A New York Metropolis road lined with boutique shops, galleries, a bustling hearth station, and a multi-story parking zone is now named after Jean-Michel Basquiat. On Tuesday, October 21, Metropolis Council and the Basquiat Property formally designated a stretch of Nice Jones Road in Decrease Manhattan in honor of the late artist.
Basquiat resided and labored at 57 Nice Jones Road in Manhattan’s NoHo neighborhood in a warehouse leased from fellow artist Andy Warhol for 5 years earlier than he died of an overdose in 1988 on the age of 27. The road naming is a recognition of the “visionary Black artist who helped redefine modern art through his bold, expressive, and socially conscious work,” a Metropolis Council press launch mentioned.
Relatively than changing the earlier road identify, town added a 3rd signal for “Jean-Michel Basquiat Way” on the intersection of Bowery and Nice Jones in what it referred to as a “co-naming.”
57 Nice Jones Road is now dwelling to Atelier Jolie.
The town added a 3rd signal to the intersection of Bowery and Nice Jones.
Born to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mom in Brooklyn, Basquiat was already gaining traction within the artwork world by his early 20s, breaking via within the early Eighties with attribute works that depicted human heads and components of graffiti. In 1978, he offered a hand-painted postcard to Warhol after approaching the artist in a SoHo restaurant, and later moved into Warhol’s NoHo constructing. Throughout his about decade-long profession, Basquiat produced an estimated 2,000 drawings and 1,000 work, promoting posthumously for as much as $110.5 million.
“He was a cultural pioneer who expanded the public’s relationship with and access to art,” Metropolis Council Speaker Adrienne Adams mentioned in a press launch shared with Hyperallergic. “Throughout his career, Jean Michel-Basquiat pushed boundaries to inspire critical conversations about power, racial, and social justice that persist today.”
A plaque on 57 Nice Jones Road acknowledges Basquiat’s time within the constructing and contributions to the artwork world.
At a ceremony on Tuesday, Basquiat’s family members, together with his sister Lisane Basquiat and nephew Raymond Joseph Basquiat, celebrated the brand new road identify.
Since actress Angelina Jolie acquired the constructing in 2023, 57 Nice Jones Road has been dwelling to Atelier Jolie, an artwork middle that hosts residencies and exhibitions, and Eat Offbeat Café, a restaurant that employs immigrant and refugee cooks.
A plaque already exists on the constructing, coated in graffiti. “Basquiat’s paintings and other work challenged established notions of high and low art, race and class, while forging a visionary language that defied characterization,” it reads.
Atelier Jolie
