Dillard University Art Gallery will host a Basquiat exhibit:  “Our Friend, Jean: Early Works by Jean-Michel Basquiat,” an HBCU exhibition tour. Born in Brooklyn in 1960, Basquiat was a painter known for his style of painting with graffiti-like images and scrawled text. The artist incorporated African American historical figures, including jazz musicians, sports personalities, and writers into his works.

“Our Friend, Jean” is a sampling of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s earliest works on loan from several collectors who knew him intimately, as friends, collaborators, and lovers. Featuring 20 plus artworks including drawings, writings, apparel, mixed media collages, and ephemera. The group of collectors consists of Jane Diaz, Hilary Jaeger, Katie Taylor, Lucy Sante, Al Diaz, and photographer Alexis Adler who also served as a co-curator with Erwin John and Stevenson Dunn, Jr.. Through this exhibition each collector shares uniquely intimate stories of their friend Jean.

The exhibition lends a voice to  the unsung collectors of the world, those who offer an artist critical early support out of genuine friendship. It is precisely this type of support that can springboard an artist’s career to unimaginable heights. This was certainly the case for  Jean-Michel Basquiat. An original Basquiat work can fetch tens of millions of dollars; one recently set a Christie’s auction record at $110 million when it was sold to the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa. Many of these high-priced works are owned by collectors like Maezawa who have never met Basquiat and even the collectors who have met him in person couldn’t claim to have had a friendship with him. Friendship is what distinguishes the group of collectors who are lending their works to the “Our Friend, Jean” exhibition.

“Our Friend, Jean” the Basquiat exhibit will be on display Nov. 21-27 (Monday-Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.) within the Samuel DeBois Cook Fine Arts and Communications Center, 2601 Gentily Boulevard, Room 106. For more information on the exhibit, click here.