Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- Between the late 1970s and the early 2000s, hip-hop developed from a New York City urban subculture of African American and Puerto Rican youth into a powerful industry that had become the most widely listened-to music genre internationally. Fred Brathwaite, aka Fab 5 Freddy, was instrumental to this process. Coming out of the street art scene during the 1970s, which included luminaries like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, Brathwaite derived his nickname from his association with the Fabulous 5 graffiti group that painted the sides of the city’s subways. Through graffiti exhibitions that he curated in the galleries and rock clubs of downtown Manhattan, Fab 5 Freddy helped connect street culture with the city’s art scene. In 1988 he became the host of MTV’s first foray into rap: Yo! MTV Raps.
- Jane Dickson painted this portrait in 1982, the same year she co-produced the hip-hop cult movie Wild Style with Fab 5 Freddy and Charlie Ahearn.
- Provenance
- Jane Dickson [1952]; sold to (Steven Harvey Fine Art Projects (SHAFP)), New York.
- Data Source
- National Portrait Gallery
- Artist
- Jane Dickson, born 1952
- Sitter
- Fab 5 Freddy, born 31 Aug 1960
- Date
- 1982
- Credit Line
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
- Medium
- Oil on canvas-backed vinyl
- Dimensions
- Stretcher: 101.9 × 127.3 × 1.9cm (40 1/8 × 50 1/8 × 3/4")
- Type
- Painting
