Jean-Michel Basquiat

I was looking forward to this massive tome, but it was supremely disappointing. I thought it would be well curated and designed like their Helmut Newton SUMO book, it’s the same size. But it is just awful. Cheaply made, the pages are like pages out of 90s fashion magazines and the images on the pages are just thrown together haphazardly. Many images are lost in the crease or divided. The overall design of the book looks rushed and not well thought. There are many other great Basquait collections, you could purchase 2-3 of them for this price and get a much better product.

I am an artist and a collector of artist monographs. This new (12/2018) volume is a wonderful book! It is a heavy monster and was professionally packed - a huge shipping box, an inner box that held the book, a slipcase outer covering with a handle, then the book itself. It's the first time I've seen this done. The book itself is a masterpiece of Basquiat's works from 1979 until his death. It has several essays on his life, style of painting and critiques. The works are displayed in high detail - several are foldouts. The color and reproductions are terrific. The paper each page is printed on is heavy, I'd guess 65lbs. or so. That's a new for me as well. I would highly recommend this monograph to any art student, Basquiat fan or collector. How anyone can give it just a two-star review is beyond me.

I agree with the reviews above! Esp remarkable is the large Taschen format weighing in at 14 pounds -full of lush, colorful mark-making and JMB images. I have many of the previous hardcover books. Scrap the elusive, over-priced raisonne', this one takes the prize at the pre-order cost of $106 !!

True fans and scholars will have spent the $1200 on the Three volume Catalog Raisonne published by Galerie Navarra. Other fans may have purchased other seminal monographs “The Jean Michel Basquiat Show” when it came out in 2007, that has 170 color plates and Basquiat:Tony shafrazi Show, published in 1999 which has 175 color plates. If you already own some combination of those monographs, you will not be seeing any new works, but you will get great new essays and scholarly research into his work and about 4” larger size paper. If you do not own any Basquiat Monographs, this is where you need to start. It is the largest in terms of size and length (for a single volume) ever published on Basquiat. The quality of the construction is second to none, the paper is very high quality and feels very stable for such a large book. Lastly, You can get this book for ~$110, whereas the previous monographs I mentioned cost $1200, ~$350 and ~$325 respectively, if you were to try and purchase today. The book takes you year by year of Basquiats career, starting with the seminal P.S. 1 show and ending at his death in 1988. You are going to see a lot of the same works from the “boom for real” monograph because Eleanor Nairne curated the show at the Barbican, but that monograph, like the new Louis Vuitton was very hastily made using poor quality materials and terrible color reproductions of the works. Taschen, in this monster, has done an amazing job reproducing the works on the pages as close to seeing them in person as the book medium can achieve. A person has to actually see the works in person to understand this difference. This book allows those who may not ever get the opportunity to see the works in person to do so... Unfortunately for the younger generation, Basquiats works are highly collectible and therefore, are now out of the public eye, so this may be their only chance to view these works and having a 16”x13” book attempts to give readers a sense of the scale of the works he created, having multiple fold outs for his pentaptych and hexaptych panel works. In summary, buy this book, buy the acrylic XXL book holder and put this beast out on your coffee table for Your friends and family to enjoy when they visit. Or buy both as a gift for your art loving friend or family member this holiday, they will thank you!

I had the chance to review a few books before made this purchase and I have to say this is the best book! I was able to see the Basquiat exhibit in Paris at the Foundation of Louis Vuitton who also has a book. That book is nice but like what other people have said the quality is not that good. Plus a lot of the paintings in that book are in this one. This book also has more paintings of works that will not be scene due to them being held by private collectors. One example is the famed Devil painting. You wont see this in the Louis Vuitton book but you would see it in this book. This is a great book and I would recommend it as staple for your coffee table.

What a find for anyone looking to own his/her own piece of the incredible brilliance of Basquiat but unable to afford the $110.5 million for an "Untitled" work!! Each of the 500 pages of this enormous (15x20) artistic anthology is stunningly prismatic and beautifully reproduced to celebrate and highlight the comprehensive sharpness of Basquiat's vision. This is more than a heavy-weight coffee table book; it' s a tome of insight into our urban culture and a work of art in its own right.

I must have around ten different books and catalogs on Basquiat's art now and this is easily the best book out of all of them. It is huge both in the dimensions and number of pages. You can't hold this and look at it, you're going to have to rest it on something. There is so much detail in Basquiat's art that the large dimensions are very useful. If you can only have one book on Basquiat this is the one to get. Even if you already have some of his books this will allow you to enjoy the artworks even more. Highly recommended!

Came with the glue mark on the cover. Under the sheet, there was something sticky that left dark mark on the beautiful yellow cover... Other than that, books meets my expectations, but definitely that ruins my experience. Book came delayed and I had many errands due to travel and forgot to complain about it on time, now it's too late to return.

This is, by far, one of the best monologues on Jean Michel Basquiat put out by Taschen! Heavy paper stock with fantastic color plates! A+++

This is my favorite item I have ever purchased on Amazon. The quality is superb, it is so magnificent, I didn't know it had a extra carry case printed with the Basquiat design. It is so comprehensive, it has a place of honor in my den. Wow!

I was looking forward to this massive tome, but it was supremely disappointing. I thought it would be well curated and designed like their Helmut Newton SUMO book, it’s the same size. But it is just awful. Cheaply made, the pages are like pages out of 90s fashion magazines and the images on the pages are just thrown together haphazardly. Many images are lost in the crease or divided. The overall design of the book looks rushed and not well thought. There are many other great Basquait collections, you could purchase 2-3 of them for this price and get a much better product.

I am an artist and a collector of artist monographs. This new (12/2018) volume is a wonderful book! It is a heavy monster and was professionally packed - a huge shipping box, an inner box that held the book, a slipcase outer covering with a handle, then the book itself. It's the first time I've seen this done. The book itself is a masterpiece of Basquiat's works from 1979 until his death. It has several essays on his life, style of painting and critiques. The works are displayed in high detail - several are foldouts. The color and reproductions are terrific. The paper each page is printed on is heavy, I'd guess 65lbs. or so. That's a new for me as well. I would highly recommend this monograph to any art student, Basquiat fan or collector. How anyone can give it just a two-star review is beyond me.

I agree with the reviews above! Esp remarkable is the large Taschen format weighing in at 14 pounds -full of lush, colorful mark-making and JMB images. I have many of the previous hardcover books. Scrap the elusive, over-priced raisonne', this one takes the prize at the pre-order cost of $106 !!

True fans and scholars will have spent the $1200 on the Three volume Catalog Raisonne published by Galerie Navarra. Other fans may have purchased other seminal monographs “The Jean Michel Basquiat Show” when it came out in 2007, that has 170 color plates and Basquiat:Tony shafrazi Show, published in 1999 which has 175 color plates. If you already own some combination of those monographs, you will not be seeing any new works, but you will get great new essays and scholarly research into his work and about 4” larger size paper. If you do not own any Basquiat Monographs, this is where you need to start. It is the largest in terms of size and length (for a single volume) ever published on Basquiat. The quality of the construction is second to none, the paper is very high quality and feels very stable for such a large book. Lastly, You can get this book for ~$110, whereas the previous monographs I mentioned cost $1200, ~$350 and ~$325 respectively, if you were to try and purchase today. The book takes you year by year of Basquiats career, starting with the seminal P.S. 1 show and ending at his death in 1988. You are going to see a lot of the same works from the “boom for real” monograph because Eleanor Nairne curated the show at the Barbican, but that monograph, like the new Louis Vuitton was very hastily made using poor quality materials and terrible color reproductions of the works. Taschen, in this monster, has done an amazing job reproducing the works on the pages as close to seeing them in person as the book medium can achieve. A person has to actually see the works in person to understand this difference. This book allows those who may not ever get the opportunity to see the works in person to do so... Unfortunately for the younger generation, Basquiats works are highly collectible and therefore, are now out of the public eye, so this may be their only chance to view these works and having a 16”x13” book attempts to give readers a sense of the scale of the works he created, having multiple fold outs for his pentaptych and hexaptych panel works. In summary, buy this book, buy the acrylic XXL book holder and put this beast out on your coffee table for Your friends and family to enjoy when they visit. Or buy both as a gift for your art loving friend or family member this holiday, they will thank you!

I had the chance to review a few books before made this purchase and I have to say this is the best book! I was able to see the Basquiat exhibit in Paris at the Foundation of Louis Vuitton who also has a book. That book is nice but like what other people have said the quality is not that good. Plus a lot of the paintings in that book are in this one. This book also has more paintings of works that will not be scene due to them being held by private collectors. One example is the famed Devil painting. You wont see this in the Louis Vuitton book but you would see it in this book. This is a great book and I would recommend it as staple for your coffee table.

What a find for anyone looking to own his/her own piece of the incredible brilliance of Basquiat but unable to afford the $110.5 million for an "Untitled" work!! Each of the 500 pages of this enormous (15x20) artistic anthology is stunningly prismatic and beautifully reproduced to celebrate and highlight the comprehensive sharpness of Basquiat's vision. This is more than a heavy-weight coffee table book; it' s a tome of insight into our urban culture and a work of art in its own right.

I must have around ten different books and catalogs on Basquiat's art now and this is easily the best book out of all of them. It is huge both in the dimensions and number of pages. You can't hold this and look at it, you're going to have to rest it on something. There is so much detail in Basquiat's art that the large dimensions are very useful. If you can only have one book on Basquiat this is the one to get. Even if you already have some of his books this will allow you to enjoy the artworks even more. Highly recommended!

Came with the glue mark on the cover. Under the sheet, there was something sticky that left dark mark on the beautiful yellow cover... Other than that, books meets my expectations, but definitely that ruins my experience. Book came delayed and I had many errands due to travel and forgot to complain about it on time, now it's too late to return.

This is, by far, one of the best monologues on Jean Michel Basquiat put out by Taschen! Heavy paper stock with fantastic color plates! A+++

This is my favorite item I have ever purchased on Amazon. The quality is superb, it is so magnificent, I didn't know it had a extra carry case printed with the Basquiat design. It is so comprehensive, it has a place of honor in my den. Wow!

Extraordinary! Huge, lush, stop-looking-for-other-Basquiat-monographs-quality book. Now I just need Taschen XXLs for Twombly, Pollock and Kline. Get it.

What an impressive, oversized book that has captivating pictures. A comprehensive monograph that is well worth the price.

Gorgeous graphics, large format and a great addition to my library.

I got this as a gift. The joy from the packaging alone! OH MY GOD! I was in heaven. BE CAREFUL WHEN OPENING THE BOX CONTAINING THE BOOK!!!! The cardboard box will rip easily.

My first Basquiat and book of this size. Impressive package arrived on time. Great product. Interesting resemblance to many masks and statues in my African art collection. Highly recommended to all, expert or not.

It’s Huge and heavy

This book far exceeded my expectations. It's beautiful and well curated.

Amazing quality

Beautiful book