Jean Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American neo-expressionist (and graffiti) artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. After working with his friend Al Diaz as a graffiti artist under the name SAMO (from 'same old shit') in the late seventies, he made very 'explosive' works on canvas from the early eighties. Usually they are large formats in acrylic with line drawings and texts with oil-paintstick on top. Basquiat was an African-American painter who gained worldwide fame. His first solo exhibition was in 1982. For a number of years, Basquiat worked with Andy Warhol, whom he saw as a great example at the time. The collaboration was equal: Warhol was past his prime, and Basquiat had already made a name for himself. This equivalence allowed them to collaborate on some 140 works, some of which were exhibited in a duo exhibition at the New York gallery Tony Shafrazi in 1985.