A Basquiat work comes to Vicenza. Moses and the Egyptians on loan to the Gallerie d'Italia at Palazzo Leoni Montanari

From Sept. 13 to Nov. 3, 2019, Jean-Michel Basquiat is a guest in Vicenza at the Gallerie d’Italia at Palazzo Leoni Montanari: in fact, for the exhibition L’ospite illustre, the program of exchanges with Italian and international museums, an important work by Basquiat conserved at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao arrives in Veneto. It is Moses and the Egyptians, a work donated by Bruno Bischofberger to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and painted by Basquiat in 1982 along with another painting, believed to be its twin, entitled Man from Naples.

It was in the early 1980s that Basquiat made many of his best works. Moses and the Egyptians, in particular, refers explicitly to the Tablets of the Law of Moses, which Basquiat made in acid pink, which encloses the name of Moses, repeated six times, the eye of God, and several other references to the biblical episode. The inscriptions are almost notes that Basquiat inserts into the canvas to desacralize it and connect it to contemporary events.

Basquiat, born in Brooklyn on December 22, 1960, was already exhibiting at MoMA in New York when he was only twenty-two years old, and also in 1982 he was the youngest of 176 artists invited to participate in Documenta 7 by curator Rudi Fuchs. Having become the new pop star of American art, Basquiat died at only 27, traumatized by the loss of his friend Andy Warhol: Warhol’s disappearance led him to abuse heroin, and on August 12, 1988, the young artist lost his life to anoverdose. He is best remembered for helping to move street art from the streets of Manhattan and Brooklyn to major galleries and international museums.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Moses and the Egyptians. TheIllustrious Guest from Bilbao, the tenth event of the review, will be accompanied by an intense program of collateral activities: thematic itineraries on weekends, the special talk with art critic Luca Beatrice (curator of the event), the presentation of Downtown 81, a docu-fiction on Basquiat, and the proposed street art day, in which young street artists will tell the Galleries of Palazzo Leoni Montanari with their interpretations. Also designed for schools are free educational activities and workshops with a special week dedicated to street art.

Pictured: Jean-Michel, Moses and the Egyptians (1982; acrylic and oil on canvas, 185.9 x 137 x 4 cm; Bilbao, Guggenheim Museum)

A Basquiat work comes to Vicenza. Moses and the Egyptians on loan to the Gallerie d'Italia at Palazzo Leoni Montanari

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