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The Arts Intel Report

Jean-Michel Basquiat: Royalty, Heroism, and the Streets

July 7 – Sept 10, 2020
G/F, 2 Ice House St, Central, Hong Kong

The year 1982 brought breakthrough to Jean-Michel Basquiat. It marked the beginning of his personal mythology, the talismans and spiritual guides he planted in his art, figures that represented, Basquiat said, “royalty, heroism, and the streets.” This exhibition focuses on a painting from that year, Untitled. A self-portrait executed in electrifying strokes of turquoise, blood red, and black, it sees Abstract Expressionism pulled into the street, graffiti ascending into the gallery, and young Basquiat claiming his crown. Untitled, along with Pierre Soulages’ Peinture, 1953, inaugurate the gallery’s REVEAL series, which will unveil one masterpiece a week in single-work exhibitions. —E.C.

Annina Nosei and Jean-Michel Basquiat in his studio in the basement of the Annina Nosei Gallery on Prince Street, 1982. Photo © Naoki Okamoto. Artworks © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London.