Jean-Michel Basquiat, Tuxedo, 1983,
Silkscreen on canvas,
Edition of 10, 102 ¾ × 59 ¾ inches (261 × 151.8 cm).



Jean-Michel Basquiat, UNTITLED, 1983,
Silkscreen ink on canvas
57 ⅝ by 75 ½ in. 146.4 by 191.8 cm.

Executed in 1983, this work is from an edition of 10 plus 2 artist's proofs, published by New City Editions, Venice, CA.



Jean-Michel Basquiat, Back of the Neck,
signed and dated 'Jean-Michel Basquiat 1983' lower right;
further numbered '13/24' on the reverse
screenprint with hand colouring on paper

https://galeriemagazine.com/basquiat-doyle-auction/


127.7 x 257.8 cm (50 1/4 x 101 1/2 in.)
Executed in 1983, this work is number 13 from an edition of 24 plus 3 artist’s proofs.



Jean-Michel Basquiat Academic Study of the Male Figure, 1983, Silkscreen on Okawara rice paper Unsigned printers proof; New City Editions, Venice, CA Unsigned printers proof; New City Editions, Venice, CA blindstamp lower right Sheet: 40 x 31 inches; 



Jean-Michel Basquiat, Leg of a Dog,
Silkscreen on Okawara rice paper, 1983;
New City Editions, Venice, CA blindstamp lower right Sheet: 40 x 31 inches;


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Excerpts from a recent interview about the project:

I worked for Joel Stearns off and on freelance starting 1978 when his studio was called PRESS PRESS. Later I worked off and on for NEW CITY EDITIONS from ’82 until around march/april 1984.


-What role did you play in producing the Basquiat silkscreen editions of 1983? What was the production process like?

Back then I was about the same age as Basquiat working in different studios as a printmaking studio assistant. Except for the Basquiat screen prints, at New City Editions we mostly did intaglio and woodcut editions. Previously I had quite a bit of technical experience doing multicolor screen prints and analog color separations in school at PCC (Pasadena City College) with instructor Richard Duardo and others.

As a studio assistant, I did a multitude of things: I was the one who dropped off and picked up Basquiat drawings at a local business to have them made into film for transfer to photo-silkscreen. I was also involved with preparing materials, ink, paper, etc. and helped in the process of printing. I’m pretty sure we had the first batch of screens made at my former PCC instructor Richard Duardo’s studio Aztlán Multiples (or Modern Multiples) in downtown LA. I’m not certain after that where or how the screens were made. I remember it being like a standard print edition job for the smaller prints. The bigger pieces would have been more complicated and challenging and while I don’t remember any specific rig created for them, Joel Stearns was a master printer & carpenter so it would have been well within his wheelhouse to devise something to register so many different screens & images on canvas and/or big paper.

What was it like working with Fred and Jean-Michel on this project?

During the course of the making these editions, although Fred Hoffman was around, most of my interactions were with Joel Sterns. Joel had been my lithography teacher at Otis Art Institute and had given me my first professional printmaking job. The work was seriously demanding, and I learned a lot through working with Joel. He was also very supportive of the art & electronic music that I was doing at the time.

I had been working in printmaking studios for around 4 or 5 years by this point and had done editions for and with many other artists - but this project was different. I never saw Basquiat at all while we were printing at Joel’s studio (which at the time seemed unusual to me, as most artists we did editions for were generally involved and interested in the process). 

I only saw Basquiat in the studio once, before any editioning work had started. He showed up with Madonna (before she was MADONNA). She was anxious to get to a lunch appointment at Fox Studio so Fred offered to drive them. Basquiat said next to nothing the entire time. Thinking about it now, it’s likely that the showing of prints and discussion of any strategy about making them with Basquiat were probably done at night after hours. I remember showing up at the studio one day seeing a very large new Basquiat drawing (from the night before) of Fred, and Joel and Joel’s dog pinned high up on a wall. The drawing had a vertical dotted line drawn through the middle. Joel told me at the time that Basquiat had said they could cut it in half if they (he and Fred) ever broke up.
 
I still have my first edition copy of Basquiat’s record project Beat Bop that Fred Hoffman gave me.

After the editions were finished, I had much more interaction with Basquiat when we (I, Joel Sterns, and others) worked on the one-of-a-kind screen printed paintings for and with Basquiat in his Venice studio, and more interactions right after that during the year I worked for Gagosian.

When I moved to NY in ‘85 the very next day after arriving I was riding my bike in central park. Someone shouted my name. It was Basqiat in Central park, wearing round mirrored sunglasses, riding a bike with a bunch of his cousins. We pulled over and spoke.