Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat became an art prodigy in just eight years, dying at the young age of only 27, but leaving behind an incredible legacy of paintings, and drawings, many of which explored themes of counterculture American punk, the urban plight of the African diaspora, improvisational jazz music and the vagaries of fame during the 1980s.

Born to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat dropped out of high school and submerged himself into the world of graffiti art in New York. He had his first major gallery show in 1980 and mixed in circles with the pop art rockstars of the time Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. At such an early age his paintings were exhibited both nationally and internationally in museums and galleries. At 21, he was the youngest artist to ever take part in documenta – a world famous exhibition of contemporary art. A year later he became one of the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Basquiat’s art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience, using social commentary to punctuate social experiences, and to attack power structures and systems of racism. His visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. His most recognizable motif is a Black male oracle who wears a bold king’s crown.

Basquiat was handsome, fashionable and famously unconventional. He produced vibrant and expressive art with a refined cool evocative of jazz legends such as Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Miles Davis. His style was unique, era defining, and highly influential even today, it is said without Basquiat, there’d be no Banksy.

“It ain’t hard to tell, I’m the new Jean-Michel. In other words, legendary dopeness and enigmatic brilliance will never go out of style.”  Jay-Z