10TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARTSTÜBLI AT STEINENTORBERG PRESENTS: SHADOWMAN / SAMO©: Photographs from Vera Isler, Vijya Kern & Thomas Christ

Looking back on past projects, exhibitions and spatial installations from the last 10 years, Artstübli – Art & Culture is launching various exhibition of works by these artists from its own portfolio.

Commonly known as “The Godfather of Street Art”, the Canadian artist Richard Hambleton (1952-2017) became famous for his shadow figures that appeared overnight on the walls of buildings in New York and various European cities. In just a few seconds, they appeared life-size with sweeping brushstrokes in urban spaces. The Shadowman left over 400 of them in Manhattan alone. In 1984, Hambleton traveled to Europe five times and walked in the shadows of the night through 24 major cities, including Basel.

Artstübli and the Vera Isler Estate (Verein Blaue Blume) are pleased to present a documentary presentation of the artist’s “shadow figures” in Basel. On display are photographs by Vera Isler (1931-2015) and Thomas Christ (*1953), which were taken in Basel and New York in the early 1980s. The photographs by Isler and Christ capture not only the shadow figures, but also the impressive atmosphere of the 1980s in New York and Basel.

Vijya Kern (born 1945) graduated from the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel and had the opportunity to attend the well-known art and architecture school “Cooper Union” in SoHo (Manhattan) in 1980. She studied photography, graphic design and film with Jack Burckhardt. In her free time, Vijya Kern explored where she was in the right place at the right time: she photographed numerous graffiti by Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960 - 1988), who used the pseudonym SAMO© at the time and is now considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century.

Supported by:

Abteilung Kultur Basel-Stadt
Christoph Merian Stiftung