'Immeasurable' Impact Of Jean-Michel Basquiat On Exhibit At The Brant Foundation

Chances are you've seen some kid somewhere wearing a Jean-Michel Basquiat t-shirt whether you knew it at the time or not. It likely featured a crown with his name scrawled in all caps underneath.

Chances are you've also never actually seen one of his paintings in person.

And chances are you will not have another opportunity again like the one being presented now through May 15 at The Brant Foundation in New York City's East Village to see so many of his best works in one place at one time.

Basquiat began his career as a graffiti artist before rocketing to international contemporary art superstardom in the 1980s, dying of an accidental drug overdose in 1988 at 27-years-old.

An early death naturally limited his artistic output. His background with graffiti and being a black man resulted in museums turning up their noses at his work when it was still affordable. Private collectors, like Peter Brant, namesake of The Brant Foundation, however, flocked to him, driving up his prices.


By the time museums had caught on, it was too late.

As a result of these unique circumstances, Basquiat's art proves exceedingly difficult to find in public collections making this exhibit, Jean-Michael Basquiat, all the more rare.

If you've never seen a work by Basquiat in person, you are in for a treat.

"I think the experience of seeing a Basquiat work in person is immeasurable," The Art Newspaper reporter Gabriella Angeleti, who has seen the exhibit, said. "It has an immense energy that almost dwarfs the viewer. It's an emotional experience and that's something hard to translate when you view the work through a screen or a book."

In 2017, Basquiat dethroned Andy Warhol, a mentor and admirer, as the most expensive American artist at auction when a Japanese billionaire purchased his Untitled (1982) at a Sotheby's auction for $110.4 million including buyer's premium.

"It's interesting to stand in front of Untitled, (1982), for example, and reflect on what Basquiat would have made of the whole circus around his work if he were still creating today," Angeleti said.

Advance tickets for Jean-Michel Basquiat have long been sold out. A limited number of same-day tickets are available. Contact The Brant Foundation at ticketsnyc@brantfoundation.org to have your name added to a waitlist. Each day the foundation accommodates people on the waitlists for entry on a first-come, first-serve basis. Walk-ins will not be permitted.

Basquiat fever, hot as ever three decades after his passing, has had an unusual effect on the art world and art-admiring public, with a potential silver lining for fans according to Angeleti.

Joe Beef and the Excesses of Restaurant Culture

For Americans living through turbulent times, Canada can seem like a refuge. The Montreal chef David McMillan figures it doesn't hurt for Canadians to have a getaway plan, too. Since 2012, he's owned a lakeside cabin in the Laurentian Mountains, accessible only by boat. It's equipped with solar power, fishing rods and rifles, and enough dried provisions to last a year. McMillan, who has three young daughters, told me, "If anything is weird, I could grab everybody and head up there." The cabin was an inspiration for "Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse," McMillan's second cookbook with Frédéric Morin, his partner in five Montreal restaurants, including Joe Beef. Published late last year, and co-written with Meredith Erickson, a cookbook author who was one of Joe Beef's first servers, the new book is in part a tongue-in-cheek survivalist's manual, with instructions for building a subterranean bunker, making hardtack, and growing endive in darkness. By "apocalypse," the authors mean a range of modern ills, from the "constant noise" of social media to the threat of nuclear war. "We don't want to just survive," Erickson writes. "We want to live it out in full Burgundy style." To that end, the book also collects more than a hundred of the chefs' recipes, including a tater-tot galette, sweetbreads cooked with charcoal and licorice, and a rendition of jambon persillé, a Burgundian charcuterie of ham suspended in parsleyed jelly.

Joe Beef, which opened in 2005, is McMillan and Morin's first and best-known restaurant. It specializes in ambitious but unfussy French cooking—no white tablecloths, no minimalist dishes sprinkled with microgreens or gold leaf. Situated in the former industrial neighborhood of Little Burgundy, near the Lachine Canal, the restaurant has the feel of a ragtag bistro, with vintage furniture and stuffed animal heads mounted on the walls. The menu, written only on chalkboards, in French, is defined by exuberant immoderation, a blend of the haute and the gluttonous. On a given night, it might include a traditional foie-gras torchon or a sandwich of foie gras on white bread; tartare of raw duck, venison, or horsemeat; and a hulking strip steak topped with cheese curds—a Québécois staple—or fat links of boudin noir. Often, it includes dishes that aren't French at all: skate schnitzel, porchetta, barbecued ribs cooked in the back-yard smoker. Diners willing to spend at least a hundred dollars apiece can forgo ordering and let the kitchen stuff them with a dozen courses of its choosing. The food writer John Birdsall once published an ecstatic piece on the site First We Feast titled "I Puked at Joe Beef and It Made Me a Better Man."

For a long time, McMillan and Morin made a point of living the experience that they were selling. McMillan was known for drinking with his customers, and then downing bottles of wine long after dinner service was over. The chefs' spirit of extravagance helped make Joe Beef a success. In 2007, they opened Liverpool House, two doors down, to accommodate Joe Beef overflow; four years later, they expanded Joe Beef into an adjacent space, doubling its capacity. And, a couple of years after that, they opened a wine bar, Le Vin Papillon, two doors down from Liverpool House. Today, they employ a hundred and fifty people. But their ethos of excess proved unsustainable. In an essay for Bon Appétit, in February, McMillan wrote, "The community of people I surrounded myself with ate and drank like Vikings. It worked well in my twenties. It worked well in my thirties. It started to unravel when I was forty. I couldn't shut it off."

Food truck fundraiser for unpaid school lunch charges

Not only were they serving fresh food, but they were helping students in the consumer and technical education program, otherwise known as CTE, learn about the food truck business.

"My favorite answer to that is always being my own boss making my own decisions," The Woodshed Mobile Wood-Fired Pizza owner Tom Babler said when asked about what he enjoys in the business.

Family and consumer sciences and the business departments at Logan Middle School made the decision to join forces and teach students about the real-world food truck opportunities.

"It’s really fun you know seeing how they run their food trucks," Eighth-grader Tyler Stevenson said. "And how they make their food."

The co-founders of Midwest Bites Food Truck worked with the school staff to turn the event into a fundraiser. "We figured that we could make it into a big fundraiser for the school lunch program in hopes that the community will come out and support that and reduce any debts that are out there for the school lunch program," Midwest Bites co-founder Mary Walleser said. "Because no kid should be hungry."

According to Feeding America, one in six children does not know where their next meal will come from.

City of Charlottetown adopts food council's charter

Charlottetown city council has voted to officially adopt the food charter established by the Charlottetown Food Council.

A food charter is a visionary guiding document that describes what a community wants its food system to look like. It is a non-binding reference document that provides guidance for developing food-related policy and projects within the community.

“The food charter is an extremely valuable tool that will be used to engage the community and incorporates the overall mission and goals of the Charlottetown Food Council,” said Coun. Terry MacLeod, chairman of the Environment and Sustainability Committee.

“Food security is an issue that has been raised by the community for years. The adoption of the food charter, which also aligns with the goals of our Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP), is an encouraging step forward.”

The Charlottetown Food Council was established in 2018 and is comprised of 13 members and two city employees. The members began developing the food charter during the group’s strategic planning sessions. It was created by reviewing various examples from other Canadian cities and considering regionally relevant goals and principles.

“The adoption of the Charlottetown food charter clearly establishes the City of Charlottetown as a leader in food policy in this province,” said Karen Murchison, chairwoman of the Charlottetown Food Council.

“Our goal as the Charlottetown Food Council is to use this as an opportunity to advance positive change in the food environment within the City.”

More than 60 other municipalities in Canada have recognized the value of making food a priority in their community and have taken on the challenge of improving the regional food system that they operate within through the establishment of a local Food Council and adoption of a Food Charter.

Clare Waight Keller triumphs at 2018 Fashion Awards

Clare Waight Keller, artistic director of Givenchy, has topped off what has already been an impressive year by winning the British designer of the year womenswear award at the 2018 Fashion Awards.

The designer, who in 2017 became the first woman to lead the house of Givenchy, was entrusted with creating the Duchess of Sussex's wedding dress in May. Meanwhile Givenchy recently opened a new flagship store on Old Bond Street.

The designer was presented with her award on Monday evening by the duchess, at a star-studded ceremony at London's Royal Albert Hall, hosted by model Alek Wek and comedian Jack Whitehall. Kate Moss, Edie Campbell, Riz Ahmed, Rita Ora and Brooke Shields were also in attendance.

Waight Keller had stiff competition for the award from Victoria Beckham, who celebrated 10 years since launching her eponymous label this year. Women were widely recognised for their contribution to the fashion industry at this year's awards, with Dame Vivienne Westwood, Miuccia Prada and Kaia Gerber all taking home Swarovski crystal trophies designed by the Ghanaian-British architect Sir David Adjaye.

Model Jerry Hall presented the Swarovski award for positive change to Westwood in recognition of her campaigning on humanitarian and environmental issues. Last year, the designer launched the Switch to Green campaign, asking for fashion brands and businesses to switch to a green energy supplier by 2020. She has also dedicated several of her shows to raising awareness of environmental initiatives, is an ambassador for Greenpeace and, in 2013, designed the official Save the Arctic logo.

Miuccia Prada, who has held the position of lead creative director of the Italian fashion brand Prada for 40 years, was the recipient of the outstanding achievement award, which was presented by actor Uma Thurman and director Steve McQueen.

The designer of the year award, for which Waight Keller had also been nominated, went to Pierpaolo Piccioli for Valentino, who regularly dresses A-list stars for the red carpet.

Fashion insiders will have been unsurprised to see Kim Jones, creative director at Dior Homme, honoured with the British Fashion Council's inaugural trailblazer award, presented by actor Robert Pattinson. Jones showed his first collection for Dior just six months ago, but he has already made a considerable impact on the fashion house and was last month responsible for Dior's first menswear foray outside of Paris with a show in Tokyo.