Start with the paintings, which vibrated with an energy that seemed to radiate outside their own dimensions: Bold primary colors slashed across scavenged cardboard; stark black buildings floating in columns of yellow light; human figures with clenched teeth and waving arms, crowned with slashing white lines or boxlike hats.
Twenty-five of them, collectively titled “Heroes & Monsters.” Never before seen. Signed with the name of one of the most meteoric figures to blaze across the American art world in the last century: Jean-Michel Basquiat. Less than 30 years after his untimely death at the age of 28, a single painting by Basquiat sold in 2017 for $110.5 million, the record for an American artist at auction.
How incredibly exciting, for the Orlando Museum of Art to be the first to exhibit these works.
