After Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat created this printed flyer in 1981 to advertise a band performance within his feature acted film: Downtown 81 / New York Beat.

• After Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960-1988).
• Offset printed flyer, 1981.
• Accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Basquiat's notable friend and collaborator.
• This work is presented unframed.

The flyer with text and imagery by Basquiat, promotes a segment performance by James White and The Blacks: Jan 12, 1981 at Peppermint Lounge: West 45th street New York, NY.

A much historical work, notably exhibited and catalogued as part of Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music exhibit (October 2022 - February 2023) and sister show at the Paris Philharmonic (March - July 2023).

‘In 1980, writer and Warhol associate Glenn O’Brien, Swiss photographer Edo Bertoglio, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, a graffiti innovator and noise music artist who’d just begun to exhibit his paintings, hit the streets of lower Manhattan to make a movie about the bombed-out bohemia they lived and breathed. Left unfinished due to assorted legal and financial issues until it was fully assembled for release in 2000, Downtown 81 follows Basquiat, a naturally compelling screen presence, as he tries to hawk a painting (one of the artist’s own first works) while hustling for a place to sleep. So what was meant to be a document of its time instead became a window into a long-lost world of life on the margins and creative ferment—and it feels especially potent today, when NYC had transformed into an artless ghost town, before escalating racial injustices brought people back to the streets. The film features appearances by John Lurie, Fab 5 Freddy, and Debbie Harry; musical performances by DNA, James White and the Blacks, and Kid Creole and the Coconuts; and, most remarkable of all, a portrait of a more innocent Manhattan in all its mangy glory.’ (Metrogrpah)

Obtained directly from a noted Basquiat collaborator and friend.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music): 2022.

Basquiat Soundtracks: Paris Philharmonic (2023).

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music (Buchhart, Bessières, Desmarais); entry 162.

New York Beat: O’Brien, Bertoglio, Maripol (pg. 86).