Michael Dayton Hermann

This book explores the artists' complex personal and professional relationship through hundreds of never-before-published photographs of Basquiat by Warhol.

• Edited by Michael Dayton Hermann (American).
• Köln: Taschen, 2021.
• 312 pages.
• Hardcover.

The two legendary artists collaborated in the mid-’80s, documenting their friendship and defining the decade’s art scene. 

As the story goes, Jean-Michel Basquiat first met Andy Warhol when Warhol was dining with Henry Geldzahler in SoHo. Basquiat sold him a postcard he created, titled Stupid Games, Bad Ideas. As Basquiat’s career ignited, his art was exhibited at documenta in Germany alongside work by Warhol, but he didn’t meet his hero again until they were introduced by their mutual art dealer, Bruno Bischofberger. After their meeting, Warhol took a polaroid of themselves, inspiring Basquiat to return two hours later with a painting of them that was still wet (Dos Cabezas, which sold for nearly $7M at Christie’s in 2010).  

Described as a symbiotic relationship, Warhol and Basquiat began working together—what Warhol started, Basquiat would deconstruct. The collaboration ended after negative reviews of their exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York, when one reviewer described Basquiat as Warhol’s “mascot.” Nevertheless, the art they created between 1984-85, such as Olympics and Zenith, has been auctioned for millions. During his final years, Basquiat worked out of a studio on Great Jones Street which was owned by his friend, partner and mentor.