JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT — Downtown 81: Friends of Basquiat, Agnès B. Skyline, Paris, 2006

Exhibition invitation, double-sided. Offset print. Agnès B. Skyline, 19 rue des Frigos, Paris. Festival d'Automne à Paris. 21 October – 21 November 2006.

Recto reproduces a celebrated still from Downtown 81 — the posthumously completed film starring Basquiat, directed by Edo Bertoglio and produced by Maripol. Shot on the Lower East Side, Basquiat stands before graffiti-covered walls bearing the phrase Like an Ignorant: a raw, street-level image that encapsulates the urban visual language at the heart of his practice.

Verso adopts a bold graphic identity: distressed stencil-style numerals, high-contrast red and black typography, Downtown 81 / F.O.B. (Friends of Basquiat) branding. Opening concert by No Wave icon James Chance.

The involvement of Agnès B. — a long-standing champion of Basquiat and the downtown New York scene — grounds the piece within the fashion-art crossover that defined his cultural reach. A rare artifact connecting Basquiat's early 1980s world to its 21st-century institutional recognition.

Original period item.