In the history of art, great partnerships are extremely rare. For a brief period in the 1980s, icons like Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat led the way. There was a loud explosion to begin with. They had lunch together in October of 1982, and Warhol, then 54, took a polaroid of himself with Basquiat, then 22. Basquiat took the portrait commission and finished it in under two hours at his studio. Warhol was awestruck by how brilliant it was. Basquiat's masks, skulls, graffiti, and obscure symbols were soon joined by Warhol's pop art imagery, logos, and newspaper headlines in collaborative portraits. During their brief but productive time together, from 1983 to 1985, they created around 160 separate works.
Seventy of them, culled primarily from private collections, will be on display at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris beginning on Wednesday. Dieter Buchhart, the show's chief curator and a Basquiat expert, remarked, "It's definitely the most successful collaboration in the history of art between two great artists. It's never been matched at this level or in this short space of time." As we move from room to room, we see this collision of styles, ages, and personalities, and we marvel at the surprising harmony that results. The museum's artistic director, Suzanne Page, has stated, "It is neither Warhol, nor Basquiat, but a third artist that emerges." She told AFP that the pair "played with and provoked each other with great generosity." "Warhol permitted Basquiat's interventions to completely subvert him."
In the monumental, 10-meter-long (33-foot) "African Masks," it is difficult to tell where one artist's work ends and another's begins. Among the more surprising are works like "Ten Punching Bags," which was never exhibited during either artist's lifetimes despite featuring a drawing by Warhol of Jesus Christ's face based on Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" with the word "judge" and a crown of thorns added by Basquiat. When they worked together, cartoonist and mutual friend Keith Haring described the results as a "conversation in painting." Haring also makes a cameo appearance in the exhibition. However, there were also skeptics. A single artist's vision is what should guide the creation of many felt portraits.
Fans of both artists saw them more as two great jazz musicians who could riff off each other. Warhol was revitalized by Basquiat, and Basquiat gave Warhol new life. Page remarked that "it released an incredible energy," and on a more basic level, the two of them had a similar innate talent for composition and color coordination. Warhol was not as disengaged as he sometimes came across; whereas Basquiat was the more serious, socially engaged artist, "carried by anger" at the invisibility of black people. Basquiat's "social engagement side" was something he "accepted and shared," Page said. "Warhol, in his own way, was engaged; he was a very complex creature." Basquiat's approach, which might have been seen as impudent by some observers (such as when the younger artist scrawled over works that Warhol had left around his Factory studio), was fully accepted by the veteran artist. The two worked together to a happy conclusion. Both Warhol and Basquiat, however, would pass away within two years, Warhol from a routine operation and Basquiat from an overdose of heroin. Already household names around the world, their popularity would only increase.
Selena Mattei
