Basquiat Bio :: Brief + collected from varied sources
Text files
:: Interviews, articles, et cetera
SAMO© Gallery
:: Early SAMO© art + materials
Image Gallery
:: Basquiat's paintings + art
Photo + Image Gallery :: Photos, posters, et cetera
Playing Art With Daddy's Money :: SAMO© on sale
Basquiat Links
+ Glossary :: Related sites + pages
Message Board :: An online discussion forum

jasonwentcrazy at gmail dot com

Basquiat Biography ::

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960 in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn to Gerard and Matilde.

Gerard Basquiat was born in Haiti. He came from a well-to-to family and went on to be a relatively successful accountant in New York.

Jean-Michel was far more close to his mother, Matilde. Matilde spoke Caribbean Spanish to young Jean and he learned the language early on. She took Jean to see museums and the paintings in them. In 1966, at the ripe old age of six, Jean-Michel already carried a card identifying him as a "junior member" of the Brooklyn Museum. In 1968, while playing softball on East 35th street in Brooklyn, a passing automobile hit Basquiat. He breaks his arm and surgeons had to remove his spleen. While he was recovering in the hospital, his mother brought him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy to read. We can see from his later paintings just how much this text was instantly Rolodexed into his memory. Jean-Michel’s noise band will later be called Gray, surely after the anatomy book of the same name. Matilde was also encouraging Jean to continue with his artistic interests, humbly aware that Michelangelo and all great painters studied anatomy. When asked if he thought Gray’s text helped heal, immersing his consciousness in drawings and names of the working parts of the body Basquiat answered, "Sounds true."

In 1974 Gerard Basquiat, now separated from Matilde, moved with his children to Mira Mar, Puerto Rico. They lived there until 1976. This year and a half immersion, when Jean-Michel was in his early teens reinforced his Spanish. He later vacationed again to the island in 1987.

Jean-Michel dropped out of school in 1977. He lived in abandoned buildings and supported himself with odd jobs until 1978. This is about the time when he fell into an early graffiti movement with his friend Al Diaz. Together, Al and Jean-Michel begin collaborating on SAMO, a character that makes a living selling fake religion. The two begin spray painting phrases and cryptic texts around Lower Manhattan such as "SAMO IS AN END TO MINDWASH", "SAMO SAVES IDIOTS", and "PLUSH SAFE HE THINK." The icon of traditional graffiti holds fast to Basquiat’s answer to an interviewer’s question: "What is your subject matter?" to which he replied. "Royalty, heroism, and the streets."

In 1978, Basquiat begins to sell hand painted postcards and t-shirts to make money. He approaches Andy Warhol and Henry Geldzahler or Bruno Bischofberger, I’m not sure which, in a Soho restaurant. He sells some of the art to Warhol.

In June of 1980, Basquiat’s art was publicly exhibited for the first time in a group show. In December of 1981, poet and artist/critic Rene Ricard publishes the first major article on Basquiat entitled "The Radiant Child" in Artforum magazine. In 1982, Basquiat was featured in a group show along with Francesco Clemente, David Salle, and Julian Schnabel. Schnabel will later go on to write and direct the biographical film Basquiat in 1996.

In 1983, Basquiat is included in the "1983 Biennial Exhibition" at the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is also in 1983 that Basquiat was befriended by Warhol. They go on to become close friends and collaborate on many pieces together.

By 1984 many of Basquiat's friends become concerned about his excessive drug use. His paranoia was also fueled by the very real threat of people stealing work from his apartment and art dealers taking unfinished work from his studio. On February 10, 1985, Basquiat appears on the cover of The New York Times Magazine. At Christie’s spring auction of contemporary paintings Basquiat’s UNTITLED (SKULL) 1981 brings in a record $19,000. The painting had originally sold for $4,000 the year before. Basquiat is 23 years old.

By 1985, Basquiat’s deteriorating health becomes more noticeable, particularly the dark spots on his face. These discolored patches might have been caused by the removal of his spleen, which kept his body from cleaning out the toxins from the drugs he took throughout his life. In the months before his death Basquiat claimed to be doing up to a hundred bags of heroin a day.

On February 22, 1987 Andy Warhol dies. Basquiat appears devastated by his
loss. He paints GRAVESTONE, a memorial to Warhol. It is said that the death of
Andy Warhol made the death of Basquiat inevitable as somehow Warhol was the only person that could always bring Basquiat back from the so-called edge.

After Andy died there was no one that Jean-Michel was in such awe of that he
would respond to.

On Friday, August 22, 1988, inside his 57 Great Jones Street loft, Jean-Michel Basquiat, American painter, died of a heroin overdose.

He was 27 years old.

jasonwentcrazy at gmail dot com

[Please remember that this is a very vague and collected biography. An amalgam of sources and little references. If you have a better version that you'd like to see here or are thinking of filing some lawsuit please let me know. jasonwentcrazy at gmail dot com]


[Basquiat in New York.]


 


[Note left by Basquiat on his door.]

Creative Commons License This site is licensed under a Creative Commons License.  

 

Some mildly interesting statistics concerning this site can be found here:  
In the interest of brevity you should know that this page was last modified on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 01:56:22 PM