Basquiat: Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)

This publication focuses on a defining painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat: Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983). First shown at the artist’s landmark 1983 exhibition at Larry Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles, it was produced together with a group of large-scale paintings in a square format that are among Basquiat’s most renowned. The volume analyzes this painting within the context of a dozen related works, of which seven debuted in the 1983 Gagosian exhibition. Profusely illustrated, this trilingual (English/French/German) book provides an in-depth examination of Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown)’s iconography, use of language, exploration of sociopolitical issues, and position within Basquiat’s oeuvre, with a foreword by Sam Keller and an essay by Dieter Buchhart.