Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation

While some museums are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibitions will include shows at institutions that are currently open as well as digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.

After a seven-week closure due to Covid, the MFA Boston is reopening on 3 February, bringing another chance to see both its Monet blockbuster and this wide-ranging exploration of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s links with early hip-hop culture in New York (until 16 May). It considers how Basquiat and his peers brought aspects of hip hop – in particular graffiti – to the galleries of Manhattan in the 1980s, and includes a section dedicated to Basquiat’s portraits of musicians and other friends. Highlights include the graffiti artist Futura’s Untitled (c. 1982), painted on stage during the first international hip-hop tour, and Basquiat’s own album-cover design for Beat Bop, an experimental record he co-produced. Find out more from the MFA Boston’s website. 

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Six Crimee (1982), Jean-Michel Basquiat. Photo: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; courtesy MFA Boston; © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat; licensed by Artestar, New York

Untitled (1982), Futura. © Futura 2000/Wave 5 Communications LLC

Album cover of Beat Bop: Rammellzee Versus K-Rob (Tartown Record Co.; 1983), Jean-Michel Basquiat. © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat; licensed by Artestar, New York

Hollywood Africans (1983), Jean-Michel Basquiat. Courtesy MFA Boston; © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat; licensed by Artestar, New York