Gagosian celebrates Jean-Michel Basquiat with a solo exhibition titled Made on Market Street.  This is the first exhibition featuring works that Jean-Michel Basquiat produced solely in Los Angeles. An opening art party takes place on Thursday, March, 7, 2024, from 6pm-8pm. The exhibition runs through June, 1, 2024.

Made on Market Street is curated by Fred Hoffman with Larry Gagosian. With exhibition design by Stefan Beckman, the exhibition features loans from the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat; the Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles; Museum Brandhorst, Munich; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and other public and also private collections.

Gagosian Jean-Michel Basquiat

Between November 1982 and May 1984, Basquiat produced approximately a hundred paintings, numerous works on paper, as well as six silkscreen editions in Venice, California. For an artist closely affiliated with the New York art scene of the 1980s, Basquiat was extraordinarily prolific in Los Angeles. Made on Market Street reflects on this pivotal era by bringing together nearly thirty works— several of which are among his most important paintings. Larry Gagosian notes, “Los Angeles has always been a great city for artists and Jean-Michel seemed to find it a refreshing change from New York. While the immensity of his talent was immediately apparent, it was nonetheless a highlight of my own career to work with him, to introduce him to Los Angeles, and to witness the amazing impact that his art and legacy have made on our culture.”

Jean-Michel Basquiat Hollywood Africans, 1983, Acrylic and oil stick on canvas, 84 1/8 x 84 inches (213.5 x 213.4 cm), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of Douglas S. Cramer, © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York Photo: © Whitney Museum of American Art/Licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY Courtesy Gagosian

Introductions

After first meeting Basquiat in 1981, Gagosian invited him to Los Angeles. Basquiat’s solo exhibition with Larry Gagosian Gallery in LA debuted in April 1982. This was the first time his work was presented on the West Coast. It followed his first solo show in New York at Annina Nosei’s gallery. The Los Angeles exhibition was seen as the arrival of a significant voice by the public and collectors alike. In November 1982 Basquiat returned to California. He lived and worked at Gagosian’s residence on Market Street.

That same year, Basquiat met Fred Hoffman, who was running New City Editions. Together they would produce six editioned prints, including Tuxedo and Untitled (both 1983), large-scale silkscreen works on canvas. Featuring white text, sketches, and directional arrows on a black ground, Tuxedo contrasts with Basquiat’s intensely colorful paintings of the era, its dense collection of allusive phrases ascending to the crown at its top.

Venice CA

For Basquiat, working in Venice offered a reprieve from the distractions and pressures of the New York art scene. Many of the paintings he produced in Venice were shown at his next Los Angeles exhibition on March 8, 1983, at Larry Gagosian Gallery. The exhibition featured approximately thirty paintings. Fusing drawing, painting, and text across three panels, Horn Players pays homage to jazz greats Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The theme stressed the importance of music to Basquiat. It displayed the vitality of bebop in a visual style informed by contemporary graffiti and hip-hop. The same year it was painted, Basquiat would put out the influential hip-hop track “Beat Bop.” His own label Tartown Record label produced it with Rammellzee and K-Rob.

Made on Market Street is accompanied by a catalogue. It includes exhibited works together with archival material, including installation images from the 1982 and 1983 exhibitions at Larry Gagosian Gallery. In addition to featuring historical ephemera, as well as exhibition reviews, it also reproduces previously unpublished photographs of Basquiat in his studio.

Larry Gagosian Gallery in Los Angeles presented three exhibitions with Basquiat during the artist’s lifetime. This is the seventh exhibition of Basquiat’s work that Gagosian has presented since the artist’s passing in 1988.

On view: March 7, 2024 – June 1, 2024

What: Made on Market Street,
Where: Gagosian, 456 North Camden, Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
When: Running through June 1, 2024
Website: https://www.gagosian.com/

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