The World of Jean-Michel
The World of Jean-Michel
This year, Assouline released Basquiat: The World of Jean-Michel, a major new volume dedicated to Jean-Michel Basquiat, published as part of Assouline's Ultimate Collection of large-format, hand-bound books. The 348-page volume features more than 200 artworks and archival photographs. Rather than presenting a conventional chronological monograph, the book offers a layered portrait of the artist and the cultural moment that shaped him, organised thematically to trace the key threads of Basquiat's practice.
The volume unfolds across six thematic chapters, touching on Basquiat's depictions of heads, the imprint of New York City on his visual language, his use of silkscreens and multilayered surfaces, and the spiritual dimensions of his work, alongside his collaborations with Andy Warhol, the Blue Ribbon series, and explorations of the body and Black identity. Rare archival photographs capture Basquiat in moments of creation, including works in progress alongside finished paintings, some of which have since been destroyed or lost to time. The project draws on a decade of primary research conducted by Colour Themes, the independent art advisory and dealership co-founded by Philip Rebeiz and CJ Jones, which partnered with Assouline on the book, having liaised with leading galleries and private collectors so that many works are reproduced with exceptional fidelity to their true colour, texture, and intensity.
"Basquiat’s spirit is more omnipresent today than ever before. The entire world has made him a hero.”
Bruno Bischofberger
The book gathers a wide circle of voices around Basquiat's legacy, blending scholarship with personal memory. Bruno Bischofberger — the Swiss art dealer who served as Basquiat's exclusive worldwide representative from May 1982 until the artist's death in 1988, and with whom Basquiat travelled extensively, spending significant time in Zurich and St. Moritz — contributes the book's introduction, lending it the authority of someone who knew Basquiat intimately during the height of his career. Other contributors include artist George Condo, collector Peter Brant, and musician Lenny Kravitz among the living, alongside writings from figures no longer with us, including Keith Haring, bell hooks, and Valentino Garavani, with Kravitz's reflection opening the book with a meditation on an artist he never formally met, yet always felt near, having moved through the same 1980s New York current of the Palladium and Danceteria.
The book stands as a considered act of legacy-building, gathering the community, memories, and scholarship that continue to shape how Basquiat is understood nearly four decades after his death.
A closer look at “The World of Jean-Michel”.