Art Direct

Samantha Boardman in her New York home with Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Untitled (Cow Parts) (1982). The work belongs to Basquiat’s Modena Paintings—a legendary cycle of eight monumental canvases created in just one week in Modena, Italy.

The planned exhibition was cancelled before opening, and the paintings were dispersed into private collections around the world. Boardman’s piece is one of the rare survivors we glimpse today, carrying the intensity of Basquiat’s meteoric rise at just 21.