Angelina Jolie has opened up an artists atelier, and at the place supposedly used by Basquiat as his studio at 57 Great Jones Street. It’s an ugly, eye-sore dumpy building in lower Manhattan. Apparently when Basquiat met Andy Warhol (1983) he rented the second floor from him. Warhol had purchased the building in 1970. Basquiat lived and worked there until his death, (suicide or accidental heroin overdose?) in 1988. Previously the structure, built in the 1860’s, was owned by the gangster Paul Kelly, of the Five Points Gang. And more recently it was the very upscale Japanese restaurant Bohemian. Now, and since 2023, it belongs to Angelina Jolie and to the ghosts who probably inhabit it.
Supposedly the graffiti, uncovered while renovating the building, was the work of Al Diaz, Basquiat’s partner in the graffiti duo SAMO©. Diaz claimed it was his, that he had created it for his exhibition there in 2018. In my opinion the place would look better without it, but hell, who am I to suggest something to these people who glorify graffiti artists like Warhol, Diaz and Basquiat, and who think…without much knowledge of art history…that Basquiat was the greatest Black artist the US ever produced. And I am not saying that Jolie said so, but going by the blabber and the stammer.
Nota Bene:
According to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York, these are the greatest Black artists of the US: Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kerry James Marshall, and Kara Walker rank among the most influential contemporary Black artists. Historical figures like Romare Bearden and Jacob Lawrence transformed African American art representation in prestigious museums worldwide.
In any event Angelina Jolie wants to create a community of artists and thinkers and she wants them to group at the atelier, or to paint there, or do something there.
According to the New York Times, last April 5 Jolie met with Iranian artist (based in New York) Shirin Neshat, and conversed about how art was a way, for her, to communicate and find meaning, (whatever that means). And that she wants the atelier to be a place of dialogue about important things like refugees, women’s rights and ecology. Wow! Art as a way to create consciousness in people and communicate important things! A novel idea Ms. Jolie! Why didn’t we (all artists) think of this?
So… what was to be a fashion boutique, supposedly for designers, has turned out to be a commune for artists. Of course, rich artists, well placed and friends with the Manhattan elite. Although it was reported that Angelina said it was open to one and all. But I suspect the atelier will not be available to just any artist. But if you (artist) who is reading this receives an invitation to frolic with the ghosts of gangsters and the enfant terrible of the 80’s New York art scene, let me know, I may drop by to see your exhibition, or at least the ghosts.
And remember, Angelina Jolie says that «Art should be accessible*.» So if you are in town show up with your paints and brushes, or at least a spray can so you too can make history by scribbling some graffiti on the wall. But I doubt they will let you unless you show them your street credentials as a bona fide graffiti artist trained in the Basquiat-Al Diaz school of how to vandalise private property and get rich and famous!
* I do not know where she said this, perhaps to The New York Times but I plucked it out of an article in Pragmatika Magazine. A Ukrainian art, design, urbanism and architecture magazine. I recommend it.
CHEERS
JaZzArt en València 