The Offs First Record

Cover By Jean-Michel Basquiat

"The moment graffiti met punk."

David Ferguson, Impresario, CD PRESENTS, Record Company President

A Brief History of the Work

A year after the release of “Beat Bop” (Rammellzee, K-Rob 1983), Basquiat was involved in another record cover, this time for seminal punk rock outfit The Offs.

Basquiat illustrated the work in 1981 for the album cover for his friends, The Offs, a Punk/ Ska band originally from San Francisco. The band moved to New York and soon became a regular act at underground venues such as The Mudd Club and Max’s Kansas City, which were popular with artists in the East Village scene.

With the help of their friend Andy Warhol, the band was signed by San Francisco punk label, CD PRESENTS, and their first record was released in 1984. David Ferguson, President of CD PRESENTS, chose to reverse the original image done in blue and black oil stick, to white on black, keeping more in line with the punk sensibility of the times.

In Basquiat’s typical Neo-Expressionist, primitive, instructions-infused style, the artist repeats the band’s name three times in the composition, placing the album’s simple title at the bottom. Using images and symbols found throughout his work during the 1981-1983 period, in The Offs First Record, raw oil stick lines delineating the body extend to form a crown of thorns above the skull. This same imagery is also found in a cycle of totemic figures realized during this early period: perhaps emphasizing the band’s role as hero or martyr caught in the travails of the then shifting cultural landscape, as Basquiat too saw his career experiencing this same shifting landscape.

David Ferguson

The San Fransisco Chronicle referred to Ferguson as the "godfather of the unorthodox", adding that Ferguson "...not only thinks outside the box — he crushes it, dances on top of it, reinvents it and calls it whatever he likes. He has spent his life making trouble." The East Bay Express wrote, "David Ferguson's life story reads like an encyclopedia of the underground."

In 2007, David Ferguson and CD PRESENTS were preparing a 1000 copy Limited Edition reissue for 2009 in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the original record released in 1984. Due to the financial crisis of 2008 which devastated many businesses, including CD PRESENTS, the release was cancelled and the records remained in storage.

For more information on David Ferguson, please click on the link below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ferguson_(impresario)

Exhibition History

In 2015, John Brower of Venice Modern Art, a longtime friend of Ferguson, purchased the entire inventory and rights to the record cover art by Basquiat from CD PRESENTS. Both records and screen prints were then showcased and made available at The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto during the Basquiat exhibition Now's the Time.

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Now’s the Time

February 2nd - May 10th

Art Gallery of Ontario

Toronto, Canada

2015

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Fondation Louis Vuitton

October 3rd - January 21st

Paris, France

2018 - 2019

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Brant Foundation

March 6th to May 14th

New York City

2019

Basquiat "Defacement": The Untold Story

Guggenheim Museum

June 21st - November 6th

New York City

2019

Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

October 16th - February 19th

Montreal, Canada

2022 - 2023

Basquiat Soundtracks

Philharmonie de Paris

April 6th - July 30th

Paris, France

2023

Basquiat x Warhol

À Quatre Mains

April 5th - August 28th

Fondation Louis Vuitton

Paris, France

2023

The original blue and black oil stick illustration by Basquiat for the band The Offs sold for $302,500 (lot 579, sale 8792) in the Sotheby’s Contemporary Day Auction, November 10, 2011.

This lot was accompanied by a certificate of authenticity by the Authentication Committee of The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Excerpts taken from:

Art Record Covers, Taschen, 2017
Fondation Louis Vuitton /Jean-Michel Basquiat 2018
English FLV Gallimard