Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol at Area Nightclub in New York City in 1984
(Picture: Ron Galella Collection via Getty)In mid-1980s New York, an extraordinary creative alliance happened between two very different artists. Between 1983 and 1985, Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat collaborated on a series of paintings. Asked about it at the time, Basquiat remembered that he and Warhol worked “on a million paintings” – the official number is about 150 canvases. Warhol “would put something very concrete or recognisable, like a newspaper headline or a product logo”, Basquiat recalled, “and then I would sort of deface it”.
The collision between the Pop art icon and the young enfant terrible led to a few shows, including one at the Tony Shafrazi gallery in New York, accompanied by publicity shots of Warhol and Basquiat in boxing gloves. It got a mixed reception from the critics. Within three years, both artists were dead: Warhol in 1987 after a gallbladder operation (not routine, as is often claimed), Basquiat in 1988 from an overdose.
