WASHINGTON, DC.- The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announces “Basquiat × Banksy,” an exhibition grounded in the presentation of two major paintings: Jean-Michel Basquiat’s “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” (1982) and Banksy’s “Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search” (2018). Placed in dialogue, the large painting by Basquiat (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1960–1988) and the responding artwork by Banksy (anonymous; b. near Bristol, England) will reveal throughlines among street art, contemporary art and the popular imagination. “Basquiat × Banksy” will be on view from Sept. 29 through Oct. 26, 2025.

“Basquiat × Banksy” marks the first time that artworks by either artist will be presented at the nation’s museum of modern and contemporary art; it has been made possible through the generous philanthropic support of Kenneth C. Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel and founder of Griffin Catalyst.

The exhibition will focus on the significance of Basquiat’s vibrant neoexpressionist representation of a Black boy and his dog at play and Banksy’s dystopian rejoinder, a bold composition created more than three decades later. Banksy’s composition highlights the racial and social inequities that pervaded Basquiat’s life as well as recurrent themes in his work that developed out of his real-life experience. Presented in the museum’s lower-level galleries, the two paintings will illuminate how homage and appropriation operate within popular culture, connecting artists in a global dialogue that stretches across geography, media and time.

“Positioning Basquiat with Banksy brings into focus elements of Basquiat’s legacy, notably the movement of street art tropes into museums through his studio practice,” said Museum Director Melissa Chiu. “‘Basquiat × Banksy’ will open in tandem with a new, dedicated classroom and free art- education program that invites visitors to understand, through creative participation, that they too are artists.”

The exhibition will also include 20 small works on paper and wood from the collection of Larry Warsh, made by Basquiat between 1979 and 1985, that demonstrate his deep familiarity with art history, his use of language and his signature motifs, such as skulls and crowns. The film Downtown 81 (shot in 1980–1981 and released in 2000), a send-up of the denizens of Manhattan’s 1980s avant-garde and starring Basquiat as a struggling artist named “Jean,” will also be on view in the galleries.

Accompanying public programs will include a free, hourlong lecture by Richard J. Powell, John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University and a distinguished scholar of African American art and art of the African diaspora, at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in the Hirshhorn’s Ring Auditorium. Advance registration for this free program will be required.

Organized by Betsy Johnson, assistant curator at the Hirshhorn, “Basquiat × Banksy” is presented as part of the museum’s 50th-anniversary season.