Jean-Michel Basquiat Mixed Media For Auction at 888 Auctions on Sept 12, 2019

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was an influential African-American artist who rose to success during the 1980s. Basquiat’s paintings are largely responsible for elevating graffiti artists into the realm of the New York gallery scene.  He spray-painted crowns and scribbled words profoundly.  He often referenced everything from his Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage to political issues, pop-culture icons, and even Biblical verse.

The gestural marks and expressive nature of his work aligned him with the street art of Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf.  Additionally, also the Neo-Expressionists Julian Schnabel and David Salle were known to be close to him.  “If you wanna talk about influence, man, then you’ve got to realize that influence is not influence,” he said of his process. “It’s simply someone’s idea going through my new mind.”

Born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, NY, Basquiat never finished high school.  However, he developed an appreciation for art as a youth, from his many visits to the Brooklyn Museum of Art with his mother. His early work consisted of spray painting buildings and trains in downtown New York alongside his friend Al Diaz. The artist’s tag was the now infamous pseudonym SAMO. After quickly rising to fame in the early 1980s, Basquiat was befriended by many celebrities and artists, including Andy Warhol, with whom he made several collaborative works. Prematurely, his troubles with fame and drug addiction led to his tragic death from an overdose at the age of only 27 on August 12, 1988 in New York, NY.