Basquiat Before Basquiat - the exhibition at MCA Denver

If you think to know everything about Jean-Michel Basquiat's personal and creative life, you're wrong. In fact, a new exhibition at MCA Denver titled Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979-1980 will show a new aspect of the New York Andy Warhol's protégé artist, namely the Jean-Michel Basquiat before he became the artist Basquiat. Before being one of the most important artists of Eighties, Jean-Michele Basquiat lived with his girlfriend Alexis Adler in a small appartment in East Village, where he started to experience his creativity and to work on his SAMO project. And it's because of Alexis Adler if today we know and can admire those works. As she explained during an interview with New York Times, Alexis Adler met Basquiat we he was 19-years-old and they lived together in the small appartment in East 21th Street for about four months.

About that period Alexis saved over 100 Basquiat's works, but also memorabilia and photos of their life together. “From mid-1979 to mid-1980, I lived with Jean in three different apartments, but for most of that time in an apartment that we moved into and shared on East 12th St. This was a time before Jean had canvases to work with, so he used whatever he could get his hands on, as he was constantly creating” Alexis Adler said, adding that “The derelict streets of the East Village provided his raw materials and he would bring his finds up the six flights of stairs to incorporate into his art. Jean was able to make money for paint and his share of the rent, which was $80 a month, by selling sweatshirts on the street. He knew that he was a great artist". The exhibition, that includes exclusive Basquiat's materials, paintings, photographs, sculptures and notebooks, which help us to understand the artist's style and influence since the beginning, will be open from February 11 to May 7, and it will be supported by a publishing who explores the historical and creative context of that period.