Collaborators: Andy Warhol, Basquiat, and Clemente

Andy Warhol: The Last Decade is full of surprises for those who aren't familiar with Andy's later career, and while the work is far from consistently great, it does pack a few gens in and quite a few interesting moments (i.e. 80s music videos produced by and including cameos of Warhol).  The exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art is the first U.S. museum survey to examine Warhol's later work, a period marked by prolific experimentation.

In October 1982, the Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger introduced Warhol to a young painter of the Neo-Expressionist movement, Jean-Michel Basquiat. The two developed a close relationship that lasted nearly three years. The collaborated on paintings in the studio in the afternoon and went clubbing at night.

Relaxing the extraordinary potential of their collaboration, Bischoberger commissioned a series of works by Warhol, Basquiat and the Italian painter Francesco Clemente. The artists would send the canvas to each other's studio and work on it in turn. In Origin of Cotton, above, you can see Warhol's yellow flower, Clemente's painterly heads, and Basquiat's white screen printed lines and words. It's not my favorite work from any of the artist's oeuvres, but it is fascinating to think of these great artists from different generations and styles working together on pieces.