Basquiat: Pollo Frito: Street to Studio

Centering on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s important early painting Untitled (Pollo Frito) (1982), this publication analyzes the artist’s early career as he transitioned from street to studio. Reproducing Basquiat’s key works made in 1981 and 1982, the volume discusses the artist’s development in New York, from the graffiti he and Al Diaz created as SAMO© to his role as the renowned creator of highly gestural canvases that merged the rawness of New York street culture with his polyvocal use of words and images. The trilingual (English/Spanish/French) book includes an essay by Dieter Buchhart that connects Basquiat’s drawings and paintings to avant-garde art, poetry, and hip-hop, and examines the artist’s engagement with social and political themes, as well as an interview with gallerist Annina Nosei by Buchhart that provides insights into Basquiat’s early career.