Jean-Michel Basquiat may well have been the epitome of a New Yorker to many - the near-mythical Lower East Side graffiti artist who was born in the city, discovered there, died there, and was friend and collaborator with fellow famous New York resident Andy Warhol.
As the exhibition at Gagosian’s Beverly Hills space set outs though, some of the best work Basquiat would produce came from his visits to the other side of the country and an altogether different city.
It was in the early eighties that Larry Gagosian met Basquiat in New York and invited him to Los Angeles. Gagosian had himself only recently opened his first gallery on La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood, “I wasn’t very far along in my career as an art dealer when I met Basquiat,” he says.
This fortuitous coming-together would lead to a highly creative juncture in Basquiat's artistic journey, and encourage him to produce some of his most critically acclaimed works. It is therefore somewhat interesting that this piece of the Basquiat story is, according to not least a source as his long-time champion Jeffrey Deitch, both relatively little-known and at the same time one of the most important points of his career.
Gagosian emphasised the impact of the L.A. exhibitions in a 2012 interview, saying “it’s one thing to have a successful show in New York with the local people, but then to move that type of work to Los Angeles and have it resonate…”
“I’d been thinking about a show like this for a while… I called Fred and said, ‘let’s just do it, let’s commit to it.’ I just felt the time was right” - GagosianHaving met Basquiat at Annina Nosei’s SoHo gallery Gagosian would be the first person to show him on the West Coast where, working and living on the same street and sometimes the same property as the dealer, the artist would go on to produce hundreds of works during extended visits to L.A. in 1982/3 and 1984.
After his first show with Gagosian Gallery, Basquiat moved into a studio floor at Gagosian’s Venice Beach house along with his then-girlfriend Madonna (though unknown at the time he told his host “she's going to be huge”). This house was located in Market Street hence the exhibition’s title - and there he would often work late into the night, although unsurprisingly given the strong musical side of his life he also quickly become actively involved in the city’s club and music scene.
“it was a highlight of my own career to work with him, to introduce him to Los Angeles, and to witness the amazing impact that his art and legacy have made on our culture” - Gagosian During this stay in Los Angeles Gagosian also paired Basquiat with Fred Hoffman, suggesting that the artist work with Hoffman’s printing company, and the two would go on to produce many editions, notably the monumental “Tuxedo”, sixteen individual works assembled into a single silkscreen of almost eight by five feet - “Tuxedo” is one of the highlights of the exhibition.
"Made on Market Street" highlights an important, interesting, and under-recognized stage in Basquiat’s brief but brilliant artistic journey. The exhibition is curated by Fred Hoffman with Larry Gagosian and is designed by Stefan Beckman. It brings together nearly thirty works, including several of Basquiat’s most important, as well as paintings exhibited together for the first time since their creation.
The accompanying catalogue adds archival material including images from the two L.A. exhibitions at Larry Gagosian Gallery, historical ephemera, exhibition reviews, and previously unpublished photographs of Basquiat in his studio.
“someone asked [Geffen] how to be successful in business… David’s answer was ‘keep your head down and hope you bump into a genius’ - Basquiat certainly was that genius for me” - Gagosian
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Made on Market Street runs 7 Mar - 1 Jun 2024 at Gagosian in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
portrait of Larry Gagosian and Jean-Michel Basquiat c. 1982; Jean-Michel Basquiat: Tuxedo, 1983, © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York, Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio, Courtesy Gagosian; Jean-Michel Basquiat: Hollywood Africans, 1983, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Douglas S. Cramer, © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York, Photo: © Whitney Museum of American Art/Licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY Courtesy Gagosian
