Na Vila Olímpia descubro uma “verdadeira” obra de Jean Michel Basquiat.
Quando morei em New York 1984-1985, encontrava pelas ruas as pichações de Basquiat (assinava SAMO) e Keith Haring.
Um domingo, 10 Fevereiro 1985, saiu na capa da revista de domingo do New York Times a famosa foto do Basquiat pintando e vestido de Armani, todo lambusado de tinta e descalço, ele tinha 24 anos e já fazia um sucesso brutal.
Morreu três anos depois, aos 28 anos de idade de overdose de heroina.

O artigo da Sunday Times Magazine começa assim:

February 10, 1985
New Art, New Money
By CATHLEEN McGUIGAN

WHEN JEAN MICHEL BASQUIAT walks into Mr. Chow’s on East 57th Street in Manhattan, the waiters all greet him as a favorite regular. Before he became a big success, the owners, Michael and Tina Chow, bought his artwork and later commissioned him to paint their portraits. He goes to the restaurant a lot. One night, for example, he was having a quiet dinner near the bar with a small group of people. While Andy Warhol chatted with Nick Rhodes, the British rock star from Duran Duran, on one side of the table, Basquiat sat across from them, talking to the artist Keith Haring. Haring’s images of a crawling baby or a barking dog have become ubiquitous icons of graffiti art, a style that first grew out of the scribblings (most citizens call them defacement) on New York’s subway cars and walls. Over Mr. Chow’s plates of steaming black mushrooms and abalone, Basquiat drank a kir royale and swapped stories with Haring about their early days on the New York art scene. For both artists, the early days were a scant half dozen years ago.
(mais…)