Paramount, 1984-85

Narrator: In this painting, Warhol collaborated with the younger painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. They took turns working on the canvas. First, Warhol would silkscreen an image onto it. Then Basquiat would, as he put it, “deface” them—as he might have done to an outdoor advertisement when he was working as a street artist. 

T.J. Wilcox: But there's a kind of competitive spirit in them as well. 

Narrator: Artist T.J. Wilcox.

T.J. Wilcox: It's not just a group hug. And I think you see that particularly in his paintings of, the painting that he and Basquiat made together where, I know from reading the diaries and other descriptions, Warhol was often quite annoyed because he would print on the canvases and then Basquiat would come later and make his additions and they would go back and forth sometimes. And Warhol always felt that Basquiat painted over the best passages in the painting and maybe he did. So that duel, there's a kind of love/hate relationship in it, and I think you still see that playing out in the canvases now.