Jay-Z is set to pay homage to art sensations Andy Warhol and the late Brooklyn graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at a one-off concert in Paris. Curated by the luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton, the brand officially unveiled the Brooklyn legend will perform a “celebratory concert” dedicated to the two artists.
The emcee (real name Shawn Carter) has an affinity for both Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat and, as such, is the perfect figure to headline the show, which will take place at the Louis Vuitton Foundation Auditorium. Roc Nation also released a statement confirming Jay’s performance. The exhibition is named Basquiat × Warhol. Painting Four Hands will be a celebration of the two New York artists. The showcase will boast 160 canvas collaborations and over 300 works, including a series of portraits of Basquiat and Warhol. The exclusive one-off event is also supported by Tiffany & Co.
Louis Vuitton’s statement read, “To coincide with the Basquiat x Warhol. Painting Four Hands exhibition, Jay-Z will give a celebratory concert to pay tribute to Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, on Friday 14 April 2023 at 9pm, in the Fondation’s Auditorium.” Despite confirmation from both Louis Vuitton and Roc Nation, the rapper is yet to confirm to fans that he will appear at the event.
Jean-Michel Basquiat is a revered graffiti artist who operated in New York during the early to mid-1980s. As the spearhead of the abstract graffiti movement, Basquiat was known as one-half of SAMO—a Manhattan graffiti duo who used the art form in a poetic and satirical capacity. Basquiat’s life was documented and celebrated in the 2017 documentary Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which showcased New York’s anti-establishment rock and hip-hop melting pot and how Basquiat ingeniously navigated it to become a star.
Speaking on the connection between the icons a Parisian art representative revealed in the Vuitton statement, “Basquiat admired Warhol as an elder, a key art world personality, and the pioneer of a new language and of a ground-breaking relationship to pop culture. Warhol, in turn, found in Basquiat a renewed interest in painting. Thanks to him, he went back to painting manually on a very large scale.” You can see a preview of the exhibition in the video below.
