“SO THIS IS YOU, AGNÈS!“

“Jean-Michel… In 1981 or ’82 I was in a little art gallery in Paris and came across a work by this artist called Basquiat. I asked a friend in New York to try to find this guy and go and see his studio. A while later, he sent me a photo of a self-portrait. I bought it without thinking. Later on, Jean-Michel came to Paris. When he saw me, he said: “So, this is you, Agnès!” He was a bit smitten with me. Over the next few days, he’d call me in the middle of the night and ask to meet at the Crillon. But I didn’t really fancy showing up there at four in the morning, especially since I had a boyfriend, so I said no. I guess you could say that I turned down Jean-Michel Basquiat–not just once, but two nights in a row! [Laughs] I heard that he turned his room upside down because of me. But I was very fond of him. I managed to buy several of his pieces around that time. This one was stuck to the wall with drawing pins for ages, like a poster. Then I had a proper glass frame on it, at home, but the red has faded a bit with time. I’ve sort of communicated with Jean-Michel [laughs] and asked him if he’d like the picture to get a bit of its color back again. He said yes, so I’m allowed to run a little red crayon over the glass.”