Basquiat x Lee Jaffe, to open in Bologna

(ANSA) - Rome, May 2 - The exhibition 'Basquiat x Lee Jaffe' covers the early career of one of the most important street artists of all time through the lens of multifaceted New York artist Lee Jaffe. Jaffe met American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) in the early 1980s, and photographed him during numerous journeys through Japan, Switzerland, and Thailand.
    The two also spent mutually inspiring time together in Basquiat's New York studio. Here the late Neo-Expressionist graffiti writer and painter filmed Jaffe while he was in the process of creating a sculpture called 'Inverted Oak'.
    Jaffe's photos provide an intimate glimpse into Basquiat when he had not yet been swept up into the vortex of stardom on the New York art scene, where he would soon be hanging out with the likes of David Bowie, Andy Warhol, and a girlfriend who would later be known to the world as Madonna. Jaffe's work is in such collections as those of the MOMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Tate Gallery in London and the L.A. County Museum of Art.
    The show will run from May 5 to June 11 at Bologna's ONO Arte Contemporanea gallery.
    The exhibition includes 15 of Jaffe's photos and was sponsored by the Bologna city council. On May 4, Jaffe will hold an event on street art and New York in the 1980s.