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Written by New York based About Art Guest Contributor Gracie Newman
One of the newest additions to my shelves is Basquiat: Headstrong, the catalogue from the eponymous exhibition at Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The book features Jean-Michel Basquiat’s vivid and colorful depictions of the human head, many of which were unknown during the artist’s lifetime. The faces range from fragmented skulls to bionic busts to bright portraits, each full of pyrotechnic personality.
For those of us who can’t make it out to Copenhagen, the catalogue is a great way to vicariously experience the exhibition. While there’s no substitute for an in-person encounter, Basquiat: Headstrong allows for prolonged study of the explosive hues and jagged structures that the artist used to portray the most essential part of the human body (and the locus of the mind and spirit). My apartment is bursting with exhibition catalogues: on the shelf, in the drawer, under the television. When I can’t make it to a show or want to revisit one, I can always turn to their insightful essays and beautiful facsimiles for a quick fix of great art.
