Jean-Michel Basquiat’s remarkable gift to musician and bartender Randy Gun, Harry’s ABC of Mixing Cocktails, is the revised edition of the 1939 classic bartending guide by Harry MacElhone, with new material by his son, Andrew MacElhone, published by Souvenir Press Ltd., London, in 1986.   One of the unnumbered opening pages of this slim hardbound volume features the artist’s graphite mark below a witty illustration of two elegantly dressed flies in waistcoats, bowties, top hats, gloves and spats, their long wings mimicking the tuxedo tailcoats of a more formal era, namely the Roaring Twenties, when MacElhone took over proprietorship of the bar from its founder.  Above this reads, “This book is respectfully dedicated to all past, present, and future INTERNATIONAL BAR-FLIES”.    While referring to a society of passionate imbibers devoted to Harry’s Bar  - Andrew MacElhone’s introduction refers to the International Bar Flies’ own definition as a “secret and fraternal organization devoted to the uplift and downfall of serious drinkers” -  this may have inspired the artist’s own dedication to Gun on another page of the book. 

   “TO RANDY / FOR THE BEST / BARTENDER IN N.Y. /  JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT [signature] / 1986 /  HARRY’S IS THE / BEST BAR IN / PARIS (MAYBE / WHOLE / THE FREE / WORLD"

The guide includes sections entitled “Arrangement of a Bar”, “Tending Bar” and “Hints to Bartenders” in addition to 300 cocktail recipes.   When considering both the specificity of the book itself, the dedication (Randy is “THE BEST / BARTENDER IN N.Y.”), and the six drawings included within its pages, it is a testament to Basquiat’s relationship to Gun and his respect for both the man and his craft. 

Known to be a generous artist, Basquiat gave paintings and works on paper to many friends, colleagues and to people whom he admired, perhaps most famously gifting the double-portrait, Dos Cabezas, 1982, of himself and Andy Warhol to Warhol hours after their first formal meeting in October 1982.   

Janis Gardner Cecil