By Eryka Clayton

Brooklyn-born artist Jean-Michel Basquiat filled notebooks with poetry, wordplay, sketches and personal observations ranging from street life and popular culture to themes of race, class and world history. Basquiat: ***The Unknown Notebooks ***exhibit will feature eight of these notebooks with over 140 pages of rarely seen documents, along with 50 related works on paper and large-scale paintings, two large-scale, landmark paintings on loan from the Broad Art Foundation, Los Angeles, as well as an exquisite example of Basquiat’s drawings.

While the total number of notebooks created by Basquiat remains unknown, the ones presented here reflect the originality of Basquiat’s thinking and the diversity of his subjects. Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks emphasizes the distinct interplay of text and images in Basquiat’s art, providing unprecedented insight into the importance of language in the artist’s process.

“We are pleased to begin a new year with an exciting exhibition featuring the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, one of the best-known artists of his generation,” said William Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art. “The exhibition provides an in-depth look into Basquiat’s artistic process, and gives visitors the opportunity to see this influential artist’s intimate thoughts and rarest work.”

Opening January 22 with a free community day from 10–5, the exhibition is on view through April 23, 2017. 

Visitors have the opportunity to see the exhibition for free during the Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks Opening Day Celebration on Sunday, January 22, from 10–5. The museum will offer art activities, refreshments and a special pop-up exhibition in the atrium with artwork created by students in Kent State University’s Leading for Social Justice course.

For more info and tickets visit  www.clevelandart.org