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Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 - August
12, 1988) was an United States|American artist
born in Brooklyn, New York|Brooklyn, New York. He
gained fame, first as a graffiti artist in New
York City, and then as a highly successful
avant-garde artist in the international art scene
of the 1980s.

==Early life==

His mother, Matilde, was Puerto Rico|Puerto Rican
and his father, Gerard, was of Haitian origin. At
an early age, Basquiat displayed an aptitude for
art and was encouraged by his mother to draw,
paint, and to participate in other art-related
activities. 

In 1977, when he was 17, Basquiat and his friend
Al Diaz started spray painting graffiti art on
subway cars and slum buildings in lower Manhattan,
adding the infamous signature of SAMO, meaning
Same Old Shit. 

In 1978, Basquiat left home and quit school a year
before graduating. He lived with friends and
survived by selling T-shirts and postcards. In
1980, he participated in multi-artist exhibition,
sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated.
During the next few years, he continued exhibiting
his works around New York alongside artists such
as Keith Haring and Barbara Kruger.

==Art Periods==
Basquiat's art career is known for his three
broad, though overlapping styles.

In the earliest period, from 1980 to late 1982,
Basquiat used painterly gestures on canvas, most
often depicting skeletal figures and mask-like
faces that expressed his obsession with mortality,
and imagery derived from his street existence,
such as automobiles, buildings, police, children's
sidewalk games, and graffiti.

A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 features
multipanel paintings and individual canvases with
exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with
writing, collage and seemingly unrelated imagery.
These works reveal a strong interest in Basquiat's
black and Hispanic identity and his identification
with historical and contemporary black figures and
events.

The last style, from about 1986 to Basquiat's
death in 1988, displays a new type of figurative
depiction, in a new painterly style, with
different symbols, sources, and content.

==Warhol==
In 1983, Basquiat befriended Andy Warhol and the
two made a number of collaborative works. Often,
they discussed and disputed about the lacking
African American art and literature. They also
painted together, influencing each others' work.
Some claimed that Andy Warhol was merely using
Basquiat for some of his techniques and insight,
but this was never based on much fact, just mere
speculation. Their relationship continued until
Warhol's death.

By 1984, many of Basquiat's friends were concerned
about his excessive drug use and increasingly
erratic behaviour, including signs of paranoia.
Basquiat appeared on the cover of The New York
Times Magazine in a feature entitled "New Art, New
Money: The Marketing of an American Artist" in
1985.

As Basquiat's international success heightened,
his works were shown in solo exhibitions across
major European capitals.
Basquiat travelled to Africa in 1986 and his work
was shown on the Ivory Coast.

Warhol's death in 1987 came as very distressing to
Basquiat. He continued to struggle with his
addictions. In 1988, Basquiat escaped New York
City to his island retreat in Maui. He returned to
New York in June. On August 12, 1988 he died of a
drug overdose at age 27.

==Movies==

Basquiat's character has also been represented in
motion pictures. He has been portrayed by Jeffrey
Wright in Basquiat, a bio-pic about the artist
directed by Julian Schnabel, and he played himself
in New York Beat Movie, Downtown 81, and in
Blondie's video for "Rapture".

==See also==
*List of famous Puerto Ricans

==External links==
*http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/2005/ba
squiat/ Brooklyn Museum retrospective of Basquiat,
including photographs of the artist and his work.