Jean-Michel Basquiat

Once told his father,

"papa, I will be famous one day!"

 He began his first art project as a collaboration with Al Diaz a friend and former classmate, it was a graffiti project called SAMO (Same Old Shit). 

They'd simply tag their character all around the streets of Manhattan.

Jean-Michel had the talent and the ability to paint on whatever was in front of him and he often did.

Wet Paint (Al Diaz)

At the beginning of the 1980s, the tag "SAMO IS DEAD" began to appear all over New York City signalling the end of his collaboration with Al Diaz.

Basquiat (who sometimes spelled it Basquit) came into prominence around this time, propelled by an article by Rene Ricard for ARTFORUM magazine titled, The Radiant Child. 

The article brought him into public consciousness and he became famous. 

It was exactly as he'd told his father when he was very young.

Top 20 Jean-Michel Basquuiat Quotes

The celebrity lifestyle would eventually bring him into close proximity and friendships with David Bowie, Andy Warhol, Debbie Harry and a host of other celebrities. 

He was also known to have dated Madonna before she became famous.

Painting, sometimes wearing an expensive Armani suit that would inevitably end up splattered in paint, he'd go out still dressed in the same paint splattered clothing.

A prolific artist and painter, the association with Andy Warhol contributed and swelled his celebrity stature. 

The money rolled in as he became the toast of the new york's avant-garde scene.  

"If you take a close look at his painting in focus, it is a graffiti of sorts, an anatomical representation (Basquiat was greatly influenced by "Gray's Anatomy") deliberately made dark and rough, a conflicted way of viewing things. It shows haste, anger, rebellion, disorder. It's deviant, like the torn, ripped, distressed, and muddied wears that sell for thousands of dollars. It was a fast life that was too fast." Says David, a friend, during a discussion we had on Facebook about one of his works selling recently for a record $110.5 million to a Japanese collector.

  Music Art and Gray

Jean-Michel Basquiat died at the age of 27 on 12th August 1988. He was found dead in his apartment in north manhattan.




'Bodederek