Basquiat's former loft space on Great Jones is available for lease

The building at 57 Great Jones St. between the Bowery and Lafayette is now on the rental market...

The two-level building was once owned by Andy Warhol ... and Jean-Michel Basquiat was living and working in the second-floor studio at the time of his death in 1988.

Here are some particulars via the listing at Meridan Capital Group: 

• Historic full-building restaurant opportunity

• Previously owned by Andy Warhol and art studio/home of Jean-Michel Basquiat 

• Fully equipped restaurant space with venting & gas in place 

• Massive skylight in ground floor dining room 

• The lower level consists of 2 walk-in boxes, dry storage and office space 

• The second floor consists of open loft space with high ceilings and multiple skylights 

• All uses considered 

The back of the ground-floor space had been home to Bohemian, an invite-only Japanese restaurant that provided some intrigue for food writers 10-plus years back. (As we understand, Bohemian's parent company, Play Earth Inc., owns the building.) 

In July 2016, Village Preservation, in partnership with Two Boots Pizza, unveiled a commemorative plaque to mark Basquiat's time here from 1983-1988.

The building's façade served as an ad-hoc memorial to Basquiat through the years. As we first reported back in February, workers painted over all the tributes... though, as the top photo on this post shows, the tags are making a comeback. 

You can read this post at Village Preservation for more history of the building, which once served as the HQ for Five Points Gang ringleader Paul Kelly.

Previously on EV Grieve:

• Tribute-filled façade of former Basquiat studio painted over on Great Jones

Sunday's opening shot

Have a yabba dabba doo time with this new stone-age Basquiat wheatpaste on the Bowery and Houston... courtesy of DeGrupo ...

Wednesday's parting shot of a Basquiat painting that just sold for $93.1 million

Jean-Michel Basquiat's painting titled In This Case sold for $93.1 million last night at Christie's. 

The record price paid for a Basquiat at auction came in 2017 when another painting of a skull sold to the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa for $110.5 million. 

As for last night, Bloomberg provides the play-by-play...

As the lot opened up to a salesroom populated exclusively by cameras and auction house specialists, Gemma Sudlow, a senior vice president at Christie's who was leading the auction, opened bidding at $40 million, and quickly brought its price to $52 million.

And...

Soon, six bidders began to vie for the work, slowly pushing its price in increments ranging from $1 million to $3 million. After about six minutes of bidding, the nearly 6.5 foot-high (2 meters) painting hammered at $81 million. Auction house fees payable by the buyer added on another $12 million.

And...

The painting was last purchased publicly in 2002, when it sold at Sotheby’s for just under $1 million. It then sold privately in 2007 for an undisclosed sum. The seller on Tuesday night, according to reports, was former Valentino chairman Giancarlo Giammetti; the buyer was not immediately known.

Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at his home-studio at 57 Great Jones St. between the Bowery and Lafayette. He was 27.

Image via Christie's

Spray on: A new tribute to Basquiat on Great Jones

There's new art adorning the second floor of 57 Great Jones St. between the Bowery and Lafayette... artist-photographer Adrian Wilson (under his @plannedalism moniker) painted "Let Us Spray" here where Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and worked at the time of his death in 1988.

The building, once owned by Andy Warhol, now houses Bohemian, an upscale Japanese restaurant ... their curbside dining space includes a message by Al Diaz,  who, as a teen in the late 1970s, collaborated with Basquiat on a series of cryptic messages seen around the city signed from SAMO©. 

This isn't Wilson's first dalliance with the space. In the fall of 2018, he helped curate the Same Old Gallery, an exhibit that featured Diaz's work. The two also collaborated on a mural here to mark the 30th anniversary of Basquiat's death in August 2018.

In July 2016, the Greenwich Village Society of Historical Preservation (now Village Preservation) unveiled a commemorative plaque outside the building ...

Flashback Friday: Take a virtual tour of the Brant Foundation's Basquiat exhibit from 2019

[Photo by James Maher]

In case you missed the Brant Foundations's Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit last year... the currently-closed space on Sixth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue is now offering a 360 VR tour of the show as seen in the four-level space owned by Peter M. Brant.

The exhibit, open to the public for two-plus months, featured some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion. You can start exploring at this link.

Previously on EV Grieve:
• A Basquiat-at-the-Brant Foundation reader

Peter Brant and the legacy of Basquiat

[EVG photo from March]

Tomorrow (May 13) is the last day for the Basquiat exhibit at the Brant Foundation on Sixth Street.

On this occasion, J. Faith Almiron contributes an essay — titled "No One Owns Basquiat, Not Even Peter Brant" — to Hyperallergic that explores how Brant "has cogently influenced the legacy of Basquiat on several fronts."

And there are thoughts on the exhibit, which features some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion:

Without guiding text or a road map, laypeople may feel disoriented or find the space aloof. On the top floor, there is a skylight that brings in natural luminosity against the artwork. If you follow it, the rooftop offers a panoramic view of the city.

Although it belies any pedagogical purpose characteristic of civic institutes like public museums, the bare presentation does not detract from the ethos and impact of the artwork. For example, the second-floor stuns with a wall of paintings framed on signature canvas stretchers innovated by former assistant Stephen Torton, from floor to high-vaulted ceilings.

And...

Beyond the high volume and overwhelming demand, Basquiat exhibitions diversify the demography of its attendees. Unlike any other artist before or since, Basquiat invites everybody into the museum — art nerds, hip-hop heads, immigrant kids, post-colonial ex-pats, rebels young and old, everyday Black and Brown folk, thirsty celebrities, and indeed rich white people too. Basquiat hails you to revel in his glorious defiance, then take a piss on the walls of an oppressor.

Previously on EV Grieve:
1 month in: Basquiat at the Brant Foundation

Report: Brant Foundation releasing more tickets for Basquiat exhibit

The Brant Foundation is releasing a new block of tickets for people to check out the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition at the Brant Foundation's Sixth Street home.

As artnet News reports, the foundation is expanding its daily capacity from 1,100 to 2,000 guests to accommodate more visitors.

All 50,000 of the free tickets were apparently reserved even before the exhibition officially opened on March 6.

"The demand for tickets was not a huge surprise," Allison Brant told artnet News in an email. "We knew how beloved Jean-Michel Basquiat is and that people would not want to miss an opportunity to see this many works together again, especially in the East Village."

The exhibition, featuring some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion, is up through May 15 at the Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue. Hit this link to reserve tickets.


[Photo by riachung00]

Previously on EV Grieve:
1 month in: Basquiat at the Brant Foundation

1 month in: Basquiat at the Brant Foundation

[Photo by James Maher]

The Basquiat exhibit officially opened to the ticket-holding public back on March 6 at the Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

The exhibit, featuring some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion, is up through May 15. There is a waitlist (link here) for admittance.

Multiple EVG contributors/readers have shared photos from inside the four-level space owned by Peter M. Brant this past month. Overall the comments about the exhibit, the inaugural one inside this renovated building, have been overwhelmingly positive. People have appreciated how uncrowded the floors feel ... as well as the East Village views the space provides.

The following shots are by old EVG friend James Maher...





























... and Carol from East Fifth Street shared these... (she called the exhibit "extraordinary — I was truly overwhelmed.")













Previously on EV Grieve:
A Basquiat-at-the-Brant Foundation reader

A Basquiat-at-the-Brant Foundation reader

The Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibit officially debuts today to the ticket-holding public over at the Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

Here's a recap of recent articles on the space and show...

• Architectural Digest:

The Foundation’s new building, a former power substation on East 6th Street that was once the studio of contemporary artist Walter De Maria and was recently renovated by architects Gluckman Tang, is, indeed, the proper setting. “A lot of research was done to create the moment you experience when you enter the show’s second floor,” Foundation director Allison Brant adds.

This research paid off handsomely — the show, and the space, offer a breathtaking view into the artist’s world, underscoring a resonance between the artworks and their location that brings a new layer of meaning to our understanding of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

• artnet News:

[I]t’s hard to ignore this luxurious setting’s disconnect from its immediate surrounding neighborhood — viewable through the floor-to-ceiling windows that punctuate the galleries — and the subject matter of Basquiat’s art itself, which frequently delved into issues of racism, poverty, inequity, and social injustice.

But none of that incongruity has dampened the enthusiasm around the show—and perhaps its free admission helps counter the reality that culture is increasingly governed by the über-wealthy. Basquiat, meanwhile, is about as popular as it gets when it comes to contemporary art audiences. Roughly 60 percent of the works in this 70-piece show are fresh off the blockbuster Basquiat survey that just wrapped up at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, which [Dieter] Buchhart also co-curated, and some have never been seen in New York before.

• The New York Times:

Gluckman Tang has preserved the “bones” of the building — sturdy beige brick walls and sleek industrial staircases — and opened up rear-facing walls with windows that provide light and spectacular views of the neighborhood. The building includes four floors of exhibition space and a rooftop garden with a reflecting pool visible as a glittering skylight on the fourth floor. Nestled among old tenement buildings, the location feels very similar to Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, a new multistory foundation related to the nearby department store. Both institutions serve as emblems of the gentrification of former working- class neighborhoods, but also the proliferation of a new kind of museum.

Private collections have long histories — for instance, the Frick and the Morgan in New York — but also, at present, carry a double-edged meaning and purpose: They are private exhibition venues but also tax havens for the very rich. Mr. Brant was on the forefront of this phenomenon — both the private institution showcasing contemporary art and trouble with the IRS — when his foundation opened a decade ago across the street from his estate in Greenwich.

One of the arguments in support of the East Village space is that it offers free admission to see works that are rarely on view — although you have to make reservations, which are quickly becoming scarce. And the “free” admission to most of these private museums is the ultimate hidden-fee-economy tactic: We are all paying, in a variety of ways, to live in a system that supports colossal disparities of wealth. Museum admission might be free, but health care isn’t.

• The Wall Street Journal:

Brant could have launched with a legacy show of his own trophy holdings, but he says the space’s proximity to Basquiat’s former stomping grounds compelled him to devote the opener to the neo-expressionist painter. Basquiat’s frenetic, poetic paintings of 1980s New York are getting more attention lately from both museums and the marketplace, with pieces selling at auction for as much as $110.5 million. That record-holder, an untitled skull painting from 1982 that’s owned by Japanese e-retailer Yusaku Maezawa, is in Brant’s show.

Other heavyweights include 1987’s Unbreakable, which has never been exhibited in New York, and 1983’s Hollywood Africans, which was lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

• WNYC:

The Brant space in the East Village is not a commercial gallery but part of a private foundation, which may entitle it to tax benefits. Yet, to judge from the current exhibition, the new space lacks the public amenities we expect of not-for-profit institutions.

There is no catalogue for the current show, no brochure, and next to no information about individual artworks. Admission is free, but visitors are required to reserve tickets in advance; so far, according to its website, there is already a waiting list. How is Brant’s new space different than a commercial gallery? I don’t see any real difference, except that it comes enshrouded in vanity and self-promotion.

The exhibit runs through May 15. Waitlist tickets are available via this link.

Images via the Gluckman Tang Instagram account.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

RIP Walter De Maria

What is your East Village dream home?

Walter De Maria's 'giant-robot laboratory' going for $25 million; inside is amazing as you'd expect

Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East 6th Street

When the world's top collectors of Dom Pérignon rosé came to the East Village for dinner

Reader report: 421 E. 6th St. will house Peter M. Brant's personal art collection

Peter Brant's East 6th Street Outreach Tour 2015 continues

Peter Brant meets the neighbors

On 6th Street, the Brant Foundation's inaugural exhibit will feature the work of Basquiat

The EVG podcast: Al Diaz on BOMB1, SAMO© and Basquiat

Report: Brant Foundation's Basquiat exhibit includes $110.5 million skull painting

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required!) checks in today with a preview on the inaugural exhibit at the Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue... the one featuring Basquiat that starts next Wednesday...

To the Journal!

[Peter M.] Brant could have launched with a legacy show of his own trophy holdings, but he says the space’s proximity to Basquiat’s former stomping grounds compelled him to devote the opener to the neo-expressionist painter. Basquiat’s frenetic, poetic paintings of 1980s New York are getting more attention lately from both museums and the marketplace, with pieces selling at auction for as much as $110.5 million. That record-holder, an untitled skull painting from 1982 that’s owned by Japanese e-retailer Yusaku Maezawa, is in Brant’s show.

Other heavyweights include 1987’s Unbreakable, which has never been exhibited in New York, and 1983’s Hollywood Africans, which was lent by the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Half of the show’s roughly 70 pieces have also come directly from a Basquiat survey that recently drew nearly 680,000 visitors to Paris’s Louis Vuitton Foundation. These works will now be intermingled with 16 pieces from the Brant foundation as well as loans from other collectors like Dan Loeb, John Phelan, Eli Broad and Dimitri Mavrommatis.

The Foundation says 50,000 people have already signed up online to get free tickets. The show runs through May 15.

Meanwhile, Andrew Russeth at artNews has thoughts on all this...

A formidable new arts space opening in the East Village is cause for celebration. But what happens after the Basquiat show comes down? If the foundation becomes a repository for blue-chip art and big names, for showing off trophies acquired over a lifetime of collecting, that would be a painful development for the cultural life of this city. New York already has plenty of spaces to see such things. Instead, my hope — as I wrote back in 2014 — is that the Brant Foundation and its brethren will be willing to experiment, and to partner with other local organizations, serving as a forum for art and artists and ideas that have not been welcomed elsewhere.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's how to reserve free tickets for the Basquiat exhibit opening next month at the Brant Foundation on 6th Street

Banners for the Brant Foundation's Basquiat exhibit

Noting the recent arrival of the banners on Sixth Street and Avenue A for the upcoming Basquiat show, the inaugural exhibit at the Brant Foundation, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue...



The exhibit, featuring works from the private collection of Peter Brant, starts March 4...





The free tix are all accounted for... but you can add your name to a waitlist.

The DOT allows for banners that "promote a public event or a cultural exhibit." Application info is here.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Here's how to reserve free tickets for the Basquiat exhibit opening next month at the Brant Foundation on 6th Street

Here's how to reserve free tickets for the Basquiat exhibit opening next month at the Brant Foundation on 6th Street

[EVG photo from last summer]

Over the weekend, the Brant Foundation released ticket information for its debut exhibition at its new East Village home at 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

As previously reported, this inaugural show features the works of Jean-Michel Basquiat...



The tickets info came via an Instagram post...

View this post on Instagram

The Brant Foundation is pleased to celebrate the upcoming opening of its New York space, located at 421 East 6th Street, with an extensive survey of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat- reconnecting the East Village to a seminal figure of its past. Reserve your tickets today at brantfoundation.org! LINK IN BIO Tickets are free of charge and must be reserved in advance.

A post shared by thebrantfoundation (@thebrantfoundation) on Feb 8, 2019 at 10:00am PST

And this ticket link is here.

Tickets are free, and available starting March 6. The exhibit runs through May 15.

The Brant ticket site included these FAQs:

How can I see the Jean-Michel Basquiat exhibition?
The exhibition is on view and open to the public at The Brant Foundation’s East Village space. Timed tickets are available every 30 minutes and must be reserved online in advance.

How much do tickets cost?
Tickets are free of charge. Individuals under the age of 17 must be accompanied by an adult.

Where and when should I arrive?
The entrance is located at 421 East 6th Street. Doors will open promptly at the time listed on your ticket and early entry is not permitted. Visitors who arrive more than 15 minutes past their ticketed time will be placed on the standby line for the next available time slot. Upon arrival, please have your ticket (printed or on a mobile device) readily available for check-in.

How long can I stay in the space?
In order to accommodate all of our visitors, we kindly ask that you do not spend more than 45 minutes viewing the exhibition.

Does my ticket include a docent led tour of the exhibition?
No, all visits are self-guided.

Here's more about the show, as reported by ARTnews, whose parent company is owned by Peter Brant, from this past September:

The inaugural show will be curated by the Brant Foundation’s founder, Peter Brant ... and art historian Dieter Buchhart. The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Foundation Louis Vuitton, will include loans from Brant collections as well as international museums and other private collections.

Brant said in a press release, “Basquiat has been a cornerstone of the East Village art scene for decades, and to bring his work back to the neighborhood that inspired it is a great privilege. Our family is thrilled to launch the Brant Foundation’s New York space with an artist who is central to the collection, and above all to share his legacy with the community that was fundamental in shaping it.”

Basquiat lived and worked at 57 Great Jones St. near the Bowery at the time of his death in 1988 at age 27.

Brant reportedly began acquiring Basquiat's work shortly after being introduced to him by Andy Warhol in 1984. "Jean-Michel Basquiat is the quintessential Van Gogh figure of our time," Brant said in a 2013 interview. "He left with us a genius body of work."

Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.

After renovations, the building now features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors.

Previously on EV Grieve:
About that "giant-robot laboratory" on East Sixth Street

RIP Walter De Maria

What is your East Village dream home?

Walter De Maria's 'giant-robot laboratory' going for $25 million; inside is amazing as you'd expect

Here's what Peter Brant wants to do with his new exhibition space on East 6th Street

When the world's top collectors of Dom Pérignon rosé came to the East Village for dinner

Reader report: 421 E. 6th St. will house Peter M. Brant's personal art collection

Peter Brant's East 6th Street Outreach Tour 2015 continues

Peter Brant meets the neighbors

On 6th Street, the Brant Foundation's inaugural exhibit will feature the work of Basquiat

Last week to see work by Al Diaz and SAMO© at the Same Old Gallery on Great Jones

The Same Old Gallery, curated by Adrian Wilson and Brian Shevlin, featuring an exhibit of old and new work by Al Diaz, ends its run at 57 Great Jones St. on Saturday evening.

Wilson was originally hopeful that he could use the space through the end of December.

As previously reported, the front part of No. 57 west of the Bowery had been sitting unused. The back of the building houses Bohemian, an exclusive (referral-only) Japanese restaurant. They will be expanding in January, and gave Wilson access to the space rent-free.

"Unfortunately, as the space was donated for free by the leaseholders, this was always going to be a temporary gallery," Wilson told me. "It was always guaranteed for Al's show, and I hoped they would then let me keep it open until they start renovation on January, but [the landlord] liked what we did so much they have rented the space for a Christmas market, selling gifts.

"It's kind of sad but also very perfect that the one and only exhibition there will be Al."


[Al Diaz and friends via Adrian Wilson]

Diaz, who grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses on Avenue D, started writing graffiti at age 12. As a teen in the late 1970s, he and Jean-Michel Basquiat collaborated on a series of cryptic messages seen around the city signed from SAMO©.

The gallery is inside the building once owned by Andy Warhol. Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and worked here at the time of his death in 1988.





The gallery hours are from 2-7 p.m. through Saturday.

Meanwhile, you can listen to my recent podcast with Diaz right here (or download it for later)...

Same Old Gallery debuts tonight on Great Jones Street with Al Diaz and SAMO©

The Same Old Gallery, curated by Adrian Wilson and Brian Shevlin, opens this evening with an exhibit of old and new work by Al Diaz.


[Image via Instagram]

The gallery (first reported on here) is inside 57 Great Jones St., once owned by Andy Warhol. Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and worked here just west of the Bowery at the time of his death in 1988.

Diaz grew up in the Jacob Riis Houses on Avenue D. He started writing graffiti at age 12. As a teen in the late 1970s, he and Basquiat collaborated on a series of cryptic messages seen around the city signed from SAMO©.

The front space at No. 57 was sitting unused. The back of the building houses Bohemian, an exclusive (referral-only) Japanese restaurant.

"They are expanding the Bohemian restaurant and very kindly donated the space to me to use as a gallery before construction starts in January," Wilson told me.

This initial exhibit features a selection of Diaz's work through the years ... as well as several archival items, such as a satirical story co-written and illustrated by Diaz and Basquiat published in the City-As-School newspaper in January 1978 that marked the start of SAMO©.

Diaz also invited several artists to help put their mark on the space...







The opening party is tonight from 7-10. The first show will be up through Oct. 20. The gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday from 2-7 p.m. You can find the Same Old Gallery on Instagram here.

And you can listen to my recent podcast with Diaz right here (or download it for later)...



Thanks to Adrian Wilson for the photos!