Posthumous Basquiat: Art Ephemera From After August 12, 1988

For serious collectors of art ephemera one important consideration is that items date from when an artist is alive and working. There is a certain logic to this. The best art ephemera chronicles an artist’s career and for most artists very little of significance happens after their death.

Jean-Michel Basquiat is the exception here, an artist whose presence, popularity and importance has continued to surge after he has died. Basquiat’s short 8 years career, masked his prodigious production and there has been much to discovered and re-evaluate after his death. His soaring prices—a key part in a much broader art world story—has also kept him front and center. Finally, there is the dramatic arc of Basquiat’s brilliant but tragic life. The story of a groundbreaking “outsider” climbing to the heights and then dying young has proved irresistible for writers, filmmakers and graphic novelists.

Gallery 98’s earlier online exhibition A Survey of Jean-Michel Basquiat Ephemera focused on the art ephemera produced when he was still alive.

New York Newsday, Obituary for Jean-Michel Basquiat, 3 page article by Karin Lipson, September 1 1988

From the Collection