KunstHausWien presents for the first time in Vienna a major exhibition of paintings and drawings by the American artist J.-M. Basquiat, the show consists of 100 works (Acrylic and oil/paintstick on canvas, paper, wood and glass), all from The Mugrabi Collection.
Born in 1960 in Brooklyn to a Puerto-Rican mother and a Haitian father, Basquiat started at age seventeen painting graffiti on walls and trains, than, slowly, he went to painting on paper and canvas. His friendship with Andy Warhol contributed to his fame and confidence, and he even collaborated with Andy Warhol on creating joint paintings, signed by both. Basquiat, in his very short career, was one of the most successful black-hispanic artists in the United States and became a legend and a myth in his own lifetime and a meteoric success on the international art scene of the eighties. Basquiat burned brightly on an explosive mix of drugs, sex and notoriety, and died tragically from taking an overdose of drugs at the age of twenty-seven. A catalogue, edited for this exhibition by Jacob Baal-Teshuva will be available at the KunstHausWien MuseumShop.