Shearsman Books

Paperback, 144pp, 8.5x5.5ins, £9.95 / $17
ISBN 9781848610989. 3rd edition.

This work explores the love story between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Suzanne, his muse and lover. It is also a profound portrait of New York City during the early 1980s' art scene and the striking cast of characters from that time: Andy Warhol, Madonna, Keith Haring, Debbie Harry, Julian Schnabel and William Burroughs, among others.

Download a PDF sampler from this book.

Press commentaries on Widow Basquiat:

'Powerful . . . this memoir has a kind of awesome beauty.' —The Bookseller

"Widow Basquiat is different . . . builds up into an engrossing narrative which details nearly all the pivotal events of Basquiat's short life. It's a refreshing angle on a story that could easily have veered into myth-making or melodrama . . . Clement offers far more clues to the cryptic symbols which litter his paintings than any art critic could." —The Times (London)

"A brilliant account of the relationship between Basquiat and his muse and lover . . . a compelling book that leaves a giant sized lump in the throat . . . Clement hypnotises us with a vivid portrait of Basquiat, powerfully evoking his inventiveness as an artist" —Independent on Sunday

"Clement says she wanted the book to be 'like a painting or a piece of music that came out of that time'. It comes pretty close. Poetic, full of funny, bizarre anecdotes, Widow Basquiat is the kind of book that makes you want to take the next flight to New York. There may be death in it, but it also has a sense of life that leaps off the page . . . it is also deeply romantic." —The Big Issue (Scotland)

"A starkly beautiful elegy to a painter and high-strung muse, by a poet whose gossamer language morphs itself into shapes as jagged, disturbing and righteously angry as Basquiat's work itself . . . Clement is a striking, spiky overseer and her poetry exists in economy instead of frugality: the bright, peeled-back eyes of someone who saw—and actually observed—everything."— i-D

"a beautifully evocative, poetic memoir . . . Basquiat was aware of the criteria with which posterity would judge him. Widow Basquiat should be part of those criteria." —The Herald

 

UK trade orders via Bertrams Books or Gardners Books.
US trade orders via Ingrams or Baker & Taylor.

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