Nicholas Taylor
Rare Basquiat photograph (Basquiat Gray)
1979

Name: Rare Basquiat photograph (Basquiat Gray)
Brand: Nicholas Taylor
Price: 1650 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Jean Michel Basquiat photograph New York, 1979: 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. Silver Gelatin print. 11 x 14 inches (including boarders). Edition of 5 A/P's. Signed, dated and numbered 2/5 in pencil in the margins. Some minor surface waves; otherwise very good overall vintage condition. Provenance: Obtained directly from artist. About Nicholas Taylor: 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. His track “Suicide Mode” would later be used in the soundtrack for Julian Schnabel’s 1996 film “Basquiat." Whilst Basquiat often provided glimpses into his conflicted character through his own art, Taylor’s photograph offers an intimate, and perhaps more honest, portrait from the outside. The clever exploration of light and dark reveals the dichotomies that divided the artist; both his fragile and playful, tender and brazen sides are unveiled. A soft glow is cast across Basquiat’s face, communicating a tenderness and affection that only a close friend could capture. Lot 180 Gallery is a primary dealer rep of Nicholas Taylor. Jean-Michel Basquiat was an influential African-American artist who rose to success during the 1980s. Basquiat’s paintings are largely responsible for elevating graffiti artists into the realm of the New York gallery scene. His spray-painted crowns and scribbled words referenced everything from his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage, to political issues, pop-culture icons, and Biblical verse. The gestural marks and expressive nature of his work not only aligned him with the street art of Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf, but also the Neo-Expressionists Julian Schnabel and David Salle. “If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you've got to realize that influence is not influence,” he said of his process. “It's simply someone's idea going through my new mind.” Born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, Basquiat never finished high school but developed an appreciation for art as a youth, from his many visits to the Brooklyn Museum of Art with his mother. His early work consisted of spray painting buildings and trains in downtown New York alongside his friend Al Diaz. The artist’s tag was the now infamous pseudonym SAMO. After quickly rising to fame in the early 1980s, Basquiat was befriended by many celebrities and artists, including Andy Warhol, with whom he made several collaborative works. At only 27, his troubles with fame and drug addiction led to his tragic death from a heroin overdose on August 12, 1988 in New York, NY. The Whitney Museum of American Art held the artist’s first retrospective from October 1992 to February 1993. In 2017, after having set Basquiat’s auction record the previous year with a $57.3 million purchase, the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa surpassed it, buying the artist’s Untitled (1982) at Sotheby's for $110.5 million. This set a new record for the highest price ever paid at auction for an American artist's work. Today, Basquiat's works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Rubell Family Collection in Miami, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. Related Categories Basquiat Gray. SAMO. Early Basquiat. Photos of Basquiat. Basquiat photograph. Nick Taylor Gray.

Creator:

Nicholas Taylor (American)

Creation Year:

1979

Dimensions:

Height: 11 in (27.94 cm)Width: 14 in (35.56 cm)Depth: 0.01 in (0.26 mm)

Medium:

Silver Gelatin

Movement & Style:

Pop Art

Period:

1980-1989