The fifth capsule collection of Swatch Art Journey in 2023 was launched on May 11, showing Swatch’s love for groundbreaking artists. The Swatch × Jean-Michel Basquiat series is a vibrant tribute to the New York artist. Basquiat (Basquiat) boldly subverts the boundaries of traditional art, pushing street art as a subculture into a widely accepted Art form, this collection of three watches and special sets captures his most iconic style, full of strong images and codes with different meanings, each watch fully embodies Basquiat’s avant-garde composition and fearlessness.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the most famous artists of his generation and has been hailed as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His artistic career spanned from the late 1970s to the 1980s until his death in 1988 at the age of 27. His works are avant-garde and original. Through bold colors and compositions, he maintains a good balance between seemingly contradictory forces. His brand shows the values and prospects of young and international urban culture. Combining various media is an integral element of Basquiat’s art, often imbued with codes and painted on single canvases in multi-panel paintings and bare easels.
In this series of watch advertisements, Swatch combines Basquiat’s artwork with the skateboarding and BMX (extreme bicycle) culture that is popular all over the world today. Two Swatch Proteam athletes, including free-spirited professional skateboarder and world champion Andy Anderson, and Nine-time BMX world champion Matthias Dandois took to the streets wearing this series of watches, showing the perfect match between art and sport.
