High Museum to Show Rare Basquiat 'Blue Ribbon' Paintings in 2027

Cobb County residents planning a visit to the High Museum of Art in 2027 will see a new exhibition focusing on Jean-Michel Basquiat's lesser-known use of reproductive media. The show, titled “Basquiat, the Blue Ribbon Paintings, and the Art of Reproduction,” opens on Feb. 19, 2027, and runs through May 16, 2027.

The High Museum Director, Rand Suffolk, said the exhibition brings together Basquiat's paintings and prints to show the full scope of his creative practice. Suffolk noted that while many people recognize Basquiat, his work is sometimes narrowly categorized. He stated that the new display aims to deepen public understanding of why the artist's work remains relevant.

The centerpiece of the show is a series of 11 mixed-media paintings created in 1984. Known as the “Blue Ribbon” paintings because they feature the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer logo and bottlecap, these works have not been publicly exhibited together in more than three decades. The paintings combine acrylic paint, oil stick, and silkscreen, blending the techniques of painting and printmaking.

The exhibition will display more than 50 works in total. In addition to the “Blue Ribbon” series, the show includes nearly all of Basquiat's known print projects. These range from early Xerox-based works from the late 1970s to lithographs, serigraphs, and silkscreen paintings produced in Los Angeles.

The display also includes works by Robert Rauschenberg and Robert Blackburn to show their influence on Basquiat. Blackburn, a pioneering Black printmaker and the first master printer at Universal Limited Art Editions, collaborated with Rauschenberg. Basquiat admired Rauschenberg's layered printmaking style. The exhibition traces a line from Blackburn's press through Rauschenberg to Basquiat to illustrate these artistic connections.

Michael Rooks, the High's Wieland Family senior curator of modern and contemporary art, described the “Blue Ribbon” paintings as more solemn than the colorful works for which Basquiat is best known. Rooks said the limited color palette contributes to this tone. He added that each painting features a printed image of a crowned head, which he described as an avatar of marginalized Black heroes guiding the viewer through the complex structure of the artworks.

The exhibition is curated by Jordana Moore Saggese, a professor of modern and contemporary art at the University of Maryland. Saggese is also the director of the David C. Driskell Center for the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora. The Princeton University Art Museum organized the show before it moves to the High Museum.