 works

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