Vijya Kern

Overview

"It wasn’t until many years later, when I saw Julian Schnabel's film about J.M. Basquiat, that the scales fell from my eyes and I realised who the author of these works was that had long since been destroyed." Vijya Kern

Vijya Kern (born 1945) graduated from the School of Applied Arts in Basel and had in 1980 the opportunity to join the well-known art and Architectural "Cooper Union" school in SoHo (Manhattan). She followed courses such as Photography, Graphic Design and Film by Jack Burckhardt. Being at the right place at the right time, Vijya Kern started exploring her environment during her spare time: she photographed numerous graffiti by Jean-Michel Basquiat, (1960 – 1988), who used at that time the pseudonym SAMO©. Today he is recognized as one of the most important artist of the 20th century. Vijya Kern has since made some selected pictures available for famous museums and catalogs. Artstübli shows the photography editions of SAMO© and SoHo now in a first-time comprehensive and documented Gallery exhibition.

Works