Jean-Michel Basquiat grew up in a decent household, but at 15 he fled to the streets of Brooklyn where he became a young, starving artist. He looked like a Caribbean street rat, making little money by selling homemade t-shirts and postcards while he crashed at various friend’s apartments. Jean-Michel initially got recognition in the city streets by tagging edifices with clever messages using the graffiti name, SAMO. Recognized as SAMO, Jean-Michel was a featured guest on a public access program called TV Party which showcased Brooklyn’s young, artistic, counterculture crowd.


International inquiry welcome!


"Unique  view of America..." -UK columnist, London Barbican Exhibit


Mentioned in the book BASQUIAT (Dieter Buchhart, HATJE CANTZ,), "Julian Schnabel 

recalls JMB accidentally leaving portfolio of 2,000 drawings/doodles on a subway car".


Contact to clarify terms "authentic" and "authenticated".


Graffiti crown postcard from recovered portfolio case (see Item Description.).

Hand of 19-year-old Jean-Michel Basquiat 1980.

  • One must depend on a discerning eye.
  • Basquiat souvenir work has yet to be authenticated by any source.
  • Curator verification available 2038, 50 years after an artist's death.
  • Guarantee is for return with no questions asked.
  • Serendipitous meeting 40 years ago results in this offer.






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Jean Michel Basquiat is an icon for American artistic genius.

Hailed the greatest Neo-Expressionist painter. References to his work abound around the world.

On the streets of lower Manhattan, he produced postcards and t-shirts before he ever sold a painting.

The artist's early NYC souvenir artwork attests to his perspective on African-American culture, pop culture and fine art. Described by critic John Russell as proceeding "by disjunction - that is, by making marks that seem quite unrelated but turn out to get on very well together".

Basquiat's work is described as Primitive. The cards, such as this Graffiti tribute to iconic sports figure, feature playfulness of expression and allusion.

Antique souvenir postcard offered from Lost Subway Portfolio of the Graffiti writing teenager who went on to be one 20th century's most important painters.

Uncatalogued NYC Jackie Robinson souvenir postcard by Jean-Michel Basquiat, circa 1980, from Subway Collection as mentioned by Julian Schnabel in Dieter Burchhart's book entitled Jean-Michel Basquiat, publisher: Hatje Cantz 2010.

GRAFFITI CROWN POSTCARD

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988)

  • Fixative-FREE
  • Fragile

PROVENANCE:
The artist
Private collection 1980

The first African-American artist to attain art super-stardom, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) created a huge oeuvre of drawings and paintings.

Offered as BUY IT NOW! from portfolio of drawings left on subway car.

Through his street roots in Graffiti, Basquiat helped to establish new possibilities for figurative and expressionistic painting, breaking the white male stranglehold of Conceptual and Minimal art, and foreshadowing, among other tendencies, Germany's Junge Wilde movement. It was not only Basquiat's art but also the details of his biography that made his name legendary--his early years as "SAMO" (his graffiti artist moniker), his friendships with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Madonna and his tragically early death from a heroin overdose.

Jean-Michel was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a Puerto Rican mother and a Haitian father--an ethnic mix that meant young Jean-Michel was fluent in French, Spanish and English by the age of 11. In 1977, at the age of 17, Basquiat took up graffiti, inscribing the landscape of downtown Manhattan with his signature "SAMO". In 1980 he was included in the landmark group exhibition The Times Square Show; the following year, at the age of 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist ever to be invited to Documenta.

By 1982, Basquiat had befriended Andy Warhol and eventually collaborated with him; Basquiat was much affected by Warhol's death in 1987.

Jean-Michel died the next year on August 22, at the age of 27.

Basquiat Subway Art Case Collection of Various Works


HISTORY
American author Kevin Doyle was friendly with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the late 70’s and mentored him on how to market his drawings, postcards and t-shirts. Doyle helped  Basquiat with money or advice and the artist sometimes gave him drawings and postcards in return. One of those uncatalogued works (the globe) is quite well known.

In the early 80's, Doyle sought attention from the New York literary world using Basquiat's colorful artwork for agent query

In 1980, Basquiat and Doyle rode the subway together and the artist departed the transit car one stop before the writer, leaving behind a case full of unsold drawings and postcards. The event is mentioned by Julian Schnabel in a book co-authored by Mr. Dieter Buchhart titled Jean-Michele Basquiat. See three photos of "Art Care" portfolio case shown above.

Doyle made several attempts over the course of 2 or 3 years to return the portfolio but never brought the artist together with it again.

Basquiat achieved a high level of fame after the subway ride with Doyle, and became disinterested in Doyle's efforts to return the case and missed several appointments with the writer.

The last time Kevin Doyle saw Basquiat, by happenstance, in Greenwich Village, Jean-Michel told him to keep the case and its contents.

Over the years the art case was left in various homes owned by Doyle and recently removed from storage at his Newfane, Vermont home.