Having recently watched both films about the transferral of Basquiat’s work from exterior walls along the streets of New York into gallery spaces, I was confronted by the tangible reality of this transferral when viewing the retrospective of Andy Warhol’s work at the Whitney this weekend. Below is an image of “Paramount,” one of the collaborative works by Warhol and Basquiat. Basquiat’s aesthetic produced a disruptive element to the gallery in which this piece was located, as it was surrounded by Warhol’s silkscreens of mostly brand logos displayed in repetition. In a manner that prompts me to consider the “uncanny” qualities of the “double,” per Jorge Luis Borges, this dynamic of aesthetic juxtaposition echoes the ways in which one might encounter the work of Basquiat outside––disrupting the advertising cacophony of repetitive images, logos, icons that serve as signifiers for corporations.
Incidentally, just as I was taking this photograph, I found myself standing next to Marta Minujin, the Argentine pop artist who’s work––The Parthenon of Books––I have been studying for my research project. This experience prompted me to consider what it means to study the works of living artists: How is it that we prompt questions for, produce discourse surrounding, and attempt to come to conclusions about works of art made by living artists, (considering that they may never read our undergraduate work)?