JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT, Samo, 1981
10,9 x 16,1 cm
invitation card
mint
extremely rare in this pristine condition
published by Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzali, Modena, Italy
inv.JMBa 000
p.o.r.

This card announces Jean-Michael Basquiat’s first exhibition at Galleria d’Arte in Modena. A few months earlier, Italian gallerist Emilio Mazzoli had noticed Basquiat’s work in a collective exhibition “New York / New Wave” curated by Diego Cortez at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center. Mazzoli managed to find a studio and made materials available to Basquiat to paint, so that he could create new works. Later on at the beginning of the summer of 1982, Basquiat returned to Modena at the invitation of Mazzoli to mount his first European exhibition under his real name.

In the seventies, a graffiti tag coined by Basquiat and his collaborator Al Diaz, SAMO — pronounced ‘same-oh’ — started off as a private joke and went on to become an important symbol in Basquiat’s later work, seen in the streets of New York in the seventies. It stands for ‘Same Old Shit’.