Before his death in 1988, Jean-Michel Basquiat made several trips to Paris. Supported by a small group of local pioneers, he found in France a refuge, a source of inspiration, and a new audience. This is the subject of Rachel Kahn’s latest documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris for Ever, now streaming on TV5MONDEplus.

How did your film come about?

Rachel Kahn: I’m a director and producer, always looking for new, current topics. A few years ago, the Centre Pompidou in Paris was preparing an exhibition on Basquiat, and I wanted to pitch a documentary about him. So I started to study his life and work, looking at what had already been done on the subject – mostly biographical films that looked back on his childhood, his career. So twice, I veered off course: first to Côte d’Ivoire [with Jean-Michel Basquiat, l’Afrique au cœur, also available on TV5MONDEplus], and now to Paris. 

The connection between Basquiat and France is not well known. How did you come across this idea?

In the spring of 2023, two Basquiat exhibitions opened in Paris – one at the Fondation Louis Vuitton and the other at the Philharmonie – and Le Monde devoted the cover of its magazine to a story titled “When Basquiat Electrified Paris.” There wasn’t much in the article, but it was an interesting angle. So I began to delve into the topic, looking for leads, people who had met him…

In fact, you structured your documentary around these Parisian “trailblazers” who made Basquiat “a French icon.” Who are they?

Daniel Templon is the first French gallery owner to cross the Atlantic to see his work. There’s also the designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, who was very close to Basquiat and brought him to Paris two or three times (I can’t find the exact number), and his gallerist, Yvon Lambert, who was like a mentor, a surrogate father. Let’s not forget Richard Rodriguez, one of the first Basquiat collectors in France, and fashion designer Agnès b., with whom he had a brief encounter. I wouldn’t call it a love story, but there was something between them. She was stunning, irresistible, and he wasn’t indifferent to her. She discovered his work before Daniel Templon, at the Paris Biennale in 1983. She was so taken with his self-portrait that she later asked her friend Philippe Briet, an art dealer in New York City, to buy the painting. She still owns it, and we filmed it in her home for the documentary. I could also mention the photographer Louis Jammes, who witnessed Basquiat’s last moments and supplied him with various substances...

You only mentioned private individuals. Why such “ostracism” from French institutions?

Some people spoke to me about racism, but I find that hard to believe, although it’s true that Black painters are still very rare in our museums... Basquiat was long considered a “trendy” artist, one who was popular but would never have any lasting legacy. That’s why, I think, the major French museums initially ignored him. The Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain in Amiens and the Musée Cantini in Marseille were the only institutions to purchase his work while he was alive (and the latter organized his first French retrospective in 1992).

Today, our museums can’t afford to buy his work, and there are only two Basquiats in public collections. The institutions didn’t rise to the occasion, but it’s worth remembering that it was France – with the French Cultural Center [now the Institut Français] in Abidjan – that organized his only exhibition during his lifetime in Africa. Basquiat traveled there in 1986 [this is the subject of the documentary L’Afrique au cœur], but the event was not as successful as expected, unfortunately.

What can you tell us about Basquiat’s first exhibitions in France?

In 1984, he had a cameo in the Figuration libre : France/U.S.A. exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. But it was two art dealers who really introduced Basquiat to France. His first exhibition took place at Daniel Templon’s gallery in 1987, but the artist refused to attend. He was saving himself for someone else, his longtime friend Yvon Lambert. Lambert showed his work the following year at his gallery in the Marais. At the time, people were beginning to say that Basquiat’s work was going down in quality, that he was repeating himself. The 1988 exhibition was a rebirth for him, a return to rigor. For the occasion, he painted several large works – along with a poster – that left everyone in awe. Yvon Lambert is someone very important in Basquiat’s life and career, and vice versa.

Today, Basquiat’s work is constantly showcased, analyzed, studied, and decoded in France. And since 2014, he even has a square named after him in the 13^th arrondissement of Paris. How do you explain this “love at first sight we all had for his paintings”?

Basquiat speaks to us. His work is simple and goes straight to the gut. You don’t spend hours wondering what he meant. He creates raw, brutal paintings that hit you like a punch in the face. His life is all there in his paintings. Over time, he has become an icon in France, the favorite artist of many French people. He’s adored, the younger generation knows him, and you see murals of him everywhere in the banlieues. He’s an essential urban figure.

What is your favorite Basquiat work?

In 1985, with Andy Warhol, he painted a work on Paris called Eiffel Tower. In a collage style, there are at least two Eiffel Towers, French flags, and frogs – since Americans think that’s all we eat! This shortcut from two great American painters, this almost caricatured vision of France, makes me laugh out loud. The idea supposedly came to him one Bastille Day, while he was in Paris. A friend had taken him to filmmaker Diane Kurys’ place, and they watched the fireworks from her terrace. I also love Riding with Death, which gives me goosebumps. It shows the skeleton of a Black man riding death. It’s one of his last paintings, completed in 1988, just months before his death.

Let’s go back to the documentary. Tell us about your decision to represent Basquiat with a silhouette, actor Olivier Cissoko filmed from behind, as he walks through Paris.

You know, there are very few images of him in France. It’s a miracle that we were able to make a film! There are a few rare photos (when he walked a runway show for Comme des Garçons in 1986, for instance), but he was never filmed or interviewed during his stays. He refused interviews. So we made do with what we had. Basquiat loved to walk around Paris, his favorite city. He spoke French and had a passion for French culture. He lived the high life, stayed at the Hôtel de Crillon, and enjoyed the French way of life. With Castelbajac, he would wander the streets of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, following in the footsteps of writers and artists who had lived there. He would constantly ask him questions. To avoid showing empty streets, we created this silhouette that resembled him.

Is Basquiat part of the long list of Black American artists who, since the 1920s, found refuge in France?

Of course. His father was Haitian, Francophone, and a Francophile (the name “Basquiat” is said to be that of a French aristocrat driven out by the Revolution, who sought refuge in Haiti and owned slaves). He must have taught his son about this history. Basquiat was very sensitive to the history of Black Americans. So I suppose he was aware that France had welcomed many artists who were victims of segregation and racism in their own country. Let’s not forget that one of his colleagues [the African American graffiti artist Michael Stewart] was killed by the New York police in 1983.

In Paris, Basquiat met another Black painter and made him famous.

Exactly: Ouattara Watts, who now lives in the United States. He met him at Yvon Lambert’s gallery in 1988, and because he was Black, Ivorian, and had graduated from the Beaux-Arts, Basquiat took a liking to him and took him to New York. He made his fame and fortune. They were supposed to travel together to Côte d’Ivoire. Watts is the grandson of a healer, and he hinted to me that he could have helped Basquiat with his addiction. When Basquiat died [of an overdose], he had a ticket to Abidjan in his pocket. It was really a twist of fate…

Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris for Ever is currently available to stream on TV5MONDEplus! 

Also streaming, Rachel Kahn's 2021 documentary Coeur de l'Afrique, which shows Basquiat's influence on the contemporary art world and encouraged the emergence of an entire generation of African artists.