Our Friend, Jean - The Bishop Gallery

PHOTO © Alexis Adler

Our Friend, Jean

“Our Friend, Jean” is a sampling of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s earliest works on loan from several collectors who knew him intimately, as friends, collaborators, and lovers. Featuring 20 plus artworks including drawings, writings, apparel, mixed media collages, and ephemera. The group of collectors consists of Jane Diaz, Hilary Jaeger, Katie Taylor, Lucy Sante, Al Diaz, and photographer Alexis Adler who also served as a co-curator with Erwin John and Stevenson Dunn, Jr.. Through this exhibition each collector shares uniquely intimate stories of their friend Jean.

The exhibition lends a voice to the unsung collectors of the world, those who offer an artist critical early support out of genuine friendship. It is precisely this type of support that can spring board an artist’s career to unimaginable heights. This was certainly the case for Jean-Michel Basquiat. An original Basquiat work can fetch tens of millions of dollars; one recently set a Christie’s auction record at $110 million when it was sold to the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. Many of these high-priced works are owned by collectors like Maezawa who have never met Basquiat and even the collectors who have met him in person couldn’t claim to have had a friendship with him. Friendship is what distinguishes the group of collectors who are lending their works to the “Our Friend, Jean” exhibition.

*Our Friend, Jean debuted in Brooklyn, New York at The Bishop Gallery in 2019 and then went on a first ever 6 city HBCU Tour, making Jean-Michel Basquiat’ works accessible like never before. University’s include, Hampton University, Howard University, Clark Atlanta University, Tennessee State University, Dillard University and Texas Southern University. Plans are in the works to bring the collection back to Brooklyn, where it will be on display in his hometown for viewership, research and study.

Selected Works

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an influential Hatiain, Puerto Rican, American artist who gained prominence in the 1980s as a leading figure of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat initially garnered attention in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al Diaz. Together, they inscribed enigmatic epigrams across Manhattan, particularly in the culturally vibrant Lower East Side, where rap, punk, and street art converged into the burgeoning hip-hop culture. By the early 1980s, Basquiat's paintings were being showcased in galleries and museums worldwide. At just 21, he became the youngest artist to participate in Documenta in Kassel, Germany, and at 22, he was one of the youngest artists to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. In 1992, the Whitney Museum of American Art honored him with a retrospective of his work.

Basquiat's art delved into themes of dichotomy such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. His work seamlessly blended poetry, drawing, and painting, uniting text and image, abstraction and figuration, as well as historical information and contemporary critique. Through his paintings, Basquiat offered social commentary, using his art as a medium for introspection and to reflect on his experiences within the Black community, while also critiquing power structures and systems of racism.

Moments from the tour

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Moment 2

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Moment 3

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Moment 5

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