Outwardly, the loft is like any other: new studio apartment just rented from Angelina Jolie in Manhattan, it is in a low-rise building at 57 Great Jones Street. However, this graffiti-covered space has a very unusual history and heritage: it is here Jean-Michel Basquiat lived and created some of his most important works, and where he collaborated most closely with Andy Warhol. The actress and philanthropist intends to restore this rich history by bringing here the activities of her latest collective creative project, Atelier Jolie.
A memorial plaque was installed on the three-story building Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society and adorned on the outside with tags and small pieces of street art: the urban look is a pale imitation of carefully crafted givens made over the years and canceled over a year ago is here to stay, as Jolie stated she would keep. So it’s a tribute to Basquiat , who began his career as part of a graffiti duo. SAMO.
Basquiat’s famous studio apartment for rent
The loft, listed for sale last December by real estate agency Meridian Capital Group for $60,000 a month, will now be leased to actress née Angelina Jolie Voight for eight years of commercial use. The interior space is very bright, but above all huge by the standards of the Big Apple: we are talking about 6000 square meters. Even Basquiat himself rented it for five years – and only part of it on the second floor – from a colleague and friend. Andy Warhole shortly after their first meeting. It was here, where he created some of his most famous works, that he died of an overdose in 1988.
Bought by Warhol in 1970, the building was built in 1860 and bought by a gangster. Paul Antonio Vaccarellithat “Paul Kelly” who opened the Brighton Athletic Club here in 1904. The building was subsequently used as the headquarters of a metalworking and kitchen supply company until 1970, and has recently housed an upscale Japanese restaurant. Bohemian. In 2018, a graffiti artist contacted the place. Adrian Wilson open a pop-up exhibition in the store district, which she did: for six weeks, Same Old Gallery brought together cult writers of the 70s – including Al Diaz, a well-known co-author of SAMO, together with Basquiat – for interior and exterior decoration of the building. This is before the big whiteness of 2022.
Angelina Jolie’s New Atelier in New York
“It’s a privilege to be in this space. We will do our best to respect and honor his artistic heritage through community and creativity.“, says the website of Atelier Jolie, a recently established sustainable fashion company. It wants to provide an opportunity for workshops and communities for “underrepresented tailors, fashion designers and artisans around the world“, writes Jolie herself on the site, which will be provided with scrap and vintage materials to repair their used items or create new ones. As such, this space will allow participants to work and showcase their creations in the very vibrant Noho area, which already has art spaces such as the Venus Over Manhattan Galleries and the Eric Firestone Gallery.
Julia Jaume
https://www.atelierjolie.com/