The photographer who captured Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat as boxing champions for a series of publicity photos says Robert Mapplethorpe was originally lined up to take the famous photos. Michael Halsband’s “Boxing Gloves” series of photographs – made for the poster for the Basquiat and Warhol exhibition in September 1985 at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York – are featured in the hit show Basquiat x Warhol. Painting with four hands at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris (until August 28).
“Basquiat chose Halsband – whose work with singer Klaus Nomi had caught his eye – to shoot the poster photo. The image was to evoke a boxing match. July 10 [1985], Basquiat and Warhol arrived at Halsband’s studio wearing gloves and shorts. Three of the images were ultimately selected to promote the exhibition; the photographer shares 80 [in the exhibition]“, says a press release.
But Halsband says that when he attended a dinner in July attended by Basquiat and other artists, Warhol suggested Robert Mapplethorpe for the boxing shoot. “I don’t know what I’m doing at this dinner anyway; I felt like I was sitting here alone with no one talking to me. But when I sat down, straight away Jean [Basquiat] turned to me and he said, ‘Hey, I’ve been a big fan of your work for five years,’” Halsband says The Arts Journal.
“And he said, ‘Do you want to come to the bathroom with me?’ There was this little door behind us, a really tiny little door. It was big enough for one person. And we closed the door and he started explaining to me that he and Andy were collaborating on these paintings, and that they were going to have an exhibition at Tony Shafrazi’s gallery. And they wanted to do a poster in the style of a traditional boxing poster, and would I be interested in doing the pictures? And I said, yes, of course. But in my mind, I thought, I’ll never get that.
But Warhol was not enthusiastic. “Andy said, ‘Oh, but we’ve already had Robert Mapplethorpe do it,’ and Jean said, ‘No, Michael will.’ And Andy said, ‘Oh, well, I love the portraits of Michael. It’ll be great. I mean, I was working with Interview for about seven years at that time. He knew my work, it was just out there in the open.
Halsband had made the acquaintance of Basquiat during a photo shoot in April 1985 when he took a group photo of many of the high-profile artists of the day – including David Hockney and Keith Haring – on the steps of Mr. Chow’s restaurant At New York. The rally marked the launch of Area nightclub in Manhattan; in the image, Basquiat stands behind Darius Azari, co-founder of Area.
“He [Basquiat] wanted to pour the sauce from his plate over the head of Darius who was sitting below him. And Jean wanted me to grab a drizzle of sauce. I’ve watched it. He looked at me, I looked at him, and we kind of established this shorthand communication very quickly. He started tipping the plate, but it took my attention away from the rest of the group.
Michael Halsband Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat #143 (1985)
Courtesy of the artist
The boxing shoot later that year with the two artists was truly a work in progress with Basquiat’s confidence a foil to Warhol’s reluctance. “Andy is always a bit quiet and seemed a bit lost in the sense that he was leaving a lot to Jean and me, which was good in the sense that Jean immediately took responsibility for initiating and get it out of the ground,” Halsband says.
“They kind of put their hands in the gloves, didn’t really lace them up right away, and they were just feeling it, testing it. And then I was just following them. And I knew we had to get two unique images for the poster, but really my agenda was like, I really had to get a great shot of them both together,” he adds.
“Jean came up with the idea of putting his face on the glove, putting Andy down, physically positioning Andy, and then putting his face on the glove and doing this expression of being punched in the face, mouth open, all .”
Halsband explains that only a few images have been shown in public before. “Then I started printing photos that I personally liked, especially the one of Jean-Michel trying to pull up his boxers, Everlast briefs with his gloves. He was just one of my favorites because he has that kind of little boy smile and he’s very lively.
And how did these recognizable works affect him? “The life of these images has really become something where I feel like I’m still connected to him. [Basquiat] in this crazy way. And I feel like not a day goes by that I don’t watch him and Andy.
