A deep dive into Jean-Michel Basquiat's life

Jean-Michel Basquiat still stands out as one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century: an expressionist painter who helped redefine contemporary art by blurring boundaries between street art and the elite gallery world. His work still continues to raise questions about race, equality, and capitalism. 

Basquiat was born on December 22 ,1960 in New York to a Haitian father and a Puerto Rican mother. At age seven, he was hit by a car and hospitalized. During recovery, his mother gave him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy, a book that greatly influenced his later visual vocabulary. The fractured stability of his family life as his parents separated and his mother struggled with mental illness - further pushed him towards independence and the street culture of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. By  17, he had dropped out of high school, lived on the streets and in friends’ apartments, and began exploring the downtown art and music scene.

In the late 1970s, Basquiat and Al Diaz began spraying graffiti around Lower Manhattan using the pen name SAMO. Unlike conventional graffiti, SAMO was filled with satirical quotes that critiqued consumerism, elitism, and individuality. Slogans such as “Playing art with daddy’s money” and “9 to 5 clone” showcased what the duo saw as the privilege of mainstream art and society. These slogans caught the attention of the downtown art world and the press, including an article in 1978 that revealed the identity behind SAMO and launched Basquiat into public view. Basquiat’s breakthrough came quickly. After appearing in Times Square Show in 1980, he was shown internationally, and became one of the youngest figures in contemporary art to achieve commercial success.  

Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988 at age 27, cutting short a rapid career. Since his death, his work has risen in commercial value. A 1982 painting sold for over $110 million in 2017, placing him among the highest‑selling painters in history. Today, Jean‑Michel Basquiat remains vital not just because of his visual style but because his art forces us to consider who gets to make, define, and own culture.

Bibliography:

“JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT | Pop International Galleries.” Pop International Galleries, 2024, www.popinternational.com/jean-michel-basquiat. 

Schultz, Abby. “This New York Street Artist Was Unknown. How He Joined the $100 Million Art Market Club.” Barrons, Barrons, 8 Nov. 2025, www.barrons.com/articles/new-york-street-artist-basquiat-joined-100-million-art-market-ddbde613? Accessed 25 Jan. 2026. 

Wainwright, Lisa. “Jean-Michel Basquiat | American Artist.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 18 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Michel-Basquiat. 

Wikipedia Contributors. “Jean-Michel Basquiat.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 28 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat.