Warhol/Basquiat collabs at Van De Weghe. It's funny. I don't necessarily pay hyper-attention to what's going on at this gallery, but if I'm in Chelsea I always make sure I stop by to see what's on. This would be why. A lot of people have problem with these collaborations, but I'm not one of them. People accuse Andy of playing vampire, or that Jean-Michel was doing, well, whatever Jean-Michel might have been doing . . . holding on, I guess. Whatevs. If either of those things were in the way of the work the mutual respect and the masterful skills of both artists break through it. Each artists' icons are crash worshipped by the other. It's not nice or polite, but it's an honest friendship being poured and pouted onto the canvases. I couldn't ask for more.
5 comments:
I wanna like 'em. I like both of the artists. But these just don't work for me. Everytime I see them I like them less and less.
Hi, Bpad. I didn't get to post my thoughts on the paintings before I left for Philly, but now they're up. Obviously, we disagree. I totally cop to being in the minority on this one.
For me they just don't add up- there's no cohesion to the final piece. It doesn't strike me as a collaboration so much as each was just doing his own thing and at some point said to their dealer, "All done now, here you go." There are bits and pieces I like in almost all of them (because I like both of the artists a lot) but the final paintings- they just don't do it for me.
But it has nothing to do with that "Andy was a vampire" nonsense people talk about. They were two friends who made art together. Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. For me, these don't. But props to you for going against the grain on this one. The first time I saw them I liked them much more than I do today.
You bring up a point that might be one of the things about the paintings I find endearing about their work together . . . the acknowledgment--intentional or not--of the close distance. Maybe they're not coherent on the canvas, but somehow they come together in my head. I don't know. But thanks for making me think about this, Bpad.
Oh, and one thing we're definitely in agreement on is the whole Andy-as-vampire thing. It's pretty clear from the diaries (AND the Julian Schnabel movie [Ha. Yeah. I said that.]) that that wasn't the case here.
I actually really dig that last one quite a lot. Personally it feels like the two of them got to be one person on this one.
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