Basquiat Soundtracks is the title of the exhibition that the Philarmonie de Paris is currently hosting at the Cité de la Musique on the relationship between Jean-Michel Basquiat and music. MACBA has contributed a major painting from its Collection, King Zulu (1986). Emerging out of the multidisciplinary artistic community of late-1970s New York, Basquiat, who also signed his work as SAMO, burst onto the scene at the height of hip-hop. While painting graffiti, Basquiat played with the band Gray in Manhattan’s underground clubs, an enclave for a generation of punk-influenced artists, who also experimented with all sorts of other languages. Practising hip-hop with friends, in 1983 he produced a rap single called Beat Bop. Both for rappers and be-boppers, jazz was a central element, the musical genesis of New York’s black cultural heritage. Basquiat’s work is full of references to records and jazz musicians, such as the ones in King Zulu, the painting in the MACBA Collection. We tell you about it here.

Works in the collection by Basquiat

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