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Basquiat Downtown 81 film poster (Basquiat movie)

2000

$1,800
£1,382.23
€1,585.63
CA$2,529.21
A$2,832.56
CHF 1,477.98
MX$34,598.47
NOK 18,804.23
SEK 17,725.24
DKK 11,833.38

About the Item

Jean-Michel Basquiat Downtown 81: A rare massive-sized theatrical poster published circa 2001 to promote the historical early 1980s Basquiat film: Downtown 81. A highly collectible vintage Basquiat wall art piece that is perfect for a loft or similar setting. Offset lithograph. 2001. Dimensions: 46 x 62 inches. Fold-lines as originally issued; surface indents & signs of handling; in otherwise good overall vintage condition. Unsigned from an edition of unknown. Rare. Further background: The historic Basquiat film, “Downtown 81'' - directed by Edo Bertoglio & produced by Maripol & Glenn O’Brien - emerges as a nostalgic portrait of pre-Giuliani Manhattan, an unruly place full of garbage, graffiti, rubble-strewn lots, unlicensed after-hours clubs and dreamy kids eager to make their mark as avant-garde artists and musicians. The film's central figure is Jean, a young Bohemian engagingly played by a not yet famous Jean-Michel Basquiat. Jean survives mainly by relying on the worldwide network of hip: there will always be another bar to go to, another gig to Crash, another wealthy European to write a check, another gorgeous model in a Cadillac to give him a ride home. The script, by Glenn O'Brien, also the film's co-producer, follows the basic day-in-the-life format, beginning with Jean's release from a hospital. Jean returns to his run down Alphabet City apartment to find an angry landlord demanding his back rent, and departs with a painting he hopes to sell. The day is laced with many obstacles, but also many fortuitous encounters. Basquiat mingles with Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Tuxedomoon, James White and the Blacks, DNA, the Plastics, and Walter Steding; go-go dancers; and eccentric street characters, including, Deborah Harry, who plays a bag lady with magical powers. It's as a documentary that ''Downtown 81'' is most successful, particularly at those moments when the somewhat unfocused filmmaking allows us to look past the foreground characters and catch glimpses of a vanished New York: the pornography shops and grind houses of West 42nd Street, the greasy spoons and outlet stores of East 14th Street, the labyrinthine interior of the legendary Mudd Club.
  • Creation Year:
    2000
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 62 in (157.48 cm)Width: 46 in (116.84 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • After:
    Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988, American)
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Fold-lines as originally issued; minor wear commensurate with age & medium.
  • Gallery Location:
    NEW YORK, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU354314483022

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Artist: (after) Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960-1988) Title: "FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain (Sans titre)" Year: 1993 Medium: Original Offset-Lithograph, Exhibition Poster on light wove paper Limited edition: Unknown Printer: likely Multigraphic Lauber & Romagnoli, Renens, Switzerland Publisher: FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, Pully-Lausanne, Switzerland Reference: "Jean-Michel Basquiat" - FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, page 39 (illustrated) Sheet size: 50.13" x 35.63" Condition: Scattered mild handling creases to sheet. In otherwise excellent condition with full margins and clean edges We cannot find a single other example of this poster to have appeared on the secondary market or at auction ever before. Extremely rare Provenance: private collection - Hamburg, Germany. Poster produced for a special posthumous solo exhibition of Basquiat's work "Jean-Michel Basquiat" at FAE Musée d'Art Contemporain, Pully-Lausanne, Switzerland from July 10 to November 7, 1993. The image featured on this poster is Basquiat's 1982, 72" x 84.25", acrylic and oil stick on canvas painting which is untitled. Poster designed by Pierre Neumann (Swiss, 1951-). GIA Gallery Poster Disclaimer: Not to be confused with thousands of contemporary inkjet/giclée/digital reproductions ignorantly or deliberately passed off as originals on the market today. The examples we offer here are the original period vintage (exhibition) posters, created and designed by, or under the supervision and authorization of the artist or their respective estate (posthumously), for various exhibitions and events in which they participated. If applicable, this poster is also fully documented within its respective artists' official catalogue raisonné of authentic graphic works, prints, and or posters. Biography: Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980's as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al Diaz, writing enigmatic epigrams all over Manhattan, particularly in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. By the early 1980s, his paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. At 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. At 22, he was one of the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his artwork in 1992. Basquiat's art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. He used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and for identifying with his experiences in the black community, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. His visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. Since his death at the age of 27 in 1988, Basquiat's work has steadily increased in value. In 2017, "Untitled", a 1982 painting depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, sold for a record-breaking $110.5 million, becoming one of the most expensive paintings...
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