{"id":1510,"date":"2024-01-07T17:55:11","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T17:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utethon.com\/?p=1510"},"modified":"2024-01-16T15:56:33","modified_gmt":"2024-01-16T15:56:33","slug":"jean-michel-basquiat-remembering-a-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utethon.com\/en\/jean-michel-basquiat-remembering-a-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean-Michel Basquiat: Remembering a Giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

In New York, Angelina Jolie opens a luxury boutique in the house where Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and died<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In November 2023, on my way back from Fogo Island, I stopped in New York. I was staying with a friend in the East Village and walking through the old neighborhood where I lived in the 1990s. Surprisingly, the area has changed less than other Manhattan districts, such as Chelsea, Soho or Tribeca, where new residential towers are springing up like mushrooms. Between Tompkins Square Park, East Houston Street and Broadway everything looks (almost) the same: There is still the restaurant Veselka, the Pasticceria Veniero's and the smoked fish deli Russ & Daughters, where a cream cheese lox bagel now costs $20. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my explorations, I also strolled along Great Jones Street, one of the smaller cross streets in the Lower East Side. Opposite the old fire station is house number 57, an unspectacular building covered in graffiti and tags. This is where Jean-Michel Basquiat had his studio and where he died of an overdose in 1988. So it's holy ground for Basquiat fans. But New York is pretty unsentimental about such things. At least a metal plaque on the facade commemorates the famous Black artist who started with street art and shook up the art establishment with his profound, radically innovative paintings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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57 Great Jones Street: Jean-Michel Basquiat worked and died in this building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Plaque on the building 57 Great Jones Street<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Angelina Jolie in front of 57 Great Jones where she opened a fashion boutique\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The house was boarded up and there was a For Lease poster in the window. It has a colorful \u201conly in New York\u201d history. Built in the middle of the 19th century as a horse stable, it became a saloon, dance hall and brothel, a notorious dive bar from whose back room Paul Kelly, one of New York's biggest gangsters, delegated his Five Points Gang. In the 1970s, pop art king Andy Warhol bought the building and later rented it to his friend Jean-Michel. After Basquiat's death, the house became a mecca for street artists, who left their tags and painted the facade with an oversized crown - Basquiat's trademark. The building now belongs to a well-known real estate dealer who is offering it for rent at $60,000 per month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, an A-list celebrity has now taken the bait again. As the New York Times reports, Angelina Jolie is opening a fashion boutique there. Her exclusive tailoring studio with an appointment-only fitting room offers dresses made from vintage fabrics and, in the chic caf\u00e9, Turkish mocha and Syrian cakes. Would the famous previous tenant have liked that? When it came to fashion, Jean-Michel Basquiat was no wallflower, but a creative trendsetter from whom Angelina could perhaps get some inspiration. Artistically, Basquiat has long since grown beyond Great Jones Street fame and has arrived at the art world Olympus, with retrospectives in major museums and millions in prices on the art market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2010 I followed in the footsteps of Jean-Michel Basquiat. At that time I was standing in front of the house at 57 Great Jones Street. For a major magazine story, I interviewed many of his companions and friends, including Lorraine O'Grady, Michael Holman, Jeffrey Deitch and Suzanne Mallouk. Here is the whole story, which appeared in the art magazine Art, 5\/2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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