Basquiat Bonanza

There was a very, very crowded art opening tonight on 24th Street in Chelsea at the Gagosian Gallery for a major exhibition of paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat. I waited in a long line in the freezing cold for over 20 minutes just to get in the front door. Gagosian is one of the largest galleries in NYC and it was was filled with over 50 large colorful paintings and lots and lots of people. Mr. Gagosian was standing right near the entrance greeting wealthy collectors and other assorted art fans. You certainly wouldn't know it from my picture above, but the place was packed. I would have taken more pictures, but a guard warned me not to take pictures even though I saw dozens of people snapping cell phone pictures which are probably posted all over Instagram.

This painting is entitled "Eyes and Eggs" and is from 1983 when he was producing lots of great art. This enormous painting is nearly 10' x 8' in size and is acrylic, oil paint stick and paper collage on cotton drop cloth. Since Basquiat often painted on the floor, you can see his dirty sneaker prints directly on the canvas. The show runs until April 6th and is completely free so you have plenty of time to get over there.