Gagosian Brings Eleven Works From Michael Chow's Collection to Beverly Hills and New York

Gagosian, the commercial gallery group with spaces in several cities, will show 11 works from the collection of restaurateur Michael Chow. Many of the pieces are portraits of Chow himself, painted by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Keith Haring and Julian Schnabel.

The show is called "Friends and Legends: The Collection of Michael Chow." It runs in two parts. The first opens on November 4 at Gagosian's Beverly Hills gallery and runs for four days. The second opens on November 14 at the gallery's 980 Madison Avenue address in New York and runs through December 22, according to ArtNews.

Chow is the man behind the Mr. Chow restaurants. He opened the first in London's Knightsbridge district in 1968, then added Beverly Hills in 1974 and New York in 1979. The two cities hosting the show are two of the places where those restaurants became known.

Among the works is Warhol's Portrait of Michael Chow from 1984. It shows Chow across two panels coated in diamond dust, the crushed sparkling powder Warhol often used for shine. Basquiat's untitled portrait of Chow was painted in 1985.

Haring's Mr. Chow as Green Prawns in a Bowl of Noodles dates from 1986. It shows three versions of Chow surrounded by the ingredients of a restaurant dish. Ed Ruscha's Mr. Chow L.A., from 1973, is also in the collection. Ruscha painted it with kitchen ingredients, including egg yolk, soybean paste, beets and coconut milk.

The Basquiat connection goes back further. In 1985, The New York Times reported that Michael and Tina Chow had bought Basquiat's work and later asked him to paint their portraits. The new show brings those paintings back into public view, decades after they were made.

For visitors, the exhibition offers a chance to see the portraits in person, in two cities, over about seven weeks. Anyone planning a trip should check the gallery's listings for opening hours before going.