Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaledition.com/i/917841
December 21 • 2017 45 jn car at the curb and I opened a door, in jest. It wasn't my car, and a guy came running out yelling, a mafia type. Jean came out of the club and came to my aid. [The pair stayed with another friend, Adler says, but after a falling-out with that friend, Adler and Basquiat moved to 12th Street, which was a squat.] JN: How did Christie's come to see Jean's work in the apartment, a wall mural and a door he painted? AA: I did some basic research; people came to me with different proposals. I went with Christie's, which offered to do a sale for me. My deal with them allowed me to have the mural removed. It was expen- sive; I needed their help. Conservators cut out a section of my wall. There was always an interest [in Basquiat], but in the last few years, there's been an avid interest about Jean and his life and his art. The art market has gotten very hot on him. I know he was recog- nized during his life; now it seems to be different. JN: How much did you get for the mural and the door? AA: I took an early retirement. My son Max just graduated from college. My daughter Zoe will graduate in a month, so college tuition was out of the way. JN: Was Jean your boyfriend? AA: We were intimate, but I never considered him my boyfriend. He was younger than me. We had relationships with other people. It was a different time, a time before AIDS. [He later dated a then- unknown Madonna.] JN: What did you have in common? AA: We were part of the same scene. We loved each other as friends, as lovers. We were definitely different, but we liked the same music, the same art, politics — everything. JN: Did you think at the time that he'd become a famous artist? AA: He said he would. I was definitely the first one to believe him. Everyone else was like, 'Sure Jean.' JN: Why did you believe him? AA: He was brilliant. I could tell. His spirit — everything about him. He was an amazing person, a very deep-thinking individual. He burned bright. What you saw [in the exhibit] was in between the street and the canvas, a cross-section of what is left of his art during that time. It gives you a glimpse of his thought processes when he was totally free. He was using my sci- ence books and art history books, playing music all the time. It was a special time. JN: The collection was first shown in Denver. How did that happen? AA: By chance, this friend of mine, Sara Driver, was making a film [about Basquiat] that just debuted in the New York Film Festival called Boom for Real. She was excited about the collection and she recorded the wall coming down, the auction. Her sound person went back to Denver for Christmas break. A family member was on the board of the Museum of Contemporary Art, and through that connection, the Denver people came out and looked at the collection. [Boom for Real was acquired by Magnolia Pictures and will get a theatri- cal release in 2018, according to Deadline Hollywood (deadline.com).] JN: Do you belong to a synagogue? AA: I have, but not right now. I go to services at different places. My kids were bar and bat mitzvah — the whole thing. I married a Jewish New Yorker. JN: Did you go to Hebrew school? AA: Yes, my dad was a refugee from Germany and my mom was from a farm in Manitoba. Her parents were Russian and Romanian. My grandfather wanted to be a farmer. He met my grandmother in Vancouver; they got married. I was born and raised in Seattle. JN: Did you have a bat mitzvah? AA: Yes. Jean appreciated my Jewishness. JN: How so? AA: We were sort of setting up house together, and we were sharing what little we had, putting together a meager family. I remember doing Chanukah together. JN: What do your kids think of your time with Basquiat? AA: It's exposed parts of my life that people generally don't know about their parents. Drugs were a part of the scene. I explained to my kids, the art scene of the Lower East Side was very small. There was a group of 500 people. Drugs were a part of life then. Jean had access to more money than any of us. He was able to pro- cure a lot, and that's not good. JN: Did you hang out with other art- ists who made a name for themselves? AA: Yes, I knew Keith [Haring] and others. I was part of the downtown scene. [Basquiat sold his first painting to Debbie Harry, the frontwoman of Blondie, for $200 in 1981.] JN: How did Jean handle fame? AA: It was harsh. He was the goose that laid the golden egg. The BBC film had a lot of interviews with his art dealers. Those people were bloodsuckers. They don't appear to be, but they were. He was this young kid. Jean was a loving person, beautiful, an amazing artist. I was one to recognize that early on and provide a house for him to coalesce his work and move on to the big time. • TOP: Painted television and refrigerator in the apartment, c. 1979-1980. Photographs by Alexis Adler. CENTER: Basquiat told Adler that he shaved his hair to the middle of his scalp because he wanted to look as if he were "coming and going at the same time." Photograph by Alexis Adler. BOTTOM: Untitled (Anti-Product, Relvis is God), c. 1979-1980. Color Xerographic collage and spray enamel on paper. INSET: Alexis Adler (right) wearing the coat Basquiat painted while they lived together in 1979. With her is Nora Burnett Abrams, curator of the exhibit.