Rubell Museum

On the left, "The Struggle" a 1973-74 painting by Miami’s own Purvis Young at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Jean-Michel Basquiat's "Untitled" from 1982 on the right. We’re in Washington DC this week working with our colleagues at our DC museum as we prepare for our Wednesday evening, November 1st, members only preview and opening reception there. We hope you can join us. You can become a member in person or via our website.

Our members only preview in Miami will be on Tuesday evening, December 5th.

Given the extensive time that Young spent researching artists he may have been considering Francisco Goya's "Fight with Cudgels" (last image) when he made this painting.

Was Neo Rauch thinking about Tiepolo's "The Triumph of Marius" (1729) when he composed his painting currently on view here, "Demos [Demonstration]" (2004)? Probably not, but it's nice to have echoes here in Miami, in a renovated warehouse, of a painting made nearly 300 years prior that's held pride of place for decades at the top of the Metropolitan Museum's grand central staircase.

Both artists included self-portraits within their processions and Tiepolo's military banners and flags have been replaced with protest signs in Rauch's painting. Tiepolo's principal, magisterial figure with a red cloak is a shackled African king who could easily be mistaken for the painting's victor, while Rauch proffers a su***de bomber in the center with a naked captive in the foreground.

Occasionally, august institutions such as the Metropolitan have echoes of newer institutions, such as ours. In 2005 we presented four of Rauch’s paintings, including "Demos," in our exhibition of Leipzig artists and in 2007 the Met mounted a solo exhibition of Rauch’s work. The Met’s curator, Gary Tinterow, kindly shared with us that he first saw Rauch’s paintings in Miami, in our exhibition.

Details of the self-portraits, shackled King, and bound captive are above.

If you were in Tallahassee in 1982 and visited the University Gallery at Florida State University you would have seen a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat in the group exhibition "New New York." That same year, had you visited the Metropolitan Art Gallery in Coral Gables, Florida you would have seen another painting by Basquiat. The same is true for the following year at the Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina ("County" is misspelled as "Country" in his catalogs).

"Meteoric rise," is often used to describe the initial career path of a select few artists. A catalog in our research library from Basquiat's 1984 exhibition at Mary Boone Gallery in New York reminded us of just how steep this rise was.

1980: Zero exhibitions

1981: One group exhibition and two solo exhibitions

1982: Eleven group exhibitions (including Documenta) and eight solo exhibitions (of which four were in New York City)

1983: Twenty-one group exhibitions (including the Whitney Biennial and nine others in New York) and three solo exhibitions