Jean-Michel Basquiat [Past | Present]

Thaddaeus Ropac shares his early memories of the legendary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat’s second exhibition at the gallery:

The winter of 1986 had been long and severe in New York City and I still remember the day I visited Basquiat in his studio. We met to discuss the exhibition we were planning for  that July in Salzburg. We spoke at length about Salzburg’s history of music, which he didn’t know. As a result of our conversation, he created the fantastic work Saxophone, in which he presented his personal idea of music. The highlight of this exhibition ended up being the work Rubber, which depicts a central figure emerging out of the fires of hell.

Exhibition poster