Nicholas Taylor

BASQUIAT photograph 1979 (Basquiat Gray photograph Nicholas Taylor)

printed later

Jean-Michel Basquiat Photograph by Nick Taylor of Gray: This rare Basquiat photograph was taken from Nicholas Taylor’s well-documented portfolio exploring his friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat - a friendship which began when both collaborated on the historic New York No Wave band, “GRAY” in the late 1970s; before the two briefly lived together in the East Village. Selections from Taylor's portfolio were most notably exhibited as part of the Basquiat retrospective at London's Barbican in 2017 and have been featured in numerous noteworthy publications on Basquiat. "Basquiat knew funk, jazz and what was up. How many people were equally versed in Miles Davis and Funkadelic, Charlie Parker and Bootsy Collins, Thelonious Monk and the JBs?" (Glenn O'Brien, 'Gray Matters,' GQ, 2011) Archival Inkjet Print. 11 x 14 inches (including borders). Hand signed by Taylor on the reverse from a limited edition of 50. Excellent overall condition. Provided directly by artist. Listing dealer is a primary representative of Nicholas Taylor. Related exhibitions featuring this work: Basquiat: Boom for Real; Barbican London; September 2017-January 2018. Museum of the City of New York (NY, New Music: 1980-1986): 2021. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music): 2022. Nicholas Taylor (American, b. 1953) is a renowned photographer and musician. Taylor moved to New York in 1977 to pursue a career as a photographer and it was through the vibrant New York art scene that he came to know the young artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat. It was, in fact, his intimate portfolio of photographs documenting his friendship with Basquiat that rocketed Taylor to fame. The two would collaborate in the No Wave band “Gray” before Taylor launched a successful career as a DJ famous for track-looping (named "DJ High Priest" by Basquiat). His track “Suicide Mode” would later be used in the soundtrack for Julian Schnabel’s 1996 film “Basquiat." Exhibitions: Basquiat: Boom For Real at the Barbican Centre, London (9/21/17- Present) Literature/Catalog Raisonne: Basquiat: Boom For Real (Eleanor Nairne/Dieter Buchart) Jean-Michel Basquiat: King For A Decade (Taka Kawachi) Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981, Studio of The Street (Diego Cortez) For further history on Basquiat & his group Gray, please see: "Gray Matters," by Glenn O'Brien (GQ magazine, 4/21/11) "We formed a band: Jean-Michel Basquiat and the New York noise underground," The New Statesman, 9/29/17 "Bowie, Bach and Bebop: How Music Powered Basquiat" (New York Times 9/22/17) Glenn O'Brien, "Gray Matters," GQ Magazine April, 2011: "Gray’s approach to music was having heard music, to approach instruments and sound systems the way one would pick up a strange machine and try to intuit its operation and function. Since Basquiat didn’t know guitar technique, it seemed like a good idea to play one with a steel file. Michael Holman discovered that you could achieve a very nice effect by pulling masking tape off the skin of a snare drum... And then there was the clarinet that Basquiat liked to walk around with, that was as much a scepter and wand as wind instrument. This utterly charming 27-track album is chock full of the road not taken, which sounds so right just now. It is refreshingly stripped of flagrant virtuosity but it is conceived brilliantly, played perfectly, and arranged impeccably... If a wine can have notes of chocolate, leather, licorice, and tobacco, then this record can have notes of William DeVaughn, Willie Hutch, Marcel Duchamp, Larry Coryell, the Modernaires, Sergio Mendez...

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