‘Badassery in Action’: New Basquiat exhibit reveals the man behind the mythology

By Vittoria Benzine

(Chrisopher Makos)

With the opening of the new exhibit “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure,” a legend becomes human once more.

The late artist’s extended family unveiled the exhibit at the Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea on April 9, marking the first-ever exhibition of the artist’s sweeping private estate. On display are more than 200 never-before- and rarely-seen works of art, ephemera, and artifacts. The 15,000 square foot show guides viewers through a chronology of Basquiat’s life story—spread over seven rooms with titles like “Kings County” and “Palladium”—all designed by architect David Adjaye, whose credits include The National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C.

“King Pleasure” celebrates Jean-Michel Basquiat the man, as opposed to the deity he’s become in pop culture. While the artist’s fame may be well-deserved, idolatry can rob a person of the humanity that made them so well-loved in the first place. “King Pleasure” aims to create a more intimate—if sanitized—portrait, curated from the ground up by the artist’s sisters Lisanne Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, his stepmother Nora Fitzpatrick, and with help from the whole family.

“There’s the Brooklyn story, and there’s the New York story,” Lisanne Basquiat tells Brooklyn Magazine. Most people know the latter. Basquiat certainly enjoyed immense fame while alive—befriending Andy Warhol, appearing on the cover of New York Times Magazine in 1985, jet-setting from Zurich to Modena for openings, and working with gallerist Annina Nosei alongside Keith Haring, who would write Basquiat’s eulogy when he passed away from an overdose at 27 in 1988.

In all, Basquiat’s legacy is contained in 917 drawings, 25 sketchbooks, 85 prints, and 171 paintings, according to journalist Phoebe Hoban’s biography “Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art.” Many are on view for the first time in “King Pleasure,” which takes visitors on a chronological tour of Basquiat’s life from his earliest years in Brooklyn during the 1960s to his ascent, zenith, and untimely passing, which casts a shadow over the entire show. A Warhol portrait of Jean-Michel watches on.

A room called “Kings County” takes us into Basquiat’s adolescence. School newsletters illustrated by the young artist for City-As-School—his alma mater, and one of America’s oldest alternative educational institutions—occupy glass cases alongside early sketchbooks and personal notes.

Visitors are then invited, quite literally, into the Basquiat home by stepping into a full-scale replica of the family’s living room in Boerum Hill, where they lived before relocating to Puerto Rico for several years (Jean-Michel’s mother Matilde was a Brooklyn-born artist of Puerto Rican descent; his father, Gerard, a Haitian immigrant). Actual furniture and decor from their home are brought to life with assistance from a projected photo reel and period-specific soundtrack (which you can bump at home courtesy of “King Pleasure” sponsor Spotify). Exit the space and enter “World Famous,” a cavernous room of Basquiat’s first fine art—painted on wooden pallets and doors alike.

Chez Basquiat (Ivane Katamashvili)

Heriveaux hopes people leave knowing more about her brother’s range. “Not only did he sketch and paint and draw—he was a poet,” she says. “He was an actor, he was a producer. He auditioned to be a member of a noise band. He walked the runway for Commes des Garcons in Paris.”

The space called “Ideal” recreates the artist’s hallowed studio at 57 Great Jones Street in Manhattan. This portion opens with the artist’s own bicycle, “his main method of transportation since he had trouble catching a cab,” the press release informs us, chained to the studio’s recreated exterior. Inside, the space holds artworks from this storied era in Basquiat’s oeuvre–but also the artist’s own VHS tapes, books, discarded packs of Marlboro Reds and the aforementioned Commes des Garcons jacket.

Basquiat’s ‘studio’ (Ivane Katamashvili)

“We are looking to show Jean-Michele as a collector, Jean-Michele as a prankster, Jean-Michele as a creative, Jean-Michel as a friend,” explains Heriveaux. “King Pleasure” leans into the artist’s whole person, rather than his mythology, as the source of his narrative.

There is, of course, the work. The series of three galleries following “Ideal” will prove the real focal point for diehard art fans, displaying over 100 paintings and drawings. Each room centers around a different topic, including Black creative royalty, the irony Basquiat saw in Black police officers, and his suspicion of glamor. These rooms alone offer a collection richer than any established museum has previously housed.

‘Jailbirds,’ 1983 (The estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat)

“He’s an artist who sums up a lot of the 20th century—Picasso, Rauschenberg, Twombly—but he is also influential to a new generation of artists,” the gallerist Joe Nahmad told the New York Times. “He leads you into the future—to what is happening today.”

“King Pleasure” concludes with a replica of the Michael Todd VIP Room at the city’s iconic Palladium—which is now an NYU dorm, but was once a fabled nightclub where Basquiat installed two paintings: “Nu-Nile” and “Untitled,” both from 1985. The room has been recreated by Italian design firm Arper and the pulsating Soft Cell soundtrack will have you dancing before full-color photos from a long-gone NYC nightlife.

The Palladium, resurrected (Ivane Katamashvili)

Back then, Basquiat’s sisters couldn’t have imagined they’d be in this position four decades later. “Never in my wildest dreams,” Herivaeux says of her late brother’s fame. “Much later, once his fame took off and he started selling in galleries. But early on, no.”

Adds Lisanne Basquiate, “As a kid, I never imagined that Jean-Michel would die.” They agreed a family exhibition was only a matter of time. And in the current froth of societal change, they agreed that the time is now.

Which is interesting in itself because Andy Warhol, Basquiat’s friend and mentor, has himself been receiving a bit of a reevaluation at the moment, including a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum which examined his lifelong relationship with the Catholic Church and the “Andy Warhol Diaries” series on Netflix, which delves into his seldom discussed romantic life.

“Jean-Michel had a purpose,” Heriveaux says. “He is one of the small population of people that actually receive that purpose and choose to do something about it.”

Lisanne hopes that Jean-Michel’s dedication motivates viewers to embrace their own passions. “For parents and for family members who may be on the periphery of that, I hope this encourages them to be supportive,” she says. With tickets starting at $35 for adults—and $65 to skip the line—the family also stands to do well by that encouragement.

“King Pleasure” brings Basquiat the man back into the spotlight after years of his family quietly managing the artist’s estate. Now we can remember Jean-Michel Basquiat not because he died, but because he lived. The show is as much a collaboration between the artist and his siblings as it is a retrospective.

“Jean-Michel made sure that he lived having lived,” says Lisanne. “That is badassery in action.”