An Intimate Glimpse Inside Andy Warhol's Friendship with Jean-Michel Basquiat Revealed in Previously Unseen Photos

A new book is set to take a revealing look inside the lives of two of the most iconic figures of the late-20th-century art world.

Over three decades since Andy Warhol’s death, hundreds of his photographs providing a detailed look inside his friendship with fellow ’80s art legend Jean-Michel Basquiat are to be published for the first time, the Guardian reported. The forthcoming book by Michael Dayton Hermann of the Andy Warhol Foundation features more than 400 of Warhol’s never-before-seen photographs, as well as published entries from Warhol’s diaries.

The pictures provide what Hermann has called “a voyeuristic glimpse” into the lives of the two artists, including images that captured Basquiat in various states from the banal to the extreme. Various images show the artist shaving, getting dressed and exercising, while others captured Basquiat in his most vulnerable moments during his battle with depression.

“What is shocking and striking is the honesty of the photographs,” Hermann told the Guardian. “Today, with social media we all share our lives online, but we do so in a very managed way, to project an image … the photographs are brutally honest.”

Hermann’s book also includes one photograph that reportedly depicts Basquiat in the midst of a suicidal episode. Showing the artist looking sad in a hotel room, Hermann paired the photograph with a diary entry from 1983, in which Warhol wrote, “Jean-Michel came by and said he was depressed and was going to kill himself and I laughed and said it was just because he hadn’t slept for four days.”

Hermann noted that while both artists’ work has long reflected their influence on each other, the new photographs reveal a new side to their relationship. “They were very inspired by each other. Warhol early on really understood that Basquiat was a terrific artist.”

The book will be published by Taschen next month.

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