jean michel basquiat

Jean Michel Basquiat
Jean Michel Basquiat was born on December 22 1960 in Brooklyn, New York. At an early age his
mother, Matilde, introduced him to art by taking him to museums and theatres, and he learned to
draw from the books she brought him, like Gray's Anatomy. For a brief time he attended school
Puerto Rico, where he had a first attempt at life drawing in year 9 and was the only student to fail.
Basquiat soon left and fell into CAS ("City as school"). CAS was a program designed for kids
who struggled at traditional schools.
Feeling cramped and like he was getting nowhere he left home and lived on the streets for some
time. Sleeping in cardboard boxes and on park benches in Washington square. "I did whatever it
took. I stole from grocery stores. I hustled guys sucking me off for twenty bucks."
While in the CAS program, Basquiat came up with the idea that led to his first taste of fame. On
night in 1978, after smoking some pot with friend Al Diaz in the CAS student lounge, Jean Michel
came up with the idea of SAMO (SAM Old shit). They drew cartoons and wrote essays about
SAMO for the CAS student paper, but the most important aspect of the SAMO project was the
graffiti. Basquiat and Diaz sprayed phases like "SAMO saves idiots" and "Plush safe he think"
and signed them with the name SAMO, all over lower Manhattan. The ploy worked so well that a
$100 reward was posted for the capture of SAMO. When Basquiat and Diaz had a falling out,
Basquiat finalised the end of their partnership by writing "SAMO is dead".
Basquiat showed his work for the first time in 1980 at the Times Square Show. There he made a
huge graffiti inspired work and signed it "SAMO". After that show a publisher wrote a major
article in the Artfrom Magazine titled "The Radiant Child".
In 1981 he flew to Italy to do his first European exhibition. Upon returning to New York he
signed on with his first full-time dealer, Annina Nosei. As apart of this arrangement Nosei cleared
out the basement of her gallery for Basquiat to use as a studio, though this arrangement led to
several conflicts between the two. In addition, she sold paintings that were not even finished.
Their partnership soon ended.
One of the things that Basquiat was well known for was his collaboration with Andy Worhol.
Andy Worhol's first encounter with Basquiat was when he knocked on his door and Basquiat
answered it naked. Basquiat then proceeded to show Andy Worhol his apartment/gallery which
was a big mess of art history books, a small TV, tapes, a mattress, art supplies, clothing which
consisted of Armani suits covered in paint, art work and finally wads of cash and marijuana.

During this time he was also dating Madonna just before she became famous. Andy Worhol and
Basquiat worked on several painting together and remained good friends until Worhol's death in
1987.
1988 - Many of Basquiat's friends become concerned about his excessive drug use, apart form
smoking pounds of pot he was also using cocaine and heroin. Basquiat attempted to kick his
addiction by leaving New York for his home in Hawaii. He returned to New York in June saying
he was drug-free. On August 12, Basquiat died from a heroin overdose. He was 27.
The Whitney museum and Madonna put together the funds to hold an exhibition for Jean Michel
Basquiat in 1992. Some of the critics that went regarded Basquiat's work as "true master pieces",
like the Yale art historian, others just dismissed the importance of his art. Basquiat was able to
achieve fame, wealth and recognition within the art world, and perhaps more importantly he left a
body of art work to will forever intrigue viewers.