You can step inside a recreation of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s studio and see hundreds of items tied to the iconic neo-expressionist painter at the L.A. debut of this touring exhibition.
Blessed by the late artist’s estate (his sisters Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux serve as producers and curators), “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure” brings over 200 pieces—a mix of paintings and drawings alongside ephemera and artifacts—to the Grand in Downtown L.A.
More narrative-driven than a typical museum exhibition but more substantial than all of those “immersive” shows, this event includes recreations of Basquiat’s family home and New York studio, as well as the VIP room at NYC’s Palladium nightclub, which showcased two of his paintings. There’s a bit of an L.A. connection, too: You can see two large paintings created on pieces of the fence behind Basquiat’s Venice studio.
“King Pleasure” debuted in New York last April, and our friends at Time Out New York (whose photos you see at the top of this story) called it the closest thing to getting inside the artist’s head and deemed it the city’s third-best exhibition of the year.
Tickets for its L.A. run go on sale March 1 at noon (presale is already open to newsletter subscribers and Citi cardholders). Timed tickets cost $32 during the week and $35 on weekends; a $65 VIP ticket lets you visit any time of day. It’s worth noting that the exhibition will sit right up the street from the Broad, where you can see more than a dozen Basquiat works for free.
