Local Photographer’s Iconic Image at National Gallery National Portrait Gallery Jean-Michel Basquiat, in 1986 Dmitri Kasterine From February 7 through September 7, a photograph of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Dmitri Kasterine, of Garrison, will be included in an exhibition entitled American Cool at the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington. The photograph is one of six of his images in the museum’s permanent collection. Basquiat, who died in 1988 at the age of 27, was a Brooklyn-born Haitian- American artist whose work has been described as Neoexpressionist and Primitivist. He was popular at the time of his death, and his popularity continues today. Kasterine describes the encounter with his subject: I first saw Jean-Michel Basquiat one summer’s day in 1986 sitting on the iron steps of Dean and Deluca’s store on Prince Street in SoHo. He was sitting in a way not unlike the pose he adopted in this photograph... eating Devonshire Cream with a spoon straight from the bottle. I took this photograph some months later in his studio on Great Jones Street. When I arrived his assistant said, ”He’s upstairs getting ready. If you wouldn’t mind waiting.” Murmuring voices and laughter, male and female drifted down the stairs and I welcomed the time to look for a background. It only took me five minutes to decide on one. I prepared my camera and sat down and waited. After half-an-hour I heard footsteps on the stairs and my spirits rose. It was the assistant. “Oh good, you are still here,” he said, “he won’t keep you a moment.” I thanked him and he went back upstairs and I resumed listening to the chatter. Five minutes turned into ten, then twenty and then thirty. An hour past. I was getting hungry. Then I heard footsteps again, different ones this time. Jean-Michel appeared, smiled and asked, “Where would you like me?” “American Cool is about America’s greatest cultural export—cool—and who embodies it,” said Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery. “What you might find surprising about this show is how far back this idea reaches. I especially like how this exhibition shows photographs of icons by world-renowned photographers.”
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 19:33:15 +0000
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