An Introduction to Jean Michel Basquiat

  • Post comments:0 Comments
  • Reading time:6 mins read

Jean Michel Basquiat, an influential artist born in the late 1960s, is most famous for his Neo-expressionist paintings. Born to a Haitian father and mother, he was raised by his Brooklyn-based family. He began as an artist by doing graffiti on the streets of New York with other graffiti artists. His work became popular in 1982 when he started showing his work at art galleries. Basquiat’s paintings were characterized by their bold use of color, texture, and shape in depicting personal experiences and social commentary.

His first recognized piece of art was “Lost Generation”, which depicted a man with an Afro hairstyle wearing a white T-shirt with the words “Cool Paintings” written across it. Basquiat continued to produce more paintings that were eventually shown at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery where they received critical acclaim. Together with Jean-Michel Folon and Pierre Alechinsky, Basquiat was one of the few neo-expressionists who had achieved commercial success (Landry). Despite this success, however, he continued to struggle financially because of his drug addiction. After several years of living in poverty while suffering from drug addiction, he died on August 12, 1988 (Landry).

Many people have considered Jean Michel Bas

Jean Michel Basquiat is the embodiment of what it means to be an artist. He revolutionized the art world, and his influence can still be seen throughout this industry today.

Jean Michel Basquiat was born on December 22nd, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. Jean-Michel’s mother died when he was just seven years old, of cancer. He and his siblings were sent to live with various family members, but later in life Jean returned to live with his father in Brooklyn.

The young Basquiat began painting at age 12 and continued through his high school years. His artistic talents earned him a scholarship to the prestigious High School of Art and Design in New York City.

Basquiat’s artistic talent was evident very early on in life. He often drew sketches of popular heroes such as Spiderman, Batman and Superman for his classmates for fun. He also painted murals on the hallways of his high school that depicted a cartoon-like version of himself as a superhero called “Duke the Mutilator”.

His first job after graduating from high school was at an advertising agency where he worked as a graphic designer; however he soon realized that this career was not for him. So he dropped

Jean Michel Basquiat was an artist who created a lot of artwork inspired by his personal life, friends and political views. Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1962 to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. He grew up in a middle-class neighborhood with his sister, brother and single mother.

Basquiat’s father died when he was young and his mother struggled to support her children financially. He attended a private school on scholarship where he excelled at art and music but was also involved in drugs and street violence. Basquiat dropped out of high school at the age of 17 to pursue a career as an artist.

Basquiat’s mother wanted him to be a classical pianist but he wanted to pursue his interest in graffiti art. His style was heavily influenced by artists like Andy Warhol and Jean Dubuffet. His work eventually became more political as he became more involved with the street culture of New York City. After being rejected from the Manhattan art scene, Basquiat found success in the 1980s as an urban artist whose paintings sold for thousands of dollars each.

He began suffering from drug addiction, paranoia and schizophrenia that ultimately led to his death from a heroin overdose at the age of 27.

Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was an artist who’s works were mainly focused on social criticism, and he was an influential figure in the Neo-expressionist movement. He has been compared to other famous artists such as Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol, and his paintings are valued in the millions of dollars.

Basquiat was born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father, and a Puerto Rican mother. His family lived in some of the poorer neighborhoods of New York City, and he ended up dropping out of school at a young age. He became heavily involved in drug use, which led to him being arrested for possession of heroin at one point. Even though he had dropped out of school and was involved with drugs, his artistic talent still showed through.

Towards the end of his life, Basquiat began to get a lot more recognition for his work, but unfortunately it came too late. He died from a drug overdose in 1988 at just 27 years old.

After his death, many of his paintings reached record setting prices at auctions around the world. There is no doubt that he is one of the most influential artists to ever live, but there are many things about him that even people who are familiar with him might not know.

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, punk and new wave movements had coalesced. By 1980, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992. In 1996, he posthumously received a Grammy Award for his album “Endless Rhythm” and in 2003 was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush.

Basquiat’s art focused on “suggestive dichotomies”, such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. In his later works he blended techniques such as spray painting, silk screening and collage. Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a “critique of the value system of colonialism and its legacy of racism.”

Leave a Reply