Savoir Faire: Basquiat: The World of Jean-Michel

0:00Alex Assouline:Thank you for being here. We're here to talk about the savoir-faire behind this incredible book, Pasquiat, The World of Jean-Michel. Martine, I know that the development of this book really began in 2024. So it took really two years to put it together, to do all the research, to work with the estate. And that was just an incredible process. Exactly. It was very long to do because we did that with somebody who knows so well Basquiat and knows all the people who are our collectors and is very close to the family of Basquiat. So many people high level in the world of Basquiat were involved. So it took a lot of time.

0:48Alex Assouline:What strikes me in this book when I saw really the realized version of it on the center table of the archive room when we saw the first one was really the amount of pages that it constitutes. I mean, it's way more pages as a volume that I've seen in any other ultimates of that collection. It was not the idea at the beginning, but we had to. The work is so fabulous and so great that we had to do it. It's a double, double number of pages. Yeah, incredible. So much volume of painting, written materials. So yeah, it needed that. Yes, it needed that. Not just painting, painting, wording, quotes. It's really, when we start this process on this book, we wanted to create the ultimate book on Basquiat because it was, I don't know, thousands of books existing today with the same painting.

1:45So the idea was not to create another book in a bigger size. It was to create the ultimate book on this subject. And to involve collectors and family.

1:55Alex Assouline:Because as part of that, as an ultimate book, so it's a really comprehensive book on his work, but itself it's a work of art as well, right? So what I know and I noticed as well while flipping through the pages and really understanding well, you know, the structure that you put into this book and the process was that it was not done chronologically. Like we have for a lot of like impossible collections or other ultimates. It was really done by themes in a sort of way. Exactly, by themes. And most of the, not all, but most of the painting, the artwork, has text, essays or, you know, stories by the people who knows the story of the painting who has or process the painting, that was the idea, to research all those people who were happy to be in the travel with us, yes.

2:52But at the end, this book, and it was planned to be designed in this way, it's really, I would like to, we will put two words. One, it has to be beautiful because the paintings are extraordinary. we create the size extraordinary to receive all of this painting but also to have a mix of the feeling of a scrapbook so at the end you have a scrapbook feeling with the beauty of the painting so each book when you have it in your hand you have a feeling it's something made it's completely made by hand but it gives you a feeling of it you have something completely original You have something completely unique with a tip on made by hand, with the idea of the scrapbook, with the painting, with the way the slipcase, the clamshell was done, with a crown, with the color of what we had to create.

3:53Alex Assouline:Tell me more about that, because it's an incredible, I mean, statement piece. What was the process to decide about the cover? The cover is something that we take obviously care and it's very important. I wanted, when we decided to do this book, to have a feeling I have a piece of Basquiatrum. So we did, so the crown was immediately the first idea and it's where we are. The proportion of the crown was complicated, but the test of the background, we did maybe 50 different tests with a printer to find the right color. For the shade? For the color and the texture of the canvas we use for the clamshell.

4:47Everything is a question of proportion. You know, you put a little bit more yellow, 1 % more yellow, and you have a completely different book. And the touch? And the touch, yes. So we wanted to have visually something with a good appetite.

5:03Alex Assouline:And you were talking about the scale of the crown. Why that scale, not bigger, not smaller? Jean-Michel Franck said proportion is a question of millimeter, not centimeter. So it had to be this one, but we test 50 different ones. So visually for you, that was the right proportion for me. There's a lot of gatefolds throughout the book as well to really show the grandeur. So it's when you open the spreads, it opens even more, right? Why making gatefolds in books or in ultimates in general? Because it's impressive. And that is something very important to have such, you know, a scale. It's like a moment for you to discover that.

5:52It's incredible. Even me, after doing the books, when I discover it as if I was, you know, buying it, it's a moment. It's sensitive. It's extraordinary to see such artworks, you know. A desk. A desk. The feeling is you have something original and you think it's made just for you and it's real. It was made just for you. So you have this sensation, this feeling, you have something alive. You have a picture tipped by hand by an artisan in Italy with gloves. It's like your personal album. And this is beautiful. And this is really unique in this collection. And it's really unique in publishing, you know, to create books in this level of maturity and with so much artisan aspect.

6:48Yes, this art graph is about respect and love. And I have to say that Prosper and I, we are lovers of books and old books. So in some decades ago, the books were done like that. It was, and we love that. We want to put again, you know, this question of, it's about an own culture, you know, luxury. It's for you, only for you. Thank you.

7:18Alex Assouline:Such a beautiful piece. Merci. Thank you for joining us in the Culture Lounge. We're so glad you're here. Each episode is a carefully curated conversation, a celebration of the arts, ideas, and people that make life more beautiful. We hope you live with a little more of that beauty today. New episodes arrive every other Friday at 9 a.m. Eastern. Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and be sure to subscribe so you never miss what's next.

7:48Thank you.