Jean‐Michel Basquiat

The exhibition “Jean-Michel Basquiat” in Milan recalls the life of a man full of talent, lost in his own fragilty in a society that applauded him as an artist, but refused the colour of his skin.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the protagonists of the century we just left behind: his life and his work succeed in transferring to us the deep contradiction of the years in which he lived and the extreme fragilty of the human condition.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, veduta dell'installazione al MUDEC, Milano, 2016 — **Top:** Jean-Michel Basquiat, *Procession*, 1986. Acrylic and bas-relief on wood, cm 162 x 244 Mugrabi Collection. © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat by SIAE 2016. **Above:** Jean-Michel Basquiat, installation view at MUDEC, Milan, 2016

The exhibition itinerary has been devised with two interpretation keys: a geographical one linked to the places that have marked Basquiat’s artistic path and a chronological one. Visitors will be able to move through the life, the joys and the uncertainties of this young artist; a man full of talent, lost in his own frailty and in a society that applauded him as an artist, but that refused him because of the colour of his skin.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, installation view at MUDEC, Milan, 2016

The exhibition presents about 140 works created between 1980 and 1987 and it brings together works of large dimensions, drawings, photos, collaborations with his friend Andy Warhol and a set of ceramic plates, on which Basquiat ironically portrayed personalities and artists from every age: works that are characterized by the use of poor materials and by a unique graphical sign, filled with anger, most of which come from the collection of Yosef Mugrabi, with the addition of works from other private lenders.

ean-Michel Basquiat Natchez, 1985 Acrilico, legno e fotocopie a colori su compensato montato su porte, cm 216 x 154 Mugrabi Collection © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat by SIAE 2016 — Jean-Michel Basquiat, *Natchez*, 1985. Acrilico, legno e fotocopie a colori su compensato montato su porte, cm 216 x 154. Mugrabi Collection. © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat by SIAE 2016

Some of the recurrent themes in Basquiat’s works such as music, jazz, comics, anatomy but also poetry and writing are the common thread that will lead visitors through social and racial differences, social marginalization and mistrust toward anyone different: elements that characterized society yesterday just as they do today.

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