Jean-Michel Basquiat

Early life: 1960–1977 Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City, the second of four children to Matilde Basquiat (née Andrades, 1934–2008) and Gérard Basquiat (1930–2013). His father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and his mother was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. He was raised Catholic. Matilde instilled a love for art in her young son by taking him to local art museums and enrolling him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Basquiat was a precocious child who learned to read and write by the age of four. His mother encouraged her son's artistic talent and he often tried to draw his favorite cartoons. In 1967, he started attending Saint Ann's School, a private school. There he met his friend Marc Prozzo and together they created a children's book, written by Basquiat at the age of seven and illustrated by Prozzo. In 1968, at the age of seven, Basquiat was hit by a car while playing in the street. His arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, which required a splenectomy. While he was hospitalized, his mother brought him a copy of ''Gray's Anatomy'' to keep him occupied. After his parents separated that year, Basquiat and his sisters were raised by their father. By the age of 11, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish and English, and an avid reader of all three languages. Basquiat's family resided in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill and then, in 1974, moved to Miramar, Puerto Rico. When they returned to Brooklyn in 1976, Basquiat attended Edward R. Murrow High School. He struggled to deal with his mother's instability and rebelled as a teenager. He would skip school with his friends, but still received encouragement from his teachers, and began to write and illustrate for the school newspaper. He developed the character SAMO to endorse a faux religion. The saying "SAMO" had started as a private joke between Basquiat and his schoolmate Al Diaz, as an abbreviation for the phrase "Same old shit." They drew a series of cartoons for their school paper before and after using SAMO©. Working under the pseudonym SAMO, they inscribed poetic and satirical advertising slogans such as "SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GOD." At 17, his father kicked him out of the house when he decided to drop out of school. On December 11, 1978, The Village Voice published an article about the SAMO graffiti. In 1979, Basquiat appeared on the live public-access television show TV Party hosted by Glenn O'Brien. Basquiat and O'Brien formed a friendship and he made regular appearances on the show over the next few years. Other members of Gray included Shannon Dawson, Nick Taylor, Wayne Clifford and Vincent Gallo. They performed at nightclubs such as Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Hurrah and the Mudd Club. He often copied diagrams of chemical compounds borrowed from Adler's science textbooks. She documented Basquiat's creative explorations as he transformed the floors, walls, doors and furniture into his artworks. He also made postcards with his friend Jennifer Stein. While selling postcards in SoHo, Basquiat spotted Andy Warhol at W.P.A. restaurant with art critic Henry Geldzahler. In October 1979, at Arleen Schloss's open space called A's, Basquiat showed his SAMO montages using color Xerox copies of his works. Schloss allowed Basquiat to use the space to create his "MAN MADE" clothing, which were painted upcycled garments. In November 1979, costume designer Patricia Field carried his clothing line in her upscale boutique on 8th Street in Greenwich Village. Field also displayed his sculptures in the store window. When Basquiat and Diaz had a falling out, he inscribed "SAMO IS DEAD" on the walls of SoHo buildings in 1980. In June 1980, he appeared in High Times magazine, his first national publication, as part of an article titled "Graffiti '80: The State of the Outlaw Art" by Glenn O'Brien. Later that year, he began filming O'Brien's independent film Downtown 81 (2000), originally titled New York Beat, which featured some of Gray's recordings on its soundtrack. Rise to fame and success: 1980–1986 In June 1980, Basquiat participated in The Times Square Show, a multi-artist exhibition sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated (Colab) and Fashion Moda. He was noticed by various critics and curators, including Jeffrey Deitch, who mentioned him in an article titled "Report from Times Square" in the September 1980 issue of Art in America. In February 1981, Basquiat participated in the New York/New Wave exhibition, curated by Diego Cortez at New York's P.S.1. Italian artist Sandro Chia recommended Basquiat's work to Italian dealer Emilio Mazzoli, who promptly bought 10 paintings for Basquiat to have a show at his gallery in Modena, Italy, in May 1981. During this period, Basquiat painted many pieces on objects he found in the streets, such as discarded doors. Basquiat sold his first painting, Cadillac Moon (1981), to Debbie Harry, lead singer of the punk rock band Blondie, for $200 after they had filmed Downtown 81 together. He also appeared as a disc jockey in the 1981 Blondie music video "Rapture", a role originally intended for Grandmaster Flash. At the time, Basquiat was living with his girlfriend, Suzanne Mallouk, who financially supported him as a waitress. In September 1981, art dealer Annina Nosei invited Basquiat to join her gallery at the suggestion of Sandro Chia. She provided him with materials and a space to work in the basement of her gallery. He had his first American one-man show at the Annina Nosei Gallery in March 1982. That show was canceled, with Basquiat saying he felt exploited because he was expected to make eight paintings in one week. In June 1982, at 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany. His works were exhibited alongside Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol. Bischofberger gave Basquiat a one-man show at his Zurich gallery in September 1982, and arranged for him to meet Warhol for lunch on October 4, 1982. Warhol recalled, "I took a Polaroid and he went home and within two hours a painting was back, still wet, of him and me together." Basquiat was photographed by James Van Der Zee for an interview with Henry Geldzahler published in the January 1983 issue of Warhol's Interview magazine. in NoHo, where he died. A plaque commemorating his life was placed outside the building in 2016; the block was named "Jean-Michel Basquiat Way" in 2025. In November 1982, Basquiat's solo exhibition opened at the Fun Gallery in the East Village. Among the works exhibited were A Panel of Experts (1982) and Equals Pi (1982). In early December 1982, Basquiat began working at the Market Street studio space that art dealer Larry Gagosian had built below his Venice Beach, California home. In Los Angeles, Basquiat frequented the Whisky a Go Go and Tail o' the Pup with his friend artist George Condo. There, Basquiat commenced a series of paintings for a March 1983 show, his second at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood. Gagosian recalled: "Everything was going along fine. Jean-Michel was making paintings, I was selling them, and we were having a lot of fun. But then one day Jean-Michel said, 'My girlfriend is coming to stay with me.' ... So I said, 'Well, what's she like?' And he said, 'Her name is Madonna and she's going to be huge.' I'll never forget that he said that." Basquiat took considerable interest in the work that artist Robert Rauschenberg was producing at Gemini G.E.L. in West Hollywood. He often painted portraits of other graffiti artists—and sometimes collaborators—in works such as Portrait of A-One A.K.A. King (1982), Toxic (1984), and ERO (1984). In 1983, he produced the hip-hop record "Beat Bop" featuring Rammellzee and rapper K-Rob. It was pressed in limited quantities on his Tartown Inc. imprint. He created the cover art for the single, making it highly desirable among both record and art collectors., Basquiat, Bruno Bischofberger, and Francesco Clemente in 1984 In March 1983, at 22 years of age, Basquiat became one of the youngest artists to participate in the Whitney Biennial exhibition of contemporary art. Paige Powell, an associate publisher for Interview magazine, organized a show of his work at her friend's New York apartment in April 1983. Shortly after, he began a relationship with Powell, who was instrumental in fostering his friendship with Warhol. In August 1983, Basquiat moved into a loft owned by Warhol at 57 Great Jones Street in NoHo, which also served as a studio. In the summer of 1983, Basquiat invited Lee Jaffe, a former musician in Bob Marley's band, to join him on a trip throughout Asia and Europe. On returning to New York, Basquiat was deeply affected by the death of Michael Stewart, an aspiring black artist in the downtown club scene who was killed by transit police in September 1983. He painted Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) (1983) in response to the incident. He also participated in a Christmas benefit with various New York artists for the family of Michael Stewart in 1983. Having joined the Mary Boone's SoHo gallery in 1983, Basquiat had his first show there in May 1984. A large number of photographs depict a collaboration between Warhol and Basquiat in 1984 and 1985. When they collaborated, Warhol would start with something very concrete or a recognizable image and then Basquiat defaced it in his animated style. They made an homage to the 1984 Summer Olympics with Olympics (1984). Other collaborations include Taxi, 45th/Broadway (1984–85) and Zenith (1985). Their joint exhibition, Paintings, at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, caused a rift in their friendship after it was panned by critics, and Basquiat was called Warhol's "mascot". Basquiat often painted in expensive Armani suits and would appear in public in the same paint-splattered clothes. He was a regular at the Area nightclub, where he sometimes worked the turntables as a DJ for fun. He also painted murals for the Palladium nightclub in New York City. His swift rise to fame was covered in the media. He appeared on the cover of the February 10, 1985, issue of The New York Times Magazine in a feature titled "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist". His work appeared in GQ and Esquire, and he was interviewed for MTV's "Art Break" segment. In 1985, he walked the runway for the Comme des Garçons Spring fashion show in New York. In the mid-1980s, Basquiat was earning $1.4 million a year and he was receiving lump sums of $40,000 from art dealers. Despite his success, his emotional instability continued to haunt him. "The more money Basquiat made, the more paranoid and deeply involved with drugs he became," wrote journalist Michael Shnayerson. For what would be his last exhibition on the West Coast, Basquiat returned to Los Angeles for his show at the Gagosian Gallery in January 1986. In February 1986, Basquiat traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for an exhibition of his drawings at Fay Gold Gallery. That month, he participated in Limelight's Art Against Apartheid benefit. In the summer, he had a solo exhibition at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg, Austria. He was also invited to walk the runway for Rei Kawakubo again, this time at the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus fashion show in Paris. In October 1986, Basquiat flew to Ivory Coast for an exhibition of his work organized by Bruno Bischofberger at the French Cultural Institute in Abidjan. He was accompanied by his girlfriend Jennifer Goode, who worked at his frequent hangout, Area nightclub. In November 1986, at 25 years old, Basquiat became the youngest artist given an exhibition at Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany. Final years and death: 1986–1988 During their relationship, Goode began snorting heroin with Basquiat, since drugs were at her disposal. She said: "He didn't push it on me, but it was just there and I was so naïve." In January 1988, Basquiat traveled to Paris for his exhibition at the Yvon Lambert Gallery and to Düsseldorf for an exhibition at the Hans Mayer Gallery. They made plans to travel together to Watts' birthplace, Korhogo, that summer. Following his exhibition at the Vrej Baghoomian Gallery in New York in April 1988, Basquiat traveled to Maui in June to withdraw from drug use. Despite attempts at sobriety, Basquiat died at the age of 27 of a heroin overdose at his home on Great Jones Street in Manhattan on August 12, 1988. in Brooklyn, New York Basquiat is buried at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. The funeral was attended by immediate family and close friends, including Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Glenn O'Brien, and Basquiat's former girlfriend Paige Powell. A public memorial was held at Saint Peter's Church on November 3, 1988. Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk recited sections of A. R. Penck's "Poem for Basquiat" and his friend Fab 5 Freddy read a poem by Langston Hughes. The 300 guests included musicians John Lurie and Arto Lindsay, Keith Haring, poet David Shapiro, Glenn O'Brien, and members of Basquiat's former band Gray. In memory of the late artist, Keith Haring created the painting A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat. In the obituary Haring wrote for Vogue, he stated: "He truly created a lifetime of works in ten years. Greedily, we wonder what else he might have created, what masterpieces we have been cheated out of by his death, but the fact is that he has created enough work to intrigue generations to come. Only now will people begin to understand the magnitude of his contribution." ==Artistry==

Art critic Franklin Sirmans analyzed that Basquiat appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. His social commentary was acutely political and direct in its criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. Art historian Fred Hoffman hypothesizes that the underlying of Basquiat's self-identification as an artist was his "innate capacity to function as something like an oracle, distilling his perceptions of the outside world down to their essence and, in turn, projecting them outward through his creative act", and that his art focused on recurrent "suggestive dichotomies" such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. Basquiat primarily used texts as reference sources. A few of the books he used were ''Gray's Anatomy'', Henry Dreyfuss' Symbol Sourcebook, Leonardo da Vinci published by Reynal & Company, and Burchard Brentjes' African Rock Art, Flash of the Spirit by Robert Farris Thompson. A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery. The years 1984 to 1985 were also the period of the Basquiat–Warhol collaborations. Drawings , Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984) In his short but prolific career, Basquiat produced around 1,500 drawings, around 600 paintings, and many sculpture and mixed media works. He drew constantly and often used objects around him as surfaces when paper was not immediately at hand. Since childhood, he produced cartoon-inspired drawings when encouraged by his mother's interest in art, and drawing became a part of his expression as an artist. He drew in many different media, most commonly ink, pencil, felt-tip or marker, and oil-stick. He sometimes used Xerox copies of fragments of his drawings to paste onto the canvases of larger paintings. The first public showing of Basquiat's paintings and drawings was in 1981 at the MoMA PS1 New York/New Wave exhibition. Rene Ricard's article "Radiant Child" in Artforum magazine brought Basquiat to the attention of the art world. Basquiat immortalized Ricard in two drawings, Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984) and René Ricard (1984). A poet as well as an artist, words featured heavily in his drawings and paintings, with direct references to racism, slavery, the people and street scene of 1980s New York, black historical figures, famous musicians, and athletes, as his notebooks and many important drawings demonstrate. Often Basquiat's drawings were untitled, and as such, to differentiate works, a word written within the drawing is commonly in parentheses after Untitled. After Basquiat died, his estate was controlled by his father Gérard Basquiat, who also oversaw the committee that authenticated artworks, and operated from 1994 to 2012 to review over 2000 works, the majority of which were drawings. Heroes and saints A prominent theme in Basquiat's work is the portrayal of historically prominent black figures, who were identified as heroes and saints. His early works often featured the iconographic depiction of crowns and halos to distinguish heroes and saints in his specially chosen pantheon. Reviewing Basquiat's show at the Bilbao Guggenheim, Art Daily noted that "Basquiat's crown is a changeable symbol: at times a halo and at others a crown of thorns, emphasizing the martyrdom that often goes hand in hand with sainthood. For Basquiat, these heroes and saints are warriors, occasionally rendered triumphant with arms raised in victory." Basquiat was particularly a fan of bebop and cited saxophonist Charlie Parker as a hero. Death and marginalization '' (1981)In his exploration of death and marginalization, Basquiat's portrayal of dismembered black bodies serves as a radical commentary on the trauma of displacement and the alienation experienced by African Americans. His depiction of anatomical parts, such as exposed internal organs and skeletal structures, mirrors the violent fragmentation of black identity under systemic racism. Basquiat's repeated use of skulls and corpses underscores the existential anxiety of blackness in a society that dehumanizes and objectifies the black body. A major reference source used by Basquiat throughout his career was the book ''Gray's Anatomy'', which his mother had given him while he was in the hospital when he was seven. Heads and skulls are significant focal points of many of Basquiat's most seminal works. Heads in works like Untitled (Two Heads on Gold) (1982) and Philistines (1982) are reminiscent of African masks, suggesting a cultural reclamation. In reference to the potent image depicted in Untitled (Skull) (1981), art historian Fred Hoffman writes that Basquiat was likely "caught off guard, possibly even frightened, by the power and energy emanating from this unexpected image." Heritage Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage was one of his many sources of inspiration. He often incorporated Spanish words into his artworks like Untitled (Pollo Frito) (1982) and Sabado por la Noche (1984). Basquiat's La Hara (1981), a menacing portrait of a white police officer, combines the Nuyorican slang term for police (la jara) and the Irish surname O'Hara. The black-hatted figure that appears in his paintings The Guilt of Gold Teeth (1982) and Despues De Un Pun (1987) is believed to represent Baron Samedi, the spirit of death and resurrection in Haitian Vodou. Basquiat has various works deriving from African-American history, namely Slave Auction (1982), Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta (1983), El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983), and Jim Crow (1986). Another painting, Irony of Negro Policeman (1981), illustrates how African-Americans have been controlled by a predominantly white society. Basquiat sought to portray that African-Americans have become complicit with the "institutionalized forms of whiteness and corrupt white regimes of power" years after the Jim Crow era had ended. This concept has been reiterated in additional Basquiat works, including Created Equal (1984). In the essay "Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix", Kellie Jones posits that Basquiat's "mischievous, complex, and neologistic side, with regard to the fashioning of modernity and the influence and effluence of black culture" are often elided by critics and viewers, and thus "lost in translation." Blackness, identity, and aesthetics Basquiat's artwork stands at the intersection of blackness, identity, and aesthetics, grappling with complex questions of representation and self-reflexivity. His work disrupts the boundaries of high art, redefining the aesthetics of black identity through distinctive use of symbols, language, and visual style. Basquiat's engagement with black identity is inseparable from his exploration of a commodified American Africanism. His oeuvre, which includes graffiti under the moniker "SAMO©", critiques mainstream racial representations and constructs a fluid African American identity. Through his "economies of accumulation", Basquiat challenges the simplified constructions of blackness, rejecting the essentialist narratives imposed by the art world. His art incorporates motifs that signify historical and modern racial struggles, rendering the African American experience as both a subject of critique and aesthetic innovation. Basquiat's artwork serves as a method of identity formation, navigating the ontological and aesthetic challenges posed by blackness. His depictions of the black body resist reductive racial representations, instead offering a vibrant, complex subjectivity that reclaims blackness from its "aesthetic colonization". Basquiat's use of graffiti and street art, often marginalized within the traditional art world, communicates stories of resistance and identity that resonate with the broader African diaspora. Moreover, Basquiat's artworks evoke a historical and political consciousness, often referencing figures from both the African American cultural pantheon and Western scientific history. His 1983 piece Untitled (Charles Darwin) juxtaposes the legacy of evolutionary science with broader themes of marginality, connecting the legacies of Darwin, Huxley, and Mendel to the commodification of blackness and the manipulation of scientific discourse for socio-political ends. This interplay between science and art highlights how Basquiat critiques both racial and intellectual histories, revealing their entanglement in narratives of oppression and commodification. Finally, Basquiat's relationship with hip-hop culture further enriches his aesthetic of blackness. His collaborations with artists from the hip-hop generation, such as Fab 5 Freddy and Lady Pink, emphasize the fusion of neo-expressionism with the rhythmic, improvisational qualities of hip-hop. This synthesis of art and music positions Basquiat as a figure who not only represented blackness but actively participated in shaping its cultural expression during the 1980s. His works, much like the art of graffiti, blur the lines between high art and street culture, reinforcing the legitimacy of non-traditional forms of black expression. ==Reception==

Shortly after his death, The New York Times indicated that Basquiat was "the most famous of only a small number of young black artists who have achieved national recognition." Traditionally, the interpretation of Basquiat's works at the visual level comes from the subdued emotional tone of what they represent compared to what is actually depicted. For example, the figures in his paintings, as stated by writer Stephen Metcalf, "are shown frontally, with little or no depth of field, and nerves and organs are exposed, as in an anatomy textbook. Are these creatures dead and being clinically dissected, one wonders, or alive and in immense pain?" A second recurrent reference to Basquiat's aesthetics comes from the artist's intention to share, in the words of gallerist Niru Ratnam, a "highly individualistic, expressive view of the world". Art historian Luis Alberto Mejia Clavijo believes Basquiat's work inspires people to "paint like a child, don't paint what is in the surface but what you are re-creating inside. Musician David Bowie, who was a collector of Basquiat's works, stated that "he seemed to digest the frenetic flow of passing image and experience, put them through some kind of internal reorganization and dress the canvas with this resultant network of chance." In the 1980s, art critic Robert Hughes dismissed Basquiat's work as absurd. He attributed the Basquiat phenomenon to be a mixture of hype, overproduction, and a greedy art market. In a 1997 review for The Daily Telegraph, art critic Hilton Kramer begins by stating that Basquiat had no idea what the word "quality" meant. He relentlessly criticized Basquiat as a "talentless hustler" and "street-smart but otherwise invincibly ignorant", arguing that he "used his youth, his looks, his skin colour and his abundant sex appeal to win an overnight fame that proved to be his undoing" and that art dealers of the time were "as ignorant about art as Basquiat himself." In saying that Basquiat's work never rose above "that lowly artistic station" of graffiti "even when his paintings were fetching enormous prices", Kramer argued that graffiti art "acquired a cult status in certain New York art circles." He further opined, "As a result of the campaign waged by these art-world entrepreneurs on Basquiat's behalf—and their own, of course—there was never any doubt that the museums, the collectors and the media would fall into line" when talking about the marketing of Basquiat's name. ==Exhibitions==

Basquiat's first public exhibition was at The Times Square Show in New York in June 1980. In late 1981, he joined the Annina Nosei Gallery in New York, where he had his first American one-man show from March 6 to April 1, 1982. In 1982, he also had shows at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, and the Fun Gallery in the East Village. Major exhibitions of his work have included Jean-Michel Basquiat: Paintings 1981–1984 at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, in 1984, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 1985. In 1985, the University Art Museum, Berkeley hosted Basquiat's first solo American museum exhibition. His work was showcased at Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover in 1987 and 1989. The first retrospective of his work was held by the Baghoomian Gallery in New York from October to November 1989. His first museum retrospective, Jean-Michel Basquiat, was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from October 1992 to February 1993. The show was sponsored by AT&T, MTV and Basquiat's former girlfriend Madonna. It subsequently traveled to the Menil Collection in Texas; the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa; and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama, from 1993 to 1994. The exhibition's catalog was edited by Richard Marshall and included several essays from different perspectives. In 1996, Madonna sponsored an exhibition of his work at the Serpentine Gallery in London. In March 2005, the retrospective Basquiat was mounted by the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. From October 2006 to January 2007, the first Basquiat exhibition in Puerto Rico was held at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, produced by ArtPremium, Corinne Timsit and Eric Bonici. In 2016, the Brooklyn Museum organized and presented Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, the first major viewing of Basquiat's sketches, poetry, notetaking, and overall artist's book practice. The show traveled to the Pérez Art Museum Miami later on. A monograph featuring essays by Pérez Art Museum Miami executive director, the art historian Franklin Sirmans and Henry Louis Gates, was published in the occasion of this exhibition Basquiat remains an important source of inspiration for a younger generation of contemporary artists all over the world, such as Rita Ackermann and Kader Attia—as shown, for example, at the exhibition Street and Studio: From Basquiat to Séripop co-curated by Cathérine Hug and Thomas Mießgang and previously exhibited at Kunsthalle Wien, Austria, in 2010. Basquiat and the Bayou, a 2014 show presented by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, focused on the artist's works with themes of the American South. The Brooklyn Museum exhibited Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks in 2015. In 2017, Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980 exhibited as Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, which displayed works created during the year Basquiat lived with his friend Alexis Adler. In 2019, the Brant Foundation in New York, hosted an extensive exhibition of Basquiat's works with free admission. All 50,000 tickets were claimed before the exhibition opened, so additional tickets were released. In June 2019, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented ''Basquiat's "Defacement": The Untold Story. Later that year, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne opened the exhibition Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines. In 2020, the Lotte Museum of Art mounted the first major exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Seoul. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibited Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation'' from October 2020 to July 2021. Basquiat's family curated Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, an immersive exhibition with over 200 never-before-seen and rarely shown works. King Pleasure debuted at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, New York in April 2022. In March 2023, the exhibition traveled to the Grand LA in Los Angeles. In 2022, the Albertina presented the first museum retrospective of Basquiat's work in Austria. The exhibition Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music was mounted at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2022. In 2023, the show traveled to Paris as Basquiat Soundtracks at the Philharmonie de Paris. Later that year, the Brant Foundation held the exhibition Basquiat X Warhol at their East Village location. In 2024, the gallery Hauser & Wirth presented "Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin", Jean-Michel Basquiat's first solo exhibition dedicated to the paintings he created in and inspired by his visits to Switzerland at Hauser & Wirth's St. Moritz gallery. ==Art market==

Basquiat sold his first painting to singer Debbie Harry for $200 in 1981. In 1984, it was reported that in two years his work appreciated in value by 500%. In the mid-1980s, Basquiat was earning $1.4 million a year as an artist. Since Basquiat's death in 1988, the market for his work has developed steadily—in line with overall art market trends—with a dramatic peak in 2007 when, at the height of the art market boom, the global auction volume for his work was over $115 million. Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of Christie's, described Basquiat's market as "two-tiered ... The most coveted material is rare, generally dating from the best period, 1981–83." Until 2002, the highest amount paid for an original work of Basquiat's was $3.3 million for Self-Portrait (1982), which was sold at Christie's in 1998. In 2002, Profit I (1982) was sold at Christie's by drummer Lars Ulrich of the heavy metal band Metallica for $5.5 million. The proceedings of the auction were documented in the 2004 film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster. Between 2007 and 2012, the price of Basquiat's work continued to steadily increase up to $16.3 million. The sale of Untitled (1981) for $20.1 million in 2012 elevated his market to a new stratosphere and soon other works in his oeuvre outpaced that record. His painting, Untitled (1981), depicting a fisherman, sold for $26.4 million in 2012. In 2013, Dustheads (1982) sold for $48.8 million at Christie's. In 2016, Air Power, part of David Bowie's art collection, was sold at auction for nearly $9 million. Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa purchased Untitled (1982), depicting a devil-like figure, for $57.3 million at Christie's in 2017. He later sold the painting for $85 million at Phillips in 2022. Maezawa also purchased Basquiat's Untitled (1982), a powerful depiction of a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, for a record-setting $110.5 million in May 2017. It is the second-highest price ever paid at an auction for artwork by an American artist. In 2018, Flexible (1984) sold for $45.3 million, becoming Basquiat's first post-1983 painting to surpass the $20 million mark. In June 2020, Untitled (Head) (1982), sold for $15.2 million; a record for a Sotheby's online sale and a record for a Basquiat work on paper. In July 2020, Loïc Gouzer's Fair Warning app announced that an untitled drawing on paper sold for $10.8 million, which is a record high for an in-app purchase. Earlier that year, American businessman Ken Griffin purchased Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) for upwards of $100 million from art collector Peter Brant. In March 2021, Warrior (1982) sold for $41.8 million at Christie's in Hong Kong, which is the most expensive Western work of art sold at auction in Asia. In May 2021, In This Case (1983) sold for $93.1 million at Christie's in New York. Later that year, Donut Revenge (1982) sold for $20.9 million at Christie's in Hong Kong. After reaching a record high of $439.6 million in 2021, Basquiat's annual auction sales fell 50% in 2022. Nevertheless, his art is still in high demand. In 2022, Sugar Ray Robinson (1982) sold for $32.6 million at Christie's. In 2023, El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983) sold for $67.1 million at Christie's, and Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two) (1982) sold for $42 million at Sotheby's. In 2024, Untitled (ELMAR) sold for $46.5 million at Phillips. Authentication committee The authentication committee of the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat was formed by the Robert Miller Gallery, the gallery that was assigned to handle Basquiat's estate after his death, in part to wage battle against the growing number of fakes and forgeries in the Basquiat market. The cost of the committee's opinion was $100. In 2008, the authentication committee was sued by collector Gerard De Geer, who claimed the committee breached its contract by refusing to offer an opinion on the authenticity of the painting Fuego Flores (1983). After the lawsuit was dismissed, the committee ruled the work genuine. In January 2012, the committee announced that after eighteen years it would dissolve in September of that year and no longer consider applications. In June 2002, New York artist Alfredo Martinez was charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with attempting to deceive two art dealers by selling them $185,000 worth of fake Basquiat drawings. The charges against Martinez, which landed him in prison for 21 months, involved a scheme to sell drawings he copied from authentic artworks, accompanied by forged certificates of authenticity. Martinez claimed he had been selling fake Basquiat drawings for 18 years. In 2007, Christie's was sued by art collector Guido Orsi and art dealer Tony Shafrazi, for allegedly selling Shafrazi a fake Basquiat, which Orsi later purchased. Christie's rejected the charge, and the case was dismissed in November 2011. In 2007, Basquiat's painting Hannibal (1982) was seized by federal authorities as part of an embezzlement scheme by convicted Brazilian money launderer and former banker Edemar Cid Ferreira. Ferreira had purchased the painting with illegally acquired funds while he controlled Banco Santos in Brazil. The painting was later sold at Sotheby's for $13.1 million in 2016. In March 2014, Basquiat's sisters filed a $1 million lawsuit against Christie's, claiming the auction house tried to sell fake Basquiat artworks and falsely suggested they were approved by the artist's estate. In 2020, a Los Angeles man, Philip Bennet Righter, pled guilty to art fraud after trying to sell forged paintings by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Also in 2020, in France, an exhibition of drawings attributed to Basquiat at the Volcano gallery in Nuits-Saint-Georges was disputed. In February 2022, the Orlando Museum of Art mounted the controversial exhibition Heroes & Monsters, which consisted of 25 cardboard works that were claimed to have been sold by Basquiat directly to screenwriter Thad Mumford in 1982, and then placed in storage, where they remained until being rediscovered in 2012. The paintings were seized in a raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2022. The New York Times obtained an affidavit that revealed Mumford signed a declaration in the presence of federal agents stating that "at no time in the 1980s or any other time did I meet with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and at no time did I acquire or purchase any paintings from him." Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman confessed to creating a suite of 25 Basquiat forgeries that wound up at the Orlando Museum of Art and was sentenced to community service and probation. In 2023, Florida art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for a money laundering scheme to sell counterfeit contemporary artworks, including pieces purportedly by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Banksy. == Sexuality ==

Basquiat had romantic relationships with many women, including singer Madonna. Although he never publicly identified as bisexual, a few of his friends have stated that he had sexual relationships with men. Joey Arias said he saw Basquiat naked with Klaus Nomi in Nomi's New York City apartment. Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk described his sexual interest as "not monochromatic. It did not rely on visual stimulation, such as a pretty girl. It was a very rich multichromatic sexuality. He was attracted to people for all different reasons. They could be boys, girls, thin, fat, pretty, ugly ... He was attracted to intelligence more than anything and to pain." Biographer Phoebe Hoban wrote on Basquiat's first sexual experiences, which were with men. When Basquiat was a minor in Puerto Rico he was orally raped by a barber dressed in drag, then he got involved with a deejay. Art critic Rene Ricard, who helped launch Basquiat's career, said that Basquiat was into everything and had "turned tricks" in Condado when he lived in Puerto Rico. As a teenager, Basquiat told a friend that he worked as a prostitute on 42nd Street in Manhattan when he ran away from home. Andy Warhol said Basquiat had refused to go with him and Keith Haring to Rounds, a gay hustler bar, because it brought back bad memories of when he was hustling. ==Legacy==

in Paris Basquiat's estate was administered by his father, Gerard Basquiat, until his passing in 2013. His work had a significant impact on the street art and hip hop scene, and has been noted as an influence on a range of contemporary artists including Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and Halim Flowers. In 2015, Basquiat was featured on the cover of Vanity Fairs Art and Artists Special Edition. In 2016, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation placed a plaque commemorating Basquiat's life outside his former residence at 57 Great Jones Street in Manhattan. On October 21, 2025, the block of 57 Great Jones Street (between Bowery and Lafayette) was named "Jean-Michel Basquiat Way." In 2017, Basquiat was posthumously awarded the key to the city of Brooklyn by Borough President Eric Adams and honored on the Celebrity Path at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Before the exhibition Basquiat: Boom for Real at London's Barbican Centre in 2017, graffiti artist Banksy created two murals inspired by Basquiat on the walls of the Barbican. The first mural depicts Basquiat's painting Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) being searched by two police officers. The second mural depicts a carousel with the carriages replaced with Basquiat's signature crown motif. In 2018, a public square in the 13th arrondissement of Paris was named Place Jean-Michel Basquiat in his memory. For the 2020–21 NBA season, the Brooklyn Nets honored Basquiat with their City Edition uniform and a court design inspired by his art. In 2021, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation funded a Basquiat educational arts program developed in partnership between the Brooklyn Nets, the New York City Department of Education and the Fund for Public Schools. The Nets used a white version of the Basquiat City Edition uniform for the 2022–23 NBA season. Fashion In 2007, Basquiat was listed among GQs 50 Most Stylish Men of the Past 50 Years. Basquiat often painted in expensive Armani suits and he did a photo shoot for Issey Miyake. Comme des Garçons was one of his favorite brands; he was a model for the Spring 1986 fashion show in New York and the Homme Plus Spring/Summer 1987 fashion show in Paris. To commemorate Basquiat's runway appearances, Comme des Garçons featured his prints in the brand's Fall/Winter 2018 collection. In 2015, Basquiat was featured on the cover of T: The New York Times Style Magazine Men's Style issue. Valentino's Fall/Winter 2006 collection paid homage to Basquiat. Sean John created a capsule collection for the 30th anniversary of Basquiat's death in 2018. Apparel and accessories companies that have featured Basquiat's work include Uniqlo, Urban Outfitters, Supreme, Herschel Supply Co., Alice + Olivia, Olympia Le-Tan, DAEM, Coach New York, and Saint Laurent. Footwear companies such as Dr. Martens, Reebok, In 2021, luxury jewelry company Tiffany & Co. partnered with American singer Beyoncé and rapper Jay-Z to promote the company's "About Love" campaign. The campaign incorporated Tiffany's recently acquired painting, Equals Pi (1982), by Basquiat. The painting heavily features a color close to the company's signature robin egg blue. The campaign was met with criticism from the artist's friends and colleagues. In 2022, Basquiat's estate partnered with Black Fashion Fair for a limited-run capsule collection, which was on view at the exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure in New York City. His hair has been imitated by Canadian pop singer The Weeknd and American rapper and businessman Jay-Z. Film, television, and theater Basquiat starred in Downtown 81, a vérité movie written by Glenn O'Brien and shot by Edo Bertoglio in 1980–81, but not released until 2000. Without Walls: Shooting Star, a British documentary by Geoff Dunlop on Basquiat's life, aired on Channel 4 in 1990. In 1996, painter Julian Schnabel made his filmmaking debut with the biopic Basquiat. It stars Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat and David Bowie as Andy Warhol. Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a documentary film directed by Tamra Davis, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was shown on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2011. Sara Driver directed the documentary film Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. In 2018, PBS aired the documentary Basquiat: Rage to Riches as part of the American Masters series. In 2022, it was reported that actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. will star as Basquiat in an upcoming biopic titled Samo Lives, which will be written, directed and produced by Julius Onah. It was also announced that actor Stephan James will star and co-produce a limited series about Basquiat. In 2022, The Collaboration, a play by Anthony McCarten about Basquiat and Warhol debuted at London's Young Vic Theatre with Jeremy Pope portraying Basquiat, and Paul Bettany as Warhol. The play then moved to Broadway, for a limited run from December 2022 through March 2023, again starring Bettany and Pope, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club. The pair have also reprised their roles in a film version. Roger Guenveur Smith wrote, directed, and performed the solo show In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a tribute to Basquiat, whom he was friends with. Literature In 1991, poet Kevin Young published the book To Repel Ghosts, a compendium of 117 poems relating to Basquiat's life, individual paintings, and social themes found in the artist's work. He published a "remix" of the book in 2005. In 1993, a children's book was released titled ''Life Doesn't Frighten Me'', which combines a poem written by Maya Angelou with art made by Basquiat. In 1998, journalist Phoebe Hoban published the unauthorized biography Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art. In 2005, poet M. K. Asante published the poem "SAMO", dedicated to Basquiat, in his book Beautiful. And Ugly Too. The children's book Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, written and illustrated by Javaka Steptoe, was released in 2016. The picture book won the Caldecott Medal in 2017. In 2019, illustrator Paolo Parisi wrote the graphic novel Basquiat: A Graphic Novel, following Basquiat's journey from street-art legend SAMO to international art-scene darling, up until his death. Music Guitarist Vernon Reid of the funk metal band Living Colour wrote a song called "Desperate People", released on their album Vivid, which addresses the drug scene of New York during the mid-1980s. Reid was inspired to write the song after receiving a phone call from Greg Tate informing him that Basquiat had overdosed. The song Basquiat by Nigerian musician Asake on his 2023 Album Work of Art was written as a reference to Jean-Michel Basquiat. In August 2014, Revelation 13:18 released the single "Old School", featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat, along with the self-titled album Revelation 13:18 x Basquiat. The release date of "Old School" coincided with the anniversary of Basquiat's death. In 2020, New York rock band the Strokes used Basquiat's painting Bird on Money (1981) as the cover art for their album The New Abnormal. ==See also==