Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter in the 1980s. His work and style received critical acclaim for the fusion of words, symbols, stick figures, and animals.

Young Jean-Michel

• Born December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY
• Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother noticed his artistic abilities when he was four.
• By the age of 11, Basquiat was fully fluent in French, Spanish and English.
• Attended Saint Ann's, an art-oriented private school and was a competent athlete in track and field.

Early Artistic Influence

• At the age seven, Jean-Michel was hit by a car while playing in the street.
• While he had to undergo a splenectomy, his mother brought him a book to read, Gray's Anatomy, to keep him occupied during his stay in the hospital.

Hard-Knock Life

• At thirteen, his parents split and Jean had to live with his father as his mother was admitted into a mental institution.
• Ran away from his father's house at fifteen to stay with friends or slept on park benches.
• Dropped out of tenth grade and began supporting himself by selling T-shirts and homemade postcards.

Public Expression

SAMO©: "Same Old" Era

• In 1976, Basquiat and a friend, Al Diaz, created an alter ego through expressions of graffiti on public Manhattan buildings.
• Known for their witty sayings and topics comparing and contrasting corporate and social topics.
• The SAMO© project ended with the epitaph "SAMO is dead" in 1979.

Warhol and Basquiat

Befriending Andy Warhol

• Introduced in 1980 at a restaurant where Basquiat boldly shared samples of his work.
• Basquiat painted this portrait and gave it to Warhol within several hours of meeting him.
• Warhol was impressed by his genius and allure, so the two later collaborated.

Untitled Slide

• The focal point for most of his artwork were paintings of "heads".
• Discouraged by racism, particularly when people labeled his style "primitive."(Robinson)

Untitled Slide

• Basquiat's doodles often became an art piece later exhibited.
• Drawn with colored pencil to display a loose spontaneous form of art.
• His work across all mediums displays a childlike fascination with the process of creating.(Davis)

Jean-Michel Basquiat often created art based on his love for jazz music.

In 2017, Japanese billionaire bought "Untitled", a 1982 painting, for $110.5 million at an auction. This broke records as the most money paid for artwork.

Untitled Slide

• As his popularity soared, so did Basquiat's personal problems.
• He began using heroine excessively and isolated himself from the world.

Tragedy

• With an attempt to become sober, he left for Hawaii in early 1988.
• Upon his return to the States, he relapsed and died of heroine overdose August 1988.

Basquiat will be remembered for his articulate way of showing clarity on a topic while using words and images without strenuous effort.