Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/917841
44 December 21 • 2017 jn The artist's friend, lover and roommate Alexis Adler brings her entire collection to exhibit at the Cranbrook Art Museum. I n his short life, artist Jean- Michel Basquiat put his mark on a lot of things — from large-scale murals on his apartment wall to musings and doodles on ordinary notebook paper to sweatshirts and radia- tor covers. Before he became known simply as Basquiat, the Brooklyn native transformed the mundane objects surrounding him in the sixth-floor walkup he shared with Alexis Adler in New York's East Village — her coat, a wall, a door — with a style that would later fetch very steep prices. At the time, 1979, he was leaving his "SAMO" tag on walls throughout the city — but graffiti was just one more form of expression for a restless and very prolific teenager on his way to art-world superstardom. Adler saved more than 100 photos, art objects and ephem- era from their time together. Those products of Basquiat as a young man — he was 19 — are on view at the Cranbrook Art Museum through March 11. Called "Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979-1980," the show features odds and ends from a notebook he kept, sweatshirts he painted and sold on the street, a jumpsuit, drawings, writings and photo- graphs Adler took of him clown- ing around — that add a little more information about how Basquiat interacted with the world. The show also features paintings on loan from private collectors. In 1988, at the age of 27, Basquiat died of a heroin over- dose. At that point, he had become part of Andy Warhol's circle and a darling of the downtown scene. His Neo- Expressionist paintings took off and he profited, but he would not live to see the day that one of his paintings (Untitled) fetched the highest price of any painting sold at auction by an American artist. A Japanese collector bought the portrait in May for $110.5 million at Sotheby's. A new interest in Basquiat is also evidenced by two docu- mentaries that have just been released about his life — Rage to Riches by the BBC and Boom for Real by Adler's friend, filmmaker Sara Driver. Basquiat was 19 when he shared the flat with Adler, an embryologist who had moved to New York from Seattle to go to school at Barnard. They met at a club and eventually moved into a building that was half-empty. Their cozy apartment (400 square feet) burst with Basquiat's creative output — he painted and wrote on the refrigerator, the walls, the TV — most of it preserved in one way or another through the years. Adler, 61, has since married and divorced and raised her two children, Max and Zoe Katz, in the same 12th Street building. After flooding from Hurricane Sandy seemed too close for comfort, Adler pulled Basquiat's notebook and other drawings from a downtown bank where she had a safety-deposit box. In 2014, she started consider- ing selling them. After a bit of research, Adler went with Christie's, which cut out the wall where Basquiat had painted a mural and took a door that was also marked by his spiky brush- work. A lawsuit by Basquiat's estate halted the Christie's auction after the mural and door sold — leaving the rest of the trove with Adler. That is what she is now sharing with the world. The Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver was the first stop, Cranbrook the second. Adler thinks the exhibit will head to St. Louis next. "Basquiat's time with Alexis was an important transitional moment," says Nora Burnett Abrams, the show's curator. "He was still exploring many cre- ative outlets with equal passion, including playing music, perfor- mance, drawing and writing." Adler was happy to talk to the Jewish News about Basquiat and about how the exhibit came together: JN: How did you meet Jean- Michel? AA: We met at a party in the spring of 1979. I'd seen his wall tags and we were introduced. When I was leaving, there was a Basquiat details "Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979-1980" runs through March 11 at the Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills. (248) 645-3320; cranbrookartmuseum.org. JULIE EDGAR CONTRIBUTING WRITER e x h i b i t arts&life Basquiat Before ABOVE: Basquiat in the apartment, 1981. Photograph by Alexis Adler.