Warhol Basquiat Paintings Exhibition Poster

A poster for the exhibition: Andy Warhol/Jean Michel Basquiat: Paintings, presented by Palladium.

• Photograph by Michael Halsband (American, born 1956).
• Palladium Presents Warhol Basquiat Paintings, Saturday September 14 1985, 10 PM, Palladium, 126 East 14 Street, Exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Complimentary Admission for Two.
• Published by Tony Shafrazi Gallery.
• Offset lithograph on woven paper.
• This work is presented unframed.

The rare original, highly sought-after companion piece to the iconic exhibition poster of the two great artists standing side by side in boxing gloves. This version was issued for an invitation only, one-night event at the Palladium following the exhibit at Shafrazi gallery.

Tony Shafrazi, November 2015: "My good friend, the Swiss gallerist Bruno Bischofberger, had worked with Andy Warhol since the mid 1960s. He got to know Jean-Michel’s paintings and started working with him in 1982 or ’83. There had been a suggestion of a collaboration between Warhol, Basquiat, and Francesco Clemente. Then, Jean-Michel and Andy, very enthusiastically and seriously, went on to undertake a whole processes of painting collaboratively at Warhol’s Factory for a year to a year and half, making somewhere between 70 and 80 large paintings that represented an extraordinary—and very rare in history—body of work.

Their joint body of work represented a whole year and half of collaboration and production. It was not an overnight thing. The two artists worked together, one painting over the other, back and forth, and I immediately thought of two people sparring and boxing together, which is how I hit upon the idea of a boxing theme for the show’s advertisement."

Palladium was built as a deluxe movie theater by move mogul William Fox in 1927. Beginning in 1971 it was also utilized as a concert venue, then later converted into a nightclub in 1985 by Steve Rubell of Studio 54.