Jean-Michel Basquiat “Busted” at GAGOSIAN GALLERY

Published on Feb 22, 2013

James Kalm has been aware of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat since the late 1970s. First known for his street poetry under the name SAMO, and later as an energetic Downtown scenester, and painter, Basquiat streaked across the New York art world like a comet. In a brief career, spanning less than a decade, he became one of the icons of the East Village, Underground, Punk Rock revolution, combining the grit of the graffiti writer with the sophistication of Abstract Expressionism. Since his early death, Basquiat’s paintings have become some of the most highly priced and sought after works in the world. This is the first major exhibition of his work since the Brooklyn Museum’s retrospective in 2005. Your reporter is “busted” by security before he can make a complete walkthrough, but this brief view provides a sense of the exhibition.