Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Sisters on Curating ‘King Pleasure’ Exhibit and Their Brother’s Legacy: ‘People are Drawn to How Unedited His Creativity Was’
Lily Moayeri Jean-Michel Basquiat was the quintessential New York City artist during his life and after his death. So the arrival of the exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© at the Grand LA in the heart of downtown Los Angeles is a welcome one for those left-coasters who couldn’t catch the display at RXR’s Starrett-Lehigh Building in New York in 2022, where it attracted 210,000 visitors over eight months. King Pleasure (stylized as King Pleasure©) is presented by Basquiat’s family, with his sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux guiding and curating the project. This is the first time the artist’s family has opened his estate’s vault, which they have administered since his untimely death in 1988 at the age of 27. Designed by architect David Adjaye with Abbott Miller of Pentagram creating the exhibition’s identity, King Pleasure features over 200 rare and never seen before pieces.