Atlanta has a joyful date to save for next winter. The High Museum of Art will present “Basquiat, the Blue Ribbon Paintings, and the Art of Reproduction” from February 19 to May 16, 2027, as part of the museum’s centennial year — and Happy City News is already counting down.
With more than fifty works, the exhibition shines a light on a side of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) that is rarely studied: his deep engagement with printmaking. Instead of telling only the familiar story of a meteoric, self-taught prodigy, this presentation shows Basquiat in conversation with art history, exploring appropriation, identity and reproduction as a space for innovation and collaboration.
Visitors will be able to follow his connections across generations, from Leonardo da Vinci to Robert Rauschenberg, and his links with pioneering Black printmakers such as Bob Blackburn. The result, the museum says, reveals and celebrates a lineage of Black experimentation and intergenerational exchange in reproductive media.
The exhibition is organized by the Princeton University Art Museum and curated by Jordana Moore Saggese, professor of modern and contemporary art and director of the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland. Mark the dates, plan a Midtown day around it, and get ready to see a beloved artist anew at the High, 1280 Peachtree Street NE.
Photo: High Museum of Art
