Benjamin Sutton
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A public square in Paris’s 13th arrondissement will be named after Jean-Michel Basquiat after the French capital’s City Council approved a proposal from Jérôme Coumet, the 13th arrondissement’s mayor.
“Basquiat is one of the biggest contemporary artists,” Coumet told Le Figaro. “He defended the cause of African-Americans in the US, and was also a lover of France. He was the artist who blazed the trail for street art, and art in public space.”
The 13th arrondissement has become a destination for its wealth of street art—including the recently demolished Tour Paris 13—and already features several streets named after artists, like the Rue Paul Klee and Rue Marcel Duchamp.
“The 13th already has a number of streets with the names of artists and intellectuals,” Coumet said. “Basquiat has his place among them.”
The future Place Jean-Michel Basquiat is currently under construction, and will be christened with its new name at an as-yet unspecified date.
Also approved in the same session of the council of the 13th arrondissement on June 10: Rue Jacques Lacan.
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