About Jean-Michel Basquiat – Single Deck Skateboard – Pez Dispenser (1984)

Bringing together tradition and contemporary culture, this Jean-Michel Basquiat Skateboard deck features a reproduction of Basquiat’s work Pez Dispenser (1984). This masterpiece represents Basquiat’s iconic dinosaur drawing, wearing a crown, rendered in his immediately recognizable graffiti art style. Basquiat’s dinosaur wearing a crown also refers to the US candy dispensers, Pez thus arguing for a commentary on the American consumerist society and popular culture.

This exclusive and limited edition skateboard made in collaboration between The Skateroom and The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat mixes the energies of underground culture and legendary artists. The Skateroom is a platform for promoting, selling and producing art on skateboards that supports youth-empowering organizations. More details on this wonderful piece, which completes our Dunny and Limoges porcelain plates collection, featuring the same artwork:

• Dimensions (Individual Decks): 31″ H x 8″ W
• Material: 7-ply Canadian Maple Wood
• Includes printed Basquiat signature on top
• The deck comes with a fixture – ready to be mounted on your wall
• Wheels and trucks are not included
• © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

About Jean-Michel Basquiat

Synonymous with New York in the 1980s, the artist first appeared in the late 1970s under the tag SAMO, spraying caustic comments and fragmented poems on the walls of the city. He appeared as part of a thriving underground scene of visual arts and graffiti, hip-hop, post-punk, and DIY filmmaking, which met in a booming art world. As a painter with a strong personal voice, Basquiat soon broke into the established milieu, exhibiting in galleries around the world. Basquiat’s expressive style was based on raw figures and integrated words and phrases. His work is inspired by a pantheon of luminaries from jazz, boxing, and basketball, with references to arcane history and the politics of street life—so when asked about his subject matter, Basquiat answered “royalty, heroism and the streets.” In 1983 he started collaborating with the most famous of art stars, Andy Warhol, and in 1985 was on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. When Basquiat died at the age of 27, he had become one of the most successful artists of his time.