La Poste emits a Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960 stamp-1988

On February 8, 2021, La Poste issued a stamp from the artistic series illustrated by a work by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

His brief career, barely ten years, is a comet who tears the sky of contemporary art.Born in Brooklyn of a Haitian father and a Puerto Rican mother, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) discovers child the art of the big museums of New York.Encouraged by his mother, he draws, is inspired by comics, magazines, Hitchcock films.With the graffiti artist Al Diaz, whom he meets at 17, he traces on the walls full of rage and poetry.They are signed Samo ©, for "Same Old Shit", "always the same shit", allusion to racial discrimination.

The street becomes its workshop, drugs and alcohol, its necessary poisons.Musician, fascinated by Charlie Parker and John Coltrane, he performs in the bubbling underground New York.In 1979, the urgency to paint grabbed it.He frequents artists like Keith Haring, Julian Schnabel.Métis, homosexual, marginal, basquiat channels his revolt in a frantic painting, loaded with signs and words.He superimposes styles and techniques, acrylic and closure of photocopies.It transcends references, Bible, Voodoo, popular imagery, Picasso, Matisse, African masks, Dissection boards.With Andy Warhol, pope of pop culture, he creates a series of works.His modernity burns like a Tison.Revealed by several exhibitions in the early 1980s, Basquiat experienced a brilliant international recognition.

Painted in 1981, "Untitled" (Skull) is one of the most successful works in a long series of heads.Unlike the "vanities" of classical painting, it shows a sewer skull but alive.Deeply marked in his childhood by the famous manual of anatomy of Gray, Basquiat, the rebellious child, dance with death.She catches up in 1988.He is 27 years old.

Technical info

Layout: Mathilde Laurent after photo © the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat / Adagp, Paris [2021].

Printing: Heliogravure Tree format: 40.85 x 52 mm Presentation: 9 sheets with a leaf Draw: 702,000 copies facial value: 2.56 € Priority letter 100gconception Graphical stamp date: Mathilde Laurent

Practical info

The stamp will be sold in preview on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 February at:

▪ Paris (75) Le Carré d'Incre, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., 13 bis rue des Mathurins, 75009 Paris.

From February 8, 2021, it will be sold in certain post offices, by subscription or by correspondence to Phithe post office Customer Service Z.I avenue Benoît Frachon, BP 10106 Boulazac, 24051 Périgueux Cedex 09, by phone on 05 53 03 19 26 and by email Sav-Phila.Phithe post office@the post office.fr on reservation with your tobacconist and on the website www.the post office.FR/Boutique