Jean Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele go head to head in two blockbuster exhibitions at the Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris that features a selection of artworks highlighting the artistic career of both artists.

ART NEWS

This autumn, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris presents two blockbuster exhibitions featuring the works of Jean Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele, two exceptional artists who died young at the peak of the careers.

BY KAZAD

PARIS— For art lovers, 2018 is bound to be an exciting year. Museums across the globe are getting ready to present some of the best exhibitions and shows. The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris is one of them. It will present two major blockbuster exhibitions bound to attract a major art crowd from across the globe. The two shows are on two exceptional artists who died very young and at the peak of their careers. One is Jean Michel Basquiat, one of the most significant painters of the 20^th century.  The other is Egon Schiele, a major figurative painter of the early 20th century.

Jean Michel Basquiat Art

Since the sale of Basquiat’s powerful 1982 skull painting for $110.5 Million at auction, there has been a clamoring for more access to his works.  Across the globe,  requests for a major exhibition that brings better focus to the artist’s creative career increased. The Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris will do that next autumn with a mega Basquiat show. The show will occupy four floors of Frank Gehry’s building at the museum. It will feature over 100 of Basquiat’s finest works.  Obnoxious Liberals (1982) on loan from the Broad Art Foundation in Los Angeles, and In Italian (1983), which from the Connecticut-based Brant Foundation are two of the important works going on display.

Several of the works in this show have never been seen before in Europe. Other works in the show include Riding with Death (1988), lend from a private collection, Offensive Orange (1982), and Untitled (Yellow Tar and Feathers)1982 borrowed from private collections.

Basquiat’s exhibition provides an opportunity to examine the painter’s entire career and continues the frenzy for a better understanding of the artist’s career. The exhibition Boom for Real, currently at the Barbican Art Gallery in London until January 28, is due to travel to the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt next year from February 16 to May 27.

Egon Schiele: Drawings, Watercolors, Paintings, and Influences.

Egon Schiele, Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, 1912. © Leopold Museum, Vienna

Schiele’s show will run simultaneously with the Jean-Michel Basquiat show on the first floor of the Frank Gehry-designed building at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Over 80 works, including drawings, watercolors, and paintings will be on display in this major solo exhibition. The works will trace how Schiele became a major influence and one of the major figures of expressionism. One of the major works is Self–Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant (1912) borrowed from the Leopold Museum in Vienna. Other works include Pregnant Woman and Death (1911) from the Národní Galerie Prague and Portrait of the Artist’s Wife Seated (Edith Schiele). There is also Holding Her Right Leg (1917) borrowed from the Morgan Library & Museum (New York).

Two Art Exhibitions

The Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele shows at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris provide a rare opportunity to simultaneously examine the works of these exceptional artists, with a particular focus on style and influences.  Curated by Dieter Buchhart, the shows vividly conjugate the work of both artists, illuminating their similarities and differences.

Dieter Buchhart, the curator of the two exhibitions, highlights the differences between  Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele. “Although distinct from one another, the two exhibitions allow the simultaneous contemplation of two sensational bodies of work,” he said. The existential nature of Schiele’s lines, like Basquiat’s, is one of the main themes raised by Buchhart in curating the two exhibitions.

There is no doubt that these two exhibitions will bolster visitors to this private museum that continues to present remarkable shows. The number of visitors to these shows will probably match Icons of Modern Art: The Shchukin Collection, which drew more than 1.2 million visitors. There are even speculations that the Jean-Michel Basquiat and Egon Schiele shows will surpass the notable Fondation Louis Vuitton attendance in 2018.

Even as art lovers keep an eye on these two exhibitions, it is also important to focus on another Spring blockbuster titled L’Artiste, créateur de Mondes. Also at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the exhibition, which runs from April 10 to August 27, will feature the works of over 25 French and international artists. They will be presented in two complementary sequences.

Here is a list of some of the participating artists in L’Artiste, créateur de Mondes at the Fondation Louis Vuitton:

Giovanni Anselmo (1934, Italy)

Matthew Barney (1967, USA)

Christian Boltanski (1944, France)

Mark Bradford (1961, USA)

James Lee Byars (1932-1997, USA)

Maurizio Cattelan (1960, Italy)

Ian Cheng (1984, USA)

Trisha Donnelly (1974, USA)

Dan Flavin (1933-1996, USA)

Cyprien Gaillard (1980, France)

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966, Switzerland)

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (1965, France)

Jacqueline Humphries (1960, USA)

Pierre Huyghe (1962, France)

Yves Klein (1928-1962, France)

Henri Matisse (1869-1954, France)

François Morellet (1926-2016, France)

Takashi Murakami (1962, Japan)

Philippe Parreno (1964, France)

Sigmar Polke (1941-2010, Germany)

Gerhard Richter (1932, Germany)

Wilhelm Sasnal (1972, Poland)

Kiki Smith (1954, USA)

Adrián Villar Rojas (1980, Argentina)

Anicka Yi (1971, South Korea)

Fondation Louis Vuitton is a private museum opened by the luxury goods billionaire Bernard Arnault in 2014.

Above: Obnoxious Liberals 1982,  an acrylic, oilstick, and spray paint on canvas by Jean-Michel Basquiat.© The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat/ADAGP, Paris/ARS, New York 2014