Basquiat

There are only two actors who I would categorize as chameleons, and they are Gary Oldman, and Jeffrey Wright. And by a chameleon, I mean an actor who is SO good, that I can watch an entire movie with them in it and not even realize that they're in the film until I read the end credits, to which I sometimes exclaim, “That was HIM?”  Jeffrey Wright seems to be everywhere right now, from being the voice of The Watcher in Marvel’s What If?... series, to FINALLY getting nominated for an Academy Award, but the man has built an…

After two decades, the Hammer Museum’s $90-million reinvention is complete. The Westwood art museum introduced the additions — a new lobby, bank gallery and sculpture terrace — with a bang. I attended the opening celebration Saturday and danced to music by DJ Pee Wee (a.k.a. Anderson .Paak) between browsing the new exhibitions and installations. The Times’ Deborah Vankin reported on the Hammer’s large-scale, immersive installations and all the updates to the space. If you’re still intrigued, check it out for…

Walking through the gallery, it’s the loudness of the paintings that hits you. A work from 1982, Anybody Speaking Words, is in screaming yellow and black, with a tonsil-filled mouth singing the word “OPERA, OPERA, OPERA” while the performer’s body vibrates with lines, squiggles and curlicues. King Zulu is a field of loud sky-blue populated with the figures of legendary jazz artists: Louis Armstrong clutching his trumpet, Charlie Parker on saxophone, an all-star band for all time. Not far away, you encounter Armstrong and…

Boutique auctioneer Phillips sold a 16-foot-wide, red-and-peach painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat for $85 million in New York on Wednesday.  Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa put the untitled 1982 painting up for sale, and an Asian telephone bidder represented by a Phillips representative based in Taipei won it after a four-minute competition. The sale didn’t break the $110.5 million record for a Basquiat, held by an untitled blue work from 1982 that Mr.…