Blessed by the late artist’s estate (his sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux serve as producers and curators), “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure” brings over 200 pieces—a mix of paintings and drawings alongside ephemera and artifacts—to the Grand in Downtown L.A.
That familial connection adds a touching amount of tenderness to the exhibition. The opening gallery explains how this isn’t meant to be a scholarly exhibition but instead a fresh perspective told from the family’s point of view (you’ll find a reproduction of the Basquiats’ living room and kitchen as well as interviews with family members and close art world associates). There’s a surprising amount of emotion in the wall texts, of all things; rather than taking an academic approach, they tell of “our brother” and how his love of cartoons influenced his earliest drawings.
The exhibit design leans on lots of wood plans and lifesize experiences, like stepping into recreations of Basquiat’s strewn-about studio or the VIP room at NYC’s Palladium nightclub, which showcased two of his paintings. But don’t let that fool you into thinking this is some sort of “immersive” show: The content here is substantial, with an exceptional assortment of rarely-seen pieces (and a bit of an L.A. connection, too, with two large paintings created on pieces of the fence behind Basquiat’s Venice studio).
“King Pleasure” debuted in New York last April, and our friends at Time Out New York called it the closest thing to getting inside the artist’s head and deemed it the city’s third-best exhibition of the year. We’d wholeheartedly agree with that recommendation.
The only downside is the pricing: Timed tickets cost $32 during the week and $35 on weekends; a $65 VIP ticket lets you visit any time of day. We do think it’s worth the price if you’re a Basquiat fan or contemporary art fan (in which case, we’ll also mention that the show sits right up the street from the Broad, where you can see about a dozen Basquiat works for free).