Basquiat was an ambitious and driven visionary who fused culture and identity into powerful, lasting art. By Great Art Explained
Early On
Jean-Michel Basquiat was a groundbreaking American artist whose rise from street graffiti to the elite art world made him one of the most influential figures of the late 20th century. Born in Brooklyn in 1960 to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother, Basquiat grew up immersed in multiple languages, cultures, and artistic influences. A self-taught prodigy, he showed early talent in drawing, particularly anatomy, encouraged by his mother. After dropping out of high school, he gained attention in the late 1970s for his cryptic graffiti under the pseudonym SAMO on Lower Manhattan’s walls.
Five keys from Basquiat’s creative process. By Make art not content.
Transformation
By the early 1980s, Basquiat transitioned to painting and quickly became central to New York’s Neo-expressionist movement. His work fused text, imagery, and abstraction with raw emotion, tackling themes of race, identity, and power. Drawing on African heritage, pop culture, and history, his paintings were both personal and political. His collaborations with Andy Warhol and rapid fame exposed him to the art world’s attention—but also its exploitation.
Basquiat internalized diverse influences to challenge and reinterpret the world around him. By HENI Talks
Outsider
As a young Black artist in a predominantly white art scene, Basquiat often faced racism and marginalization. Critics frequently exoticized his work, reducing it to “primitive” energy, while treating him as a novelty rather than a peer. Though celebrated, he was rarely fully accepted, and this tension—between inclusion and exclusion—became a central theme in his art. His relationship with the art establishment was both symbiotic and fraught: he sought recognition but resisted commodification. His canvases were battlegrounds where he resurrected erased Black figures, confronted systemic racism, and rewrote cultural narratives.
Visionary
Despite his success, Basquiat struggled with alienation and addiction, dying of a heroin overdose in 1988 at just 27. In the years since, his reputation has only grown. He remains a symbol of youthful genius and defiance, a visionary who reshaped contemporary art by centering marginalized voices and demanding that society reckon with its blind spots.
Jean-Michel Basquiat’s life through rare art, archives, and stories from his sisters. By VICE
