Jean-Michel Basquiat is a graffiti artist and neo-expressionist, a representative of the Manhattan bohemia. Today Basquiat is considered one of the most famous graffiti artists in the world. His works are sold at prestigious auctions for millions of dollars. For example, his painting Blurred Heads was sold in May 2013 at an auction in New York for $48,800,000.

Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York. His father Gerard was from Haiti (Haitian motifs often appear in the works of the artist), his mother Matilda is from Puerto Rico. She strongly supported all the early creative endeavors of her son, contributed to his comprehensive training. Jean-Michel, in addition to English, also spoke Spanish and French, which can be traced to his works.

When the boy was hit by a car at the age of 7, his mother presented him with the reference book “Gray’s Anatomy”, so that he could understand why he was hurt. Later in the various works of Basquiat we can find references to this textbook, numerous images of human skulls. After leaving home at the age of 17, Basquiat and a friend began to paint their first graffiti, signing them with SAMO or SAMO shit (from English “same old shit” – “the same old shit”).

Basquiat often painted the walls not far from the Manhattan galleries or the bohemian clubs of the Soho district in order to attract the attention of “official white art”. His works were multivalued, had several semantic levels. At that time, no one did this. One day, in 1979, when he saw in the window of a New York cafe Andy Warhol, Basquiat entered and offered him to buy a postcard. Warhol liked the postcard, but the acquaintance of young people did not continue.

The relationship of artists is very influenced by the work of each other. Basquiat showed Warhol examples of his work, and Warhol shook the drawings of the young artist. It was Andy who introduced him to the very heart of America’s bohemian artistic environment. The relationship of artists continued until the death of Warhol.

Modern art critics call the work of Basquiat not graffiti, but a full-fledged wall painting. The museums are not yet resolved to represent the artistic processes of New York in the 1980s with the works of Basquiat, delicately explaining their fear of the discrepancy between the paintings of this artist and the status of museum works. A similar dual attitude to the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat was present during his lifetime.

Jean-Michel Basquiat can be attributed to the infamous Club 27. Like the other members of this conditional club, the guy was generously endowed with talents and died of a drug overdose at the age of 27. Fans of Basquiat see in his later works a premonition of death. The last work of Basquiat was “The Rider of Death”.