Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, punk, and street art movements had coalesced. Jean-Michel Basquiat (French: Decem– August 12, 1988) was an American artist. Posthumously, many exhibitions of his works have been held, and biopics, books, collections of poems and feature films have all been inspired by his work and life. Be became increasingly isolated, and died of a heroin overdose in 1988. He also appeared on the cover of New York Times Magazine in 1986.Īlthough he was a successful artist, Basquiat became addicted to heroin, and after the death of his friend Andy Warhol in 1987, his addiction became worse. He worked on his paintings in $1,000 dollar Armani suits, in which he would appear in public, spattered in paint. During this time, he also appeared in the music video “Rapture” by Blondie.īy 1982, he was regularly showing his work and had many high-profile friendships, including a brief relationship with Madonna, a brief involvement with the musician David Bowie, and long-time collaboration with the artist Andy Warhol. He appeared on television in 1979 on the sow “TV Party,” and that same year formed a rock band called “Gray,” which performed all throughout New York. In the 1970s Basquiat began to spray painting buildings in Lower Manhattan, using the pseudonym SAMO, earning him notoriety and a certain amount of fame. He dropped out of school in tenth grade, after which his father kicked him out of the house, leaving the young artist to live with friends, supporting himself by selling T-shirts and homemade postcards. And by the time was fifteen, he ran away from home, living for less than a week in Washington Square Park, after which he was arrested and sent back home to live with his father. By the time he was eleven, he was fluent in English, French, and Spanish. He was a precocious child, and by the age of four, he could both read and write. In his short life, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a pop icon, cultural figure, graffiti artist, musician, and neo-expressionist painter.