Martin Lawrence Galleries is delighted to announce a unique opportunity to view works by two of the most influential and culturally significant artists of all time. Warhol & Basquiat showcases iconic images from each of the artists oeuvres. We hope you will join us to celebrate this rare occasion.
Jean–Michel Basquiat, born Dec. 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, is an important artist of the NY Graffiti art movement of the 1980’s. At the age of 17, Basquiat began scrawling graffiti on walls around NYC. He signed his work with the anagram SAMO.
Jean–Michel Basquiat, born Dec. 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, is an important artist of the NY Graffiti art movement of the 1980’s. At the age of 17, Basquiat began scrawling graffiti on walls around NYC. He signed his work with the anagram SAMO.
Selling hand–painted postcards and t–shirts to earn a living after dropping out of high school and leaving home, Basquiat began painting original works on canvas and paper. These works turned him into overnight sensation and, at the age of 21, he was the youngest artist invited to participate in the renowned ‘Documenta’ exhibit of modern works in Kassel, Germany. He went on to exhibit in Europe, Japan and the United States, all the while becoming more popular with collectors and critics. Pop artist, Andy Warhol, became a close friend and supporter and the two collaborated on almost 100 works of art.
Inspired by Picasso, pop culture, jazz music and African art and culture, Basquiat’s work contained recurrent combinations of words, symbols and figurative motifs. They are said to reflect an image of New York in the 1980’s.
The name Andy Warhol is synonymous with Pop Art. Clearly the most important and influential artist of the past quarter century, Warhol maintained a level of creativity already legendary before his untimely death in 1987. Starting out as a technically innovative commercial artist in the world of New York advertising, in the early 1960s Warhol began adapting the commercial process of silkscreening to the world of fine art and created iconic masterpieces such as Marilyn Monroe, Ads and Myths, among his most famous images. Warhol took ideas and images directly from the mass media, from the 1960s cultural revolution, television, movies, advertising, and photojournalism. Painter, graphic artist, manager of a rock band and filmmaker, Warhol had a huge influence on subsequent generations of artists. His original and graphic works are found in major museums worldwide, and today are more widely sought-after than ever before
To RSVP for this special event please call the gallery on (212) 995-8865 or email soho@martinlawrence.com
