The Maillol Museum is devoting an exhibition to Jean-Michel Basquiat’s works on paper which, for Basquiat, were of special importance.
Paris will have the opportunity to see, for the very first time, the drawings of one of the most important artists of his generation

Some people thought that jean Michel Basquiat owed a great deal of his reputation to myth, forgetting or seeming to forget that it is precisely his work that gave him this mythical dimension. Others wrote that his celebrity was due to his being Black. But if being Black made anything easy, including having his works exhibited in museums and winning the enthusiasm of collectors, that would have been known a long time ago.
Jean-Michel Basquiat has no color, he is all the colors that he has etched in his work.

Today, some articles still indulgently emphasize the fact that Jean-Michel Basquiat’s drug addiction drove him to his death. Obviously, for Basquiat like for many others, this drug dependency only revealed a deep malaise and only adds distress and suffering to the debate. Furthermore, it has certainly not provoked, revealed or facilitated anything in his work, except perhaps the fact that he had to have great talent to continue creating despite the slow ravages. If he referred to this in his paintings or in his works on paper, it was never as a justification. He didn’t credit drugs with having any beneficial effects or virtues. On the contrary, by and by, the specter of death appeared in his paintings and inexorably led him towards it.

Basquiat’s works on paper, a separate and distinct part of his work, have a very moving spontaneity and deep intimacy. The themes which were dear to him autobiographical memories, Black heroes, comic book characters, cartoon characters, anatomical plates, graffiti, money, racism, death, etc. – are employed in a manner that is more striking a true-to-life in his works on paper. They are subjects rooted in all cultures and found on all the continents.

We would like this exhibition to enable the general public to better comprehend the work of one of the great artists of the end of this century.