Jessica Beck – “Politics and Friendship in Warhol and Basquiat’s Collaborations”

Reading an excerpt from her essay, The Personal and Political in Basquiat and Warhol’s Ten Punching Bags, for the Basquiat x Warhol. Painting Four Hands, at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Jessica Beck will speak about the collaborations that Warhol and Basquiat created in the 1980s. While the two artists are often discussed according to their differences, Beck will demonstrate just how much they shared— friendship, a mutual interest in anatomy, language, and an engagement with the political climate of the 1980s. Their partnership impacted both of their careers, but through a close examination of the details of their paintings and sculptures, we can see that it was Basquiat who possessed the most influence and helped reinvigorate Warhol’s late career. 

Jessica Beck, a director at Gagosian Beverly Hills, is a curator, Warhol scholar, art historian, writer, and lecturer. Formerly chief curator of the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, she organized numerous exhibitions of Warhol’s work there, including Andy Warhol: My Perfect Body (2016–17) and Marisol and Warhol Take New York (2021–22). Beck has published widely on Warhol, including for the catalogue published to accompany the exhibition Basquiat × Warhol: Painting Four Hands at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2023), and was a featured expert in the Netflix documentary series The Andy Warhol Diaries (2022).

*Lectures are free to anyone who has purchased a ticket to the Warhol Exhibition. Please provide ticket stub or order confirmation for free entrance. Reservations required. Restrictions apply.