Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat

Gagosian Gallery, New York
Acquired by Gianni Versace from the above

Exh. Cat., Kassel, Museum Fridericianum (and traveling), Collaborations: Warhol, Basquiat, Clemente, 1996, pp. 88-89, illustrated in color
Marie Brenner, "Versace 10021", Vanity Fair, January 1997, pp. 90-91, illustrated in color (installation in Gianni Versace's New York home)
Jean Demachy and François Baudot, eds., Surrounded by Art: The Homes of Contemporary Collectors, London 2004, pp. 16-17, illustrated in color (installation in Gianni Versace's New York home)

The Collaboration Paintings by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat unify two artists who, whilst close friends, were distinctly different in their strategies of painting. As such, this body of work can be seen as a synthesis or hybrid of, on the one hand, mass-produced, mechanically-reproduced imagery with the subjective mark of the painter. Both these techniques reflect the personalities of both protagonists: the cool, wry, laconic Warhol created flat, easily reproducible images, embracing and utilizing mass media within his own canon. Basquiat, by contrast, painted by hand, emphasizing his own physical involvement with sweeping brushstrokes or perfunctorily-constructed primitive supports. Whilst both artists borrowed (even purloined in Warhol’s case) from popular culture, (whether that manifests itself as Warhol’s images of cartoon characters or Hollywood film stars, or Basquiat’s references to jazz musicians or sportsmen), it is their variation in process, that differed greatly. This contrast of techniques, and their ultimate happy union in the Collaboration Paintings, remains the initial point of departure for any consideration of this body of work.

The personal dynamic between the two artists played a major part in, firstly, enabling such a project to take place and, secondly, ensuring its success. They must have seen in each other aspects of their own personalities: both were outsiders; both had removed themselves from conventional stereotyping. They began collaborating as early as 1984, and Trevor Fairbrother notes the artistic dynamic between the two in their intial foray into the Collaborations: “Basquiat and Warhol were equal partners in their collaborative paintings. Warhol seems to have been the first to paint on many of the canvases, and he was generous about leaving interesting spaces and providing lively visual situations for his buddy to play into.” (Trevor Fairbrother, “Double Feature,” Art in America, September 1996, p. 80). Fairbrother continues by exploring how the marriage of styles and techniques actually worked: “Warhol's most recognizable contributions to the collaborations are flat graphic motifs copied from advertisements and newspaper headlines. He often painted them big enough to be oppressive, but his loose, consciously imperfect technique gave them a worn-out, almost bogus aura. These passages have a vaporous quality; it is as if they are hanging in the air and might dissolve. In contrast, Basquiat's contributions are frenetic and forceful; often they seem to glower at the viewer. While he mimicked the rawness of pictures by children and naives, Basquiat made his marks with eloquence and assurance, and endowed them with a fierce presence.” (Ibid., p. 81)

In the present work, Amoco, the distinction of styles is clear. The enormous space (Amoco is one of the largest Collaborations made by the artists) is laid out with Warhol creating the large Amoco logo, an emblem of a massive oil and gas corporation (Amoco Mobil Gas), and itself a signifier of mass-produced culture. The image is flat, without painterly mark. Next to the logo, Basquiat paints an ideogrammatic tuxedoed penguin wearing a hat; as indexically far removed a subject as one could choose from Warhol’s initial logo. Warhol’s modern-day corporate Pegasus now breathes fire, adding a layer of danger to the logo. Likewise, the penguin (perhaps Basquiat’s rendition of the villain from the Batman comics) also holds a cane that seems to spout flames. This exact collaborative experience was immortalized by Julian Schnabel in his film, Basquiat (1993), written and directed by the artist. In the film, Basquiat (played by Jeffrey Wright) and Warhol (played by David Bowie) take turns at the canvas, each one individually making a mark or, as was often the case, with Basquiat erasing one. Punctuating the text of Schnabel’s script is Warhol’s creation and Basquiat’s subsequent (and consistent) erasure of the same logo. Simultaneously they discuss public gossip of each other with each other: Basquiat tells Warhol how people warn him that Warhol is using him to revive his career; Warhol tells Basqiuat that no-one in Europe will buy his paintings because he is a drug addict. The pugilistic timbre of their creation was made absolutely clear in the poster created for their show at the Shafrazi Gallery – both artists confronting each other wearing boxing apparel and gloves.

Basquiat’s erasure of some of Warhol’s forms is a crucial aspect to all of the Collaboration Paintings. Often we find words that have been crossed out so, as Basquiat said,  “… you will see them more, the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them." (Jonathan Fineberg, Art Since 1940: Strategies of Being,  2^nd ed.,  Englewood Cliffs 2000, p. 459).  Basquiat wanted the viewer to really engage with the surface, to really scrutinize and read into the work. Warhol wanted the viewer to stop at a flat surface since there is ‘nothing behind it.’. What you see is what you get for Warhol; what you ‘see’ is the beginning of manifold possibilities for Basquiat.

The cool indifference of Warhol’s artistry and the powerful assertion of Basquiat’s create a simultaneous tension and union on the canvas. Basquiat’s painterly marks and primitive, innocent subject matter intervenes on Warhol’s use of mechanically-reproduced subjects, often stolen from the corporate world. As such, here the painterly mark arrests the rush of the reproduced image. The handling of Basquiat’s paint as a more intimate extension of that artist lends an auratic quality to the canvas which is shared by both Basquiat and Warhol. One might infer that from the exchange between Warhol’s mass produced imagery and Basquiat’s subjective mark making that the touch of the latter painter persevered. Apart from any such formal consideration, the story of the congress of two unique individuals seems to persevere even more. Fairbrother remarks that the Collaborations “… confirm that the artist's friendship itself was magical - the warmest legacy of their art." (Op. Cit, p. 81)