Basquiat: Boom For Real
A New Book Focuses on his Cultural Influences
Jean-Michel Basquiat may have died at age 27 in 1988, but the prolific American artist is still making giant waves in the art world. On May 18, 2017, at a Sotheby‘s auction, his 1982 painting, Untitled, set a record high for any U.S. artist at auction: selling for $110,500,000.
The timing of that humongous sale, coincides with the release of a fantastic new book focusing on the inspirations behind the artist’s work, Basquiat Boom for Real by Dieter Buchhart, Eleanor Nairne, and Lotte Johnson (Prestel Publishing). It arrived in stores in November 2017, focusing on the vast number of cultural influences Basquiat infused into his work: the downtown art scene of the 80s, his relationship to film and television, and of course, music, which was so important to Basquiat’s work.
The release of the book accompanied a major exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, the first large scale show of Basquiat’s work in Great Britain. It closed last month but was such a huge success, we hope it will be brought to the United States.
Here are a few of the paintings featured in the book and the show:
