Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Art of Storytelling

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hans Werner Holzwarth, Eleanor Nairne

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Hardback

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English

Taschen
07 September 2020

Art & Architecture; Art & design styles: from c 1960; Graffiti & street art; Individual artists, art monographs

Series: 40th Edition

The legend of Jean-Michel Basquiat is as strong as ever. Synonymous with 1980s New York, the artist first appeared in the late 1970s under the tag SAMO, spraying caustic comments and fragmented poems on the walls of the city. He appeared as part of a thriving underground scene of visual arts and graffiti, hip hop, post-punk, and DIY filmmaking, which met in a booming art world.

As a painter with a strong personal voice, Basquiat soon broke into the established milieu, exhibiting in galleries around the world. His expressive style was based on raw figures and integrated words and phrases. His work is inspired by a pantheon of luminaries from jazz, boxing and basketball, with references to arcane history and the politics of street life, so when asked about his subject matter, Basquiat answered royalty, heroism and the streets.

In 1983, he started collaborating with the most famous of art stars, Andy Warhol, and in 1985 was on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. When he died at the age of 27, he had become one of the most successful artists of his time.

First published in an XXL edition, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Art of Storytelling provides an unprecedented insight into his art and is now available in a compact, accessible volume in celebration of TASCHEN's 40th anniversary. With pristine reproductions of his most seminal paintings, drawings and notebook sketches, it offers vivid proximity to his intricate marks and scribbled words, further illuminated by an introduction to the artist from editor Hans Werner Holzwarth, as well as an essay on his themes and artistic development from curator and art historian Eleanor Nairne.

Richly illustrated year-by-year chapter breaks follow the artist's life, quoting from his own statements and contemporary reviews to provide both personal background and historical context.

About the series TASCHEN turns 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program-now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

By: Jean-Michel Basquiat
Contributions by: Eleanor Nairne
Edited by: Hans Werner Holzwarth
Imprint: Taschen
Country of Publication: Germany
Dimensions: Height: 217mm, Width: 156mm,
Weight: 1.110kg
ISBN: 9783836580922
ISBN 10: 3836580926
Series: 40th Edition
Pages: 512
Publication Date: 07 September 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Eleanor Nairne is a curator at the Barbican Art Gallery. She has worked on a number of critically acclaimed exhibitions and publications, including Basquiat: Boom for Real (2017) and Imran Qureshi: Where the Shadows are so Deep (2016). Prior to the Barbican, she was curator of the Artangel Collection at Tate. She is a regular catalogue essayist, a writer for frieze, and a previous Jerwood Writer in Residence. Hans Werner Holzwarth is a book designer and editor specializing in contemporary art and photography. His TASCHEN publications include the Collector's Editions Jeff Koons, Christopher Wool, Albert Oehlen, Ai Weiwei, and the David Hockney SUMO A Bigger Book, as well as monographs like the XXL-sized Jean-Michel Basquiat and survey books such as Modern Art and Art Now! Vols 3 and 4.

Reviews for Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Art of Storytelling

I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life. * Jean-Michel Basquiat * The most complete monograph on Basquiat that exists. * El País * A must have... Exceptional reproductions of his most important paintings, drawings and sketches, to be shared with lovers of Basquiat's raw art. * vogue.com *