Description Copy, paste: Basquiat\'s collaged Xerox paintings presage today\'s sampling aesthetics Jean-Michel Basquiat: Xerox provides the first concentrated examination of the extraordinary body of work that the artist created using Xerox copies as his principal medium and compositional focal point.
About the Author Rudy Chiappini is Director of the Lugano Modern Art Museum..
This catalog, published in conjunction with the major retrospective at the Lugano Museum of Modern Art, provides an excellent overview of Basquiat\'s life and work.
Annotation Controversial cult artist, enfant terrible of the art world, friend of Haring and Warhol, and both idol and a victim of the art scene of the \'80s, Basquiat was a legend in his own lifetime.
He died following a heroin overdose at 27.
Later he stormed the gallery world, and became an icon of New York\'s vibrant early-\'80s downtown scene, a friend to and collaborator with Andy Warhol and Francesco Clemente, and the cover boy for a 1985 New York Times Magazine story on the new art market.
Notoriety came early, from his street paintings made under the tag SAMO.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88) grew up in Brooklyn.
The intricate web of content in this series presages the copy-paste sampling characteristic of the subsequent internet and post-internet generations, positioning Basquiat as a pioneer of the pre-digital age.
Their raw, allover compositions incorporate recycled and transformed signs and markings from the artist\'s everyday experiences, including motifs from his earlier artworks.
These immersive, collaged Xerox paintings epitomize Basquiat\'s extraordinary instinct for visual language.
Description Copy, paste: Basquiat\'s collaged Xerox paintings presage today\'s sampling aesthetics Jean-Michel Basquiat: Xerox provides the first concentrated examination of the extraordinary body of work that the artist created using Xerox copies as his principal medium and compositional focal point
