About the artist:

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist born in Brooklyn, New York. He gained fame, first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a highly successful avant-garde artist in the international art scene of the 1980s. His mother, Matilde, was Puerto Rican and his father, Gerard, was of Haitian origin. At an early age, Basquiat displayed an aptitude for art and was encouraged by his mother to draw, paint, and to participate in other art-related activities. In 1977, when he was 17, Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz started spray-painting graffiti art on subway cars and slum buildings in lower Manhattan, adding the infamous signature of SAMO, meaning Same Old Shit. In 1978, Basquiat left home and quit school a year before graduating. He lived with friends and survived by selling T-shirts and postcards. In 1980, he participated in a multi-artist exhibition, sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated. During the next few years, he continued exhibiting his works around New York alongside artists such as Keith Haring and Barbara Kruger. Basquiat's art career is known for his three broad, though overlapping styles. In the earliest period, from 1980 to late 1982, Basquiat used painterly gestures on canvas, most often depicting skeletal figures and mask-like faces that expressed his obsession with mortality, and imagery derived from his street existence, such as automobiles, buildings, police, children's sidewalk games, and graffiti. A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 features multipanel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and seemingly unrelated imagery. These works reveal a strong interest in Basquiat's black and Hispanic identity and his identification with historical and contemporary black figures and events. The last style, from about 1986 to Basquiat's death in 1988, displays a new type of figurative depiction, in a new painterly style, with different symbols, sources, and content. In 1983, Basquiat befriended Andy Warhol and the two made a number of collaborative works. Often, they discussed and disputed about the lacking African American art and literature. They also painted together, influencing each others' work. Some claimed that Andy Warhol was merely using Basquiat for some of his techniques and insight, but this was never based on much fact, just mere speculation. Their relationship continued until Warhol's death. By 1984, many of Basquiat's friends were concerned about his excessive drug use and increasingly erratic behaviour, including signs of paranoia. Basquiat appeared on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in a feature entitled "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist" in 1985. As Basquiat's international success heightened, his works were shown in solo exhibitions across major European capitals. Basquiat travelled to Africa in 1986 and his work was shown on the Ivory Coast. Warhol's death in 1987 came as very distressing to Basquiat. He continued to struggle with his addictions. In 1988, Basquiat escaped New York City to his island retreat in Maui. He died of a heroin overdose. ------------------------------------------------------------- Exhibitions 1998 Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles 1998 Museu de Arte Moderna, Recife 1998 Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York 1998 Pinacoteca, Sao Paulo 1998 Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, Paris 1997 Art Beatus, Vancouver 1997 Big Step, Inc. Isaka 1997 Mitsukochi Museum, Tokyo; MIMOCA, Marugame 1997 Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Buenos Aires 1997 Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung; Taiwan Museum of Art, Taiwan 1997 Fondation Dina-Vierny-Musee Maillol, Paris 1997 Gallery Hyundai, Seoul 1997 Parco Gallery, Tokyo 1996 Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris 1996 Galeries Lucien Durand-Enrico Navarra, Paris 1996 Junta de Andalucia, Malaga 1996 The Bruce Museum, Greenwich 1996 Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York 1996 Quintana Gallery, Coral Gables 1996 Robert Miller Gallery, New York; Serpentine Gallery, Lodon 1995 1995 Center Gallery, Miami-Dade Community College, Wolfson Campus; Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Univerity, New York; The University of Memphis, Memphis; University of South Florida Art Museum, Tampa; Otis Gallery of Art and Design, Los Angeles; Austin Museum of Art, Austin 1994 Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle 1994 Johnson County Community College Gallery of Art, Overland Park 1994 Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1994 Mount Holyoke College of Art Museum, South Hadley, MA; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg; The studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois, Champaign; COCA/Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami 1993 Newport Harbour Art Museum, Newport Beach 1993 FAE, Musee d’Art Contemporain, Pully-Lausanne 1993 Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York 1993 Musee Galerie de la Seita, Paris 1993 Delta Gallery, Rotterdam 1993 Salon de Mars, Paris, booth of Galerie Enrico Navarra 1993 Alpha Cubic Gallery, Tokyo 1993 Galerie Sho Contemporary Art, Tokyo 1993 Galerie Bruno Bischhofberger, Zurich 1992 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1992 Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1992 Menil Collection, Houston 1992 Des Moines Art Center, Iowa 1992 Montgomery Museum of Fine Art, Alabama 1992 Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York 1992 Galerie Eric van de Wegh, Brussels 1992 Musee Cantini, Marseille 1991 P.S.Gallery, Tokyo 1991 Galerie de Poche, Paris 1990 Gallery le Gall Peyroulet, Paris 1990 Galerie Fabien Boulakia, Paris 1990 Robert Miller Gallery, New York 1989 Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover 1989 Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York 1989 Galerie Enrico Navarra, Paris 1989 Dau al Set, Galeria d’Art, Barcelona 1989 Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg 1988 Galerie Hans Mayer 1988 Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin 1988 Vrej Baghoomian Gallery, New York 1988 Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg 1988 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta 1988 Gallery Schlesinger Limited, New York 1988 Annina Nosei Gallery, New York 1988 Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris 1988 Galerie Beaubourg, Paris 1987 Galerie Daniel Templon, Paris 1987 Akira Ikeda Gallery, Tokyo 1987 Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York 1987 Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg 1987 P.S.Gallery, Tokyo 1986 Larry Gagosian, Los Angeles 1986 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta 1986 Fay Gold Gallery, Atlanta 1986 Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich 1986 Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg 1986 Akira Ikeda Gallery, Nagoya 1986 Centre Culturel Francais d’Abidjan, Ivory 1986 Galerie Delta, Rotterdam 1986 Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover 1986 Galerie Michael Werner, Cologne 1985 Mary Boone Gallery, New York 1985 Akira Ikeda Gallery, Tokyo 1985 Annina Nosei Gallery, New York 1985 Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich 1985 University Art Museum, University of California, Berkley; La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla 1984 Mary Boone Gallery, New York 1984 The Fruitmaker Gallery, Edinburgh 1984 ICA, London 1984 Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam 1984 Carpenter + Hochman gallery, Dallas 1984 ‘New Expressionists’, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York 1984 ‘Paintings and Sculpture Today’, Indianapolis Musuem of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana 1984 ‘American Neo-Expressionists’, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut 1984 ‘New Art’, Musee D’Art Contemporain, Montreal 1983 ‘New York Now’, Kestner-Gesellschaft, hannover; Kunstverein Munich; Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; and Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Dusseldorf 1983 ‘Whitney Biennale’, Whitney Museum, New York 1983 ‘New Work’, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York 1983 ‘Intoxication’, Monique Knowlton Gallery, New York; and Mary Boone Gallery, New York 1983 ‘Back to the Usa’, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern; Rheinisches Landmuseum, Bonn; Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; and Annina Nosei Gallery, New York 1983 ‘Selected Works’, Ulrike Kantor Gallery, Lost Angeles 1983 ‘Mary Boone and her Artists’, Seibu Museum, Tokyo 1983 ‘Written Imagery Unleashed in the Twentieth Century’, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, Hempstead, Long Island 1983 ‘Food for the Soup Kitchens’, Fashion Moda, Bronx, New York 1983 ‘Contemporary Drawing’, Delahunty Gallery, Dallas, Texas 1983 ‘From the Streets’, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina 1983 ‘Post Graffiti’, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York 1983 ‘Paintings’, Mary Boone Gallery, New York 1983 West Beach Café, Venice, California 1983 Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich 1983 Akira Ikeda Gallery, Tokyo 1982 Emilio Mazzoli Gallery, Modena 1982 Mario Diacono Gallery, Rome 1982 Annina Nosei Gallery, New York 1982 Blum/Helman Gallery, New York 1982 Marlborough Gallery, New York 1982 Galerie Bruno Bischofberger, Zurich 1982 Fun Gallery, New York 1982 Galerie Delta, Rotterdam 1982 1982 ‘New New York’, Florida State University Art Gallery, Tallahassee, Florida; Metropolitan Museum and Art Centre, Coral Gables, Flordia 1982 ‘Body Language – Current Issues in Figuration’, University Art Gallery San Diego State University, San Diego, California. 1982 ‘Avantgarde and Transavantgarde ’68 to ’77’ Aurelian Walls, Rome 1982 ‘Five Americans’, Museu Civico, Modena 1982 ‘Drawings/Vision: New York’, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles 1982 ‘Works on Paper’, Larry Gagosian Gallery, Los Angeles 1982 ‘Fast’, Alexander F Milliken Gallery, New York 1982 ‘Documneta 7’, Kassel, West Germany 1982 ‘The Expressionist Image: From Pollock to Today’, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York 1982 ‘The Pressure to Paint’, Marlborough Gallery, New York 1981 Annina Nosei Gallery, New York 1981 Emilio Mazzoli Gallery, Modena 1981 ‘New York, New Wave’, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, P.S.1, Long Island City, New York