JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT AND ANDY WARHOL Graffiti Jacket (Mary Boone Exhibition).
Felt-tip pen and black and green ink on tan Leathermode jacket, 1984. 750x540 mm; 29 1/2x21 1/4 inches. Initialed and dated by Basquiat in ink, upper recto, and signed twice by Warhol in ink, left sleeve and upper right verso. Also signed by gallerist Mary Boone in ink, verso on the left side of Basquiat's Africa study.
An artists decorated leather jacket commemorating Basquiat's first solo exhibition opening at Mary Boone Gallery, New York, May 1984. The opening represented a significant transition both for Basquiat and for a broader circle of street artists, from their beginnings as graffitists to their entry into the blue-chip, commercial art market.
With Basquiat's face sketch and "crown" drawings in ink, recto, and with a large ink drawing based on his painting Eye-Africa, acrylic and oil stick on canvas, circa 1984 (see image below), verso. Eye-Africa, which was exhibited at the Mary Boone solo exhibition and is referenced in Basquiat's drawing on the jacket, likely represents a commentary by Basquiat on the explotation of African workers in the diamond mines of South Africa and, in a wider sense, the European colonization and explotation of Africa since the 19th century.
Also tagged by grafitti artists Crash (John Matos) and Daze (Chris Ellis), who Basquiat invited to the Mary Boone exhibition to represent old-school graffiti culture.
