Spend a Weekend with Basquiat, Vik Muniz and Iris van Herpen at the High Museum of Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

The High Museum of Art presents its first exhibition focused solely on the life and work of the influential artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) with “Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks,” on view through May 29.  

The exhibition features rarely seen notebooks created by Basquiat, who died tragically young at the age of 27.  Filled with the artist’s handwritten texts and sketches, the 160 unbound notebook pages are presented along with 30 related paintings, drawings and mixed-media works drawn from private collections and the artist’s estate. Also on view is the 1984 Basquiat painting “Untitled (Cadmium)” from the High’s permanent collection. 

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of the best known artists of his generation and is widely considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His career in art spanned the late 1970s through the 1980s until his death in 1988, at the age of 27.

Basquiat works are edgy and raw - and through a bold sense of color and composition - he maintains a fine balance between seemingly contradictory forces such as control and spontaneity, menace and wit, urban imagery and primitivism. Basquiat often incorporated words into his paintings. Before his career as a painter began, he produced punk-inspired postcards for sale on the street and become known for the political-poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO.

The conjunction of various media is an integral element of Basquiat’s art. His paintings are typically covered with text and codes of all kinds: words, letters, numerals, pictograms, logos, map symbols, diagrams and more, and featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery.

Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Basquiat crowns a High Museum of Art patron.

Patron enjoying the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

A patron enjoying the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

The Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Patrons enjoying the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Patrons enjoying the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Critically acclaimed Brazilian artist and photographer Vik Muniz is known for incorporating everyday objects such as sugar, puzzle pieces and toy soldiers into his art.  Muniz gained worldwide acclaim with the 2010 release of “WASTE LAND,” a documentary that tracked his collaboration with garbage pickers at the world’s largest landfill outside Rio de Janeiro—together, they created art out of refuse that made it all the way to London’s most prestigious auction house.
Muniz says his upbringing in a poor family in Sao Paulo has guided his unique perspective on poverty, art and education.

Patrons enjoying the Vik Muniz exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

The Vik Muniz exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

The Vik Muniz exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

The Vik Muniz exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Patrons enjoying the Vik Muniz exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

The Vik Muniz exhibit at the High Museum of Art.

Iris van Herpen is a Dutch fashion designer. She studied Fashion Design at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts Arnhem and interned at Alexander McQueen in London, and Claudy Jongstra in Amsterdam.  Her work can be seen at the High through May 15.

Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion at the High Museum of Art.

Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion at the High Museum of Art.

Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion at the High Museum of Art.

Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion at the High Museum of Art.

Iris van Herpen: Transforming Fashion at the High Museum of Art.

 For more information about these and upcoming exhibits, visit www.high.org.