Jean-Michel Basquiat

Artist Biography

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in 1960, a New York native of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. He began making drawings inspired by television cartoons at an early age, but never received formal art training. He is most often associated with the Graffiti movement in the 1970's, embellishing city walls with graffiti, poetry and street tags. These works eventually led him to exhibit with Annina Nosei Gallery and at such venerated venues as the Documenta 7 and the 1983 Whitney Biennial, which featured countless well-known art, prints and posters.

His art, prints and posters from the beginning consisted of conceptual, enigmatic combinations of words and symbols, executed with curt child-like simplicity. One critic has called Jean-Michel Basquiat's style "the child's urgent drawing made before the conventions are learned." His style propelled him to the forefront of the Neo-Expressionist movement, which was characterized by intense subjectivity of feeling and aggressively raw handling of materials.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's productive career spanned barely a decade and culminated with his untimely death at the age of 27, yet he is considered one of the most interesting artists of his generation and one of only a small number of Hispanic-African-American artists to have achieved international recognition through art, prints and posters.

Jean-Michel Basquiat Art, Prints and Posters Collection