Manhattan’s first and only whiskey distillery since Prohibition is bringing Basquiat’s iconic artwork back to Great Jones Street, just down the block from the site of his apartment and famous art studio in Noho.
The full collection includes the release of three exclusive bottles featuring Basquiat artwork, “Basquiat’s New York” tasting room and the opening of a specialty pop-up “The Basquiat Bar,” at the Great Jones Distillery, and a capsule collection of specialty merchandise.
The traditional art deco-inspired Great Jones Distilling Co. bottles are getting the ultimate Basquiat upgrade, featuring his iconic “Pez Dispenser” Dinosaur graphic, his “Untitled, 1982” (Skull) and his “Untitled, 1982 (Crown)”. The first two bottles – Great Jones x Jean Michel Basquiat Dinosaur Edition, Great Jones x Jean Michel Basquiat Skull Edition – contain 4-year-old Great Jones Straight Bourbon ($39), available for purchase in liquor stores throughout New York State, the Great Jones Distillery and online retail partners.
The third bottle – Great Jones x Jean Michel Basquiat Pineau de Charentes Wine Cask-Finished Bourbon Distillery Exclusive – with Basquiat’s iconic crown is an entirely new expression, a 7-year-old Pineau de Charentes Wine Cask-Finished Bourbon bottled at 91 proof ($150), available exclusively at the Great Jones Distillery in Noho.
The project also includes a curated collection of merchandise designed and produced by Rome Pays Off, a New York City brand that celebrates art, culture, and individual style.
The Basquiat Bar
The Great Jones speakeasy, which was previously home to its seasonal Whiskey Wonderland, has transformed into The Basquiat Bar, opening August 3rd. A throwback to Basquiat’s New York and one of his favorite watering holes, The Mudd Club, the space highlights photos of Basquiat and friends, and two borrowed original Basquiat prints from Pace Editions.
The Basquiat Bar will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings from 6-10PM reservation-only at Resy, serving a menu of Basquiat-inspired small bites and signature cocktails like The J.M.B featuring Great Jones Straight Bourbon, red bitter aperitivo, molasses, fresh pineapple juice and lime.
Basquiat’s New York Tasting Room
The final element to the distillery experience is Basquiat’s New York, a downtown New York-inspired tasting room housed in the distillery’s multi-sensory Barrel Room. Guests will partake in the whiskey tasting portion of the tour surrounded by oversized Basquiat imagery, larger-than-life decals, and nostalgic items from 1980’s New York.
The “Distilling New York x Basquiat – VIP Tour” will also include a tasting of the Distillery Exclusive cask-finished whiskey and one cocktail at The Basquiat Bar. All Great Jones “Distilling New York” and “Distilling New York x Basquiat – VIP Tour” tours will end in the new Barrel Room space. Other Basquiat-inspired moments at the distillery include a specialty cocktail class (every Wednesday and Saturday) and a bespoke cocktail served at The Tasting Room.
As a Bourbon from New York City – distilled on the same street that Jean-Michel Basquiat called home – we are proud to celebrate the legacy of such an iconic New Yorker. As we look to establish ourselves as a neighbor and fixture on the famous Great Jones Alley, we’re inspired by the artists and tastemakers who impacted the culture of New York City in such a dynamic way. This collection offers consumers a piece of New York history, marrying art and whiskey, within the growing Bourbon category.
Lander Otegui, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Proximo Spirits
This partnership has been created in collaboration with Artestar, a global licensing agency and creative consultancy representing high-profile artists, photographers, designers, and creatives.
Visit GreatJonesDistillingCo.com for more information on the campaign, to purchase Great Jones x Jean-Michel Basquiat bottles, to book a tour at the distillery and follow on social media at @GreatJonesDistillingCo.
About Great Jones Distilling Co.
For more than 100 years, no whiskey distillery has called Manhattan its home. Great Jones Distilling Co. is Manhattan’s first and only legal whiskey distillery since prohibition, which opened in August of 2021. Located at 686 Broadway, Great Jones Distilling Co. is situated in the heart of the historic NoHo neighborhood and abutting the legendary Great Jones Alley, Great Jones Distilling Co. encompasses the collective energy that sets New York City apart from anywhere else with a working distillery, tours, tasting room bar, restaurant (The Grid), speakeasy and retail space. The distillery produces whiskey crafted from 100% New York-sourced grain, which are distilled, aged in new charred American Oak barrels, and bottled by Great Jones Distilling Co. The Great Jones Straight Bourbon Whiskey (86 proof) is a light-to-medium-bodied bourbon with notes of creamy vanilla and a peppery finish. Made with corn, malted barley and rye, and aged a minimum of four years in new charred American oak barrels.
About Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat is one of the best known artists of his generation and is widely considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. His career in art spanned the late 1970s through the 1980s until his death in 1988, at the age of 27.
Basquiat works are edgy and raw, and through a bold sense of color and composition, he maintains a fine balance between seemingly contradictory forces such as control and spontaneity, menace and wit, urban imagery and primitivism. The Basquiat brand embodies the values and aspirations of young, international urban culture.
Basquiat often incorporated words into his paintings. Before his career as a painter began, he produced punk-inspired postcards for sale on the street, and become known for the political–poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO.
The conjunction of various media is an integral element of Basquiat’s art. His paintings are typically covered with text and codes of all kinds: words, letters, numerals, pictograms, logos, map symbols, diagrams and more, and featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery.
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