The Brant Foundation debuts its next show, Julian Schnabel's 'Self-Portraits of Others'

Starting tomorrow, the Brant Foundation debuts its next show, "Self-Portraits of Others," a solo exhibition of new works by Julian Schnabel. 

Per the Brant website:

Created between 2018 – 2020, this series explores the evolution of Schnabel's artistic practice while making "At Eternity's Gate," a film about the life of Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition features 25 plate paintings that examine the theme of portraiture throughout art history.

Some details... the exhibit is open to visitors, free of charge. Advance tickets will not be required and walk-ins are welcome during open hours:

Wednesday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Thursday: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

Friday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Saturday: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Proof of a COVID-19 vaccination is required to enter.

"Self-Portraits of Others," up through December, is the third exhibition to be held at the Brant Foundation 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

In its first, from March to May 2019, the Brant Foundation featured an exhibit by Jean-Michel Basquiat, some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion. Brant later extended the show by a few weeks.

The Brant Foundation features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors. Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.

Brant had said the space would host two exhibitions open to the public each year. 

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

After Basquiat: the next exhibition coming to the Brant Foundation on 6th Street

Tickets for the next exhibition at the Brant Foundation will be available starting today (Nov. 1).

"Third Dimension: Works From the Brant Foundation" will run from Nov. 13 to Sept. 13, 2020 at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue.

There haven't been too many specifics released just yet about what to expect.

The Instagram post about the tickets features a photo of "Dan Flavin's alternate diagonals of March 2, 1964 (to Don Judd)," a colorful sculpture of light that Brant apparently owns...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by thebrantfoundation (@thebrantfoundation) on Oct 18, 2019 at 1:02pm PDT

You can check the Brant site here today for ticket info. (This is NOT a free event. Adults are $15; $10 for EV residents. Students and kids under 16 are free.)

From March to May, the Brant Foundation featured an exhibit by Jean-Michel Basquiat, some 70 works collectively valued at $1 billion. All 50,000 of the free tickets were apparently reserved even before the exhibition officially opened on March 6. Brant later extended the show by a few weeks.


[Basquiat on 6th Street]

The Brant Foundation features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors. Brant bought the building — a former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio — for $27 million in August 2014.

Brant had said the space would host two exhibitions open to the public each year.

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

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

The Brant Foundation will make its debut on Sixth Street in March 2019 with an exhibition of works by Jean-Michel Basquiat.



ARTnews, whose parent company is owned by Peter Brant, made the announcement yesterday.

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. (He also lived for a year in 1979 in this East Village apartment, as you may recall.)

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."

The show opens on March 1 and will be on display through May 15. No word at the moment about about hours or admission. (The Brant Foundation Art Study Center in Greenwich is open to the public by appointment and free of charge.)

As for the building, the Brant Foundation at 421 E. Sixth St. between Avenue A and First Avenue features 7,000 square feet of exhibition space over four floors.





Here's a recap from recent years:

Brant bought the building for $27 million in August 2014.

The gut renovations started in April 2016 at the former Con Edison substation and Walter de Maria studio.

Brant's daughter Allison Brant oversees her father's contemporary art collection. This feature on her in the April 2017 issue of Town & Country reported:

Allison will also run this second space, which is in the East Village and will primarily be used to showcase the foundation's permanent collection. "So many artists my father collects have a connection to that neighborhood," she says.

And here are a few more photos from earlier this summer...









... and on the Seventh Street side...



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

Branching out at the Brant Foundation

EVG reader Steph shared these photos today... showing workers loading in a shipment of birch tree branches (thank you comments!) at the under-renovation future home of the Brant Foundation on Sixth Street between Avenue A and First Avenue...



The Brant Foundation's EV outpost, which will house Peter M. Brant's permanent art collection, will reportedly open this spring.

Updated:

Goggla shared this photo... showing the trees in the new garden to the west of the building...



And here's a night view via Riley McCormick...