The exhibition at the Collection Lambert explores the roots of the raw energy contained in Jean-Michel Basquiat’s paintings and questions the unusual qualities of a body of work both visceral and self-aware, so much more than the sum of its unusual parts, through which the talent of a young prodigy shines through. In the 1980s, Jean-Michel Basquiat burst onto the art scene offering a new vision of art, putting painting back at its heart at the very moment the medium had been consigned to history. His work brings together the artist’s own sources, intuitions and extraordinary talent. Like a DJ mixing forms, Basquiat took shapes and colors into new creative territories.

His formal vocabulary is clearly inspired by Picasso, Matisse and Twombly, drawing on their fondness for primary colours, fragmented subjects, disturbing faces, dissonant colours and forms, and crudely crafted compositions or objects. Like them, he steps away from cold virtuosity and appeals instead to naivety and ungainliness to restore pure energy to art while reaching for the sublime to create a work both sensitive yet engaging.

The book features a presentation from the exhibition’s curator and an interview with Yvon Lambert about his relationship with the artist. Alongside the artist’s own work, it also features an extensive selection of works by Matisse, Picasso and Twombly from the Collection Lambert’s own permanent collection and exceptional loans from private collections and major institutions.