The Business of Basquiat: How an Artist Became a Brand, with Doug Woodham

What does it take to turn a kid from Brooklyn into a multi-billion dollar global asset class? Doug Woodham knows. A former McKinsey partner, Christie's president for the Americas, and PhD economist, Doug is one of the few people alive who can speak to both the cultural and financial mechanics of how Jean-Michel Basquiat went from downtown New York scenester to the most licensed, collected, and commodified artist of the past century. In this conversation, we get into the estate's iron grip on the narrative, the client pyramid theory of artist branding, Keith Haring's forgotten Pop Shop, and why the art market may be losing its cultural relevance. Essential listening for anyone who thinks about art, money, and legacy.Show Notes:Why nobody wanted to buy Basquiat in the early 1990s — and what changedThe identity pivot that resuscitated his marketMadonna, Warhol, and the marketing gold of coolKeith Haring's Pop Shop — the forgotten origin of artist licensingGerard Basquiat's masterful and controlling estate strategyThe client pyramid — how artists monetize every level of their audienceMurakami, Kusama, Arsham, Koons — the new generation of artist-brandsWhy the art market is shrinking in cultural relevanceWhat new collectors should know before spending serious moneyEpisode recorded April 8, 2026