Jean-Michel Basquiat
posted 6th January 2022
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat, the New York raised artist of Haitian and Puerto-Rican descent, received no formal education in art and started his career selling postcards and t-shirts which exhibited his drawings. He first saw fame being part of a graffiti duo, SAMO, in the late 1970s then, in the 1980s, he began painting and drawing in a more formal manner. Basquiat's first solo exhibition in 1982 made a mark in his career as he proceeded to flourish into the most successful contemporary artists loved by both the public and critics who deemed him a genius. Sadly, the artist died at the young age of 27 of a heroin overdose in 1988. Basquiat's inventive artworks challenge perceptions and empower us to question the world around us by focusing on topics such as integration versus segregation and wealth versus poverty. Reaching a record-breaking $110,500,000, Basquiat's "Untitled" 1982 made history as the most expensive price paid at auction for a work created after 1980 and by an American artist.
