Jean-Michel Basquiat was gifted in the arts and was encouraged by his Matilde to expressive himself through drawing, painting and other forms of art, as a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, NY. When Basquiat was 17 years old, he began to spray-painting graffiti, along with his friend Al Diaz. They’re signature “SAMO©” and “SAMO© shit” (short for “same ol’ shit”) was left on every blank canvas in the city, also known as the on old, broken down buildings in lower Manhattan.
In the start of the 1980’s was when Basquiat was becoming recognized as an artist, in “The Times Square Show,” which was founded by Collaborative Projects. He grew to become internationally known in 1981, when Rene Richard, published an art forum magazine, called “The Radiant Child.” This launched Basquiat’s career. Basquiat, along with others become apart of the movement known as the neo-expressionist, the title itself means, new form of expressing. This decade of clashing youth culture, money, hype, excess, and self-destruction; Basquiat seemed to fit right in.
“He was, all at once it seemed, the ultimate party animal, a wannabe street kid and graffitist hiding his black Brooklyn middle class roots, an advocate and interpreter of the marginal and dispossessed at the court of the mainstream, an angry black aspirant to the all-white art canon, a precocious talent, a creature of cynical marketing and a fraud, a proto-multiculturalist, an American original. “
– exert from basquiat.com, written by Robert Knafo.
Basquiat art was known for its three extensive overlapping styles. His work depicted his obsession with mortality, experiences being on the street, his black identity and his understanding of historical and contemporary of black different black activist and events. At the beginning of his self-destruction in 1986, Basquiat incorporated a new type of figurative symbols and substance from new sources into his art. This became a strong impact on new artist who esteemed Basquiat’s work and who were influenced by it.
His friendship with the late great pop artist, Andy Warhol, was unexpected seeing that Warhol did not want him in his studio at first. Their friendship sparked many discussions as to whether Warhol only befriended him to use some of his techniques and insights. It also caused many other discussions as to white patronization of black art. Despite the talk about their friendship, they became very found of one another and did many collaborative pieces. The death of Warhol in 1987, took a spiraling downfall for Basquiat.
The death of his good friend Andy; only increased his drug intake and placed him in a deep depression. His drug use became apparent among his loved ones in 1984; he was erratic and displayed signs of paranoia. His addiction to heroin was influenced by his life in the streets of New York. He left New York in 1988 and went to his ranch Hawaii, in attempt to leave all the temptations behind and become clean. He then returned back to New York in June stating he was cleansed. But the death of Warhol was a milestone for Basquiat, as he mourned for his loss, he turned to drugs again for relief. He overdosed on heroin died in his loft/studio New York, New York on August 12, 1988. Born on December 22, 1960, Jean-Michel Basquiat was only twenty-eight years old.
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