THE SMITH

ARCHIVE
BY JEAN-MICHEL
BASQUIAT

MARCH 2018

HALTER
MALTEPE
FINE ART ADVISORY
TORONTO•VERONA•HONGKONG
PROVENANCE

RANDALL SMITH, OWNERSHIP; 2013- PRESENT

PRIVATE COLLECTOR, MISSOURI, OWNERSHIP; 2011-2013
(ESTATE LIQUIDATOR, in association with AIRCRAFT PARTS DEALER, later
CLAVIN INC, NEW BEDFORD MA), 2011
STORAGE IN SHIPPING CONTAINER, AIRCRAFT HANGER, NJ, 1989-2011
RUPERT JASEN SMITH, OWNERSHIP; 1982-1989

The SMITH COLLECTION is comprised of 95 works by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat, and comes
from a collection of about 200 works that were collected and owned by the late Rupert Jasen
Smith, master print maker and art director of Andy Warhol’s Factory, and friend of Jean-Michel.

Rupert Jasen Smith, aside from being Andy Warhol’s printer and an important collaborator with
Warhol in his later years, was an artist in his own right. Some critics say that without Smith in
the background, Warhol could never have produced and maintained production of the Factory’s
commercial output. But with both dignity and style Smith chose not to take the limelight from
Warhol. Smith was a noted collector, and was known to buy large blocks of works on paper from
Jean Michel Basquiat, according to those who knew him in the Factory days.

The contents of a shipping container that was known to belong to Rupert Jasen Smith were
liquidated in a forced sale in 2011. The container contents were known to have been the lost
portion of Smith’s estate, long forgotten in an aircraft hangar in New Jersey, since 1989. The
contents comprised a collection of mid-century furniture, objects, and some of his large art
collection. The collection had many important works by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel
Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, among others. Smith had known all of the artists of that time and was
known as an avid collector of many things from art to diamonds and other objects d’art.

The works of Jean-Michel Basquiat from this collection were sold in total to a private collector
in Missouri in 2011, who bought approximately 200 works in four boxes, mixed media on paper,
mostly 18” x 24”, with some smaller works on paper, as well as two kitchen cabinet fronts that
had been painted by the late Jean-Michel Basquiat.

After the Basquiat Foundation had closed down in 2012, the private collector from Missouri felt
there was no proper way to verify the works, and decided to de-access by selling works one at a
time, or in small groups on the Internet, for relatively small amounts, not really knowing what the
work was about, or how culturally valuable the work was.

Randall Smith, of Indiana, had come to be aware of the collection via social media in 2013, and
began to collect the works, knowing how valuable the works would be as a comprehensive
collection. Over the course of approximately 3 years, Smith collected 95 works by the late
Jean-Michel Basquiat, constantly researching the life of the artist and the works, amazed by the
collection he was able to amass, spending almost all of his savings on the works, knowing that
they were of enormous value, aware of their significance in the oeuvre of the late Basquiat. Smith
currwntly works for the American Embassy in Iraq.

In the spring of 2017, Talin Maltepe contacted Smith via a Linkd’in contact, and together with
Jason Halter (collector and private dealer), they have been given the direct mandate to market
and sell the Smith Archive. A number of the works were recently reviewed by a forensic scientist,
the reports of which are attached as ancillary documents to this package.


Jean Michel Basquiat – Lost & Found

An Essay on the Smith Archive

By Patti Astor
Coltrane blowing cool jazz sax echoes across the Bowery rooftops at dawn while
Leonardo Da Vinci cuts down a shadowy Lower East Side alley, the icy wind
whipping trash around his ankles.
Travel through the fascinating world of Jean Michel Basquiat’s imagination in this
newly discovered treasure trove, the Smith Collection.
My downtown adventure began in 1975 at CBGB’s when I was cast by Amos Poe
the “Blank Generation” Director for his (and mine) first feature “Unmade Beds”
the punk rock remake of French New Wave film “Breathless”. (Starring Debbie
Harry!)
I would go on to star in at least ten no-budget underground flicks by the time I
first met Jean Michel on the stairs leading up to the VIP Room of the Mudd Club in
1978. I had seen him around but thought he was just some homeless kid who had
a weird band called “Gray”.
As I swept by in my 50s “Glamour Girl” Cocktail Dress I flirted with him mildly,
teasing him about his strange hairdo.
It wouldn’t take long before I saw his simple charcoal on newsprint “Flats Fix’d” at
the Mudd Club “Beyond Words” exhibit organized by Keith Haring, Fab 5 Freddy
and Futura 2000 in 1980 that I knew at once, “this kid is a genius”.
(The original ‘Flats Fix’d’ Establishment was located on Houston just a few blocks
north of the Mudd.)
The defining event of the new art movement of the future was the “New York, No
Wave” show in February 1981 held at P.S. 1, an abandoned school in Queens,
organized by Diego Cortez. This show brought it all together, the Mudd, Club 57,
the CBGB’s scene, the South Bronx, the NYC Subway – everything. Kenny Scharf
and Keith Haring, murals by over a dozen graffiti stars like LEE, Zephyr, DONDI,

Haze, Futura 2000, Fab 5 Freddy and Rammelzee, photography and artwork by
rock stars David Byrne, Chris Stein, Brian Eno and Alan Vega. The show was so
unbelievably powerful and fresh that the art world had to raise its head up from
the trough of “Neo-Expressionism” and take notice.
Basquiat, who as Diego’s protégé had fifteen works in the show blazed like the
incredible talent that he was. Christophe de Menil, a famous collector from Texas,
bought a painting for the then unheard of price of $2,500 and Emilio Mazzoli, an
Italian dealer, signed Jean up for his first solo show to be held at his gallery in
Modena, Italy. By this time Jean and I were pals and would share all of his art
world adventures over the next few years of his rocket ride to success.
As an early champion of Jean Michel Diego Cortez recently commented on the
recreation of the famous Basquiat wall from that landmark show at the current
Barbican Museum Retrospective:
“Jean had so much raw energy and talent that he was able to complete as much
work in his short nine year career as most artists do in forty years.”
Next up was Keith Haring’s “Black Light Show” at Club 57, the plan was for
everyone to take mushrooms and do Black Light Paintings, the tiny basement lit
solely with Ultra Violet Bulbs.
If I do say so myself, I stole the show opening night. I went up to 14th St. and
bought a white T-shirt mini-dress, chopped off the sleeves and spray painted it
with Day-Glo splotches. By the end of the night that dress was covered with tags
ranging from Dondi to Tseng Kwong Chi to Basquiat to Haring.
(Dress is currently in the Collection of Collector Larry Warsh)
Jean Michel DJ’d that night and during a break he took me out in the bushes in
front of the club and confessed that he had just made $30,000 from his show in
Italy. This was the first time anyone of us made real money. We debated the
consequences of this development in the life of a former Mudd Club vagrant and
decided that the obvious conclusion was that he would become the King of
Ethiopia. At the time, as we were both tripping on mushrooms, this made perfect
sense.

On a more sinister note, at this point JMB attracted the attention of Soho dealer
Anina Nosei and his mainstream art career would begin. Jean-Michel’s first show
at Anina’s consisting of six large canvases was a major success and quickly sold
out. Believe it or not, I think they were priced at $3,000. I will never forget the
excitement I felt when I walked in and saw just how great and original the
paintings looked.
I was very proud of him. The opening was more typically grim. The ‘in’ things that
year were these hideous green-dyed, maxi-length mink coats and as it was
pouring rain outside it was necessary to push your way through this horrible
phalanx of steaming verdant pelts. I found Jean alone in the back locked up in a
small office, listening to John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” on his boombox. He
told me he wasn’t coming out until everyone was gone, so I congratulated him
and felt a little sad as I left.
It was not long after that my own art world adventure would begin with the
opening of the first gallery in the East Village the FUN Gallery and the art world
would never be the same.
The ARTFORUM feature by Rene Ricard on FUN Gallery came out and caused a big
stir. The most important result was that Rene ended up negotiating a deal for
Jean Michel to exhibit at the Fun. Jean had fled from Anina to the market-driven
machinations of Bruno Bischofberger then into the arms of Schnabel’s glam
gallery Mary Boone to end up with equally disastrous personal results and
indifferent shows. He needed a way back to artistic autonomy and the Fun would
be the perfect vehicle.
As Rene would tell him, “Jean go home. Show with Patti.”
The deal was made for him to show in the bitter winter of November 1982. Jean
started spending a lot of time around the gallery or my partner Bill Stelling and I
would go over to his loft. All the stories of the fabulous drawings strewn across
the floor are true.
Jean and I began to plan his show. I was thrilled by the number of paintings he
planned to bring in.

(It would end up being over 30 major works, seven of which are on display in the
current Barbican UK exhibit.)
We decided to do a raw sheet-rock and primer paint installation with mysterious
partitions to increase the wall space. Somehow this grim interior expressed Jean’s
tragic hero persona. Picture the gloomy shadows of the Shakespearean kingdom
of Richard III right before they take the little princes to the tower. Jean began an
around the clock vigil fueled by huge lines of coke and giant spliffs of premium
Hawaiian weed walking around barefoot in his Armani suit with a can of black
paint and brush adding the finishing touches.
The paintings were so beautiful. The uncompromising stance of both Jean and the
Fun was perhaps a little frightening, and not many sold although it is now
recognized as his best show ever. I was happy to hear that the whole collection
was found intact in a warehouse after Jean’s death. I knew then it had meant a lot
to him and I was so happy to give him that show.
Jean Michel Basquiat died on Friday, August 12, 1988 at age 27. A “hero” is a man
admired for his courage, fortitude, prowess, and nobility. “Heroic” as having
recourse to extreme measures, daring, drastic; larger than life-size (in art). We
had lost our fiery warrior.
Jean, like his hero St. Joe Louis “surrounded by snakes”, had been whooshed into
the vacuum of Andy’s world, the limos, the wheeling and dealing, the Armani
suits. A “vacuum” is defined as a “space devoid of matter”. I know the trend is to
remember him as doomed; in the Hoban biography the overall effect is of
stunned bystanders gaping at a particularly horrific car accident. I always picture
him with a sunny smile, and a sly and mischievous look, the same sexy rebel
outcast I met on the staircase of The Mudd Club.
Everyone gathered to mourn at the makeshift voodoo shrine outside his loft. The
art world pundits rushed to gabble and pontificate among the flickering candles.
“Motherfuckers,” said Fab 5 Fred.
Fun Gallery artist A-One would say in New Yorker magazine, “A vandal is
somebody who throws a brick through a window. An artist is somebody who

paints a picture on that window. A great artist is somebody who paints a picture
on the window and then throws a brick through it.”
Aren’t all great talents outlaws who break all the rules? Jean Michel was one of
the few who always got my anti-establishment antics. I had the greatest respect
for his intelligence, sharp political edge and masterly painting.
Luckily his art, as illustrated by this collection, lives on for new generations to
explore.
When I curated my recreation of the Original FUN Gallery in 2010 for Jeffrey
Deitch’s “Art in The Streets” I looked around and three-quarters of my artists
were gone. But that doesn’t mean that I am done with my promises to them.
For Jean Michel Basquiat that means I will continue to represent him as one of the
greatest artists of the modern era hoping to once and for all lift the burden of
“the black artist” from his shoulders.
Move over Picasso, there’s a new King in town.

Patti Astor
2017
(Portions of this essay are excerpted from Patti Astor’s memoir,
“FUN Gallery…The True Story” © Patti Astor 2012)