Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was a New York painter who helped define the art of the 1980s. Born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother, he grew up speaking several languages and spent a lot of time in museums. After a childhood car accident, he was given the medical textbook Gray’s Anatomy, which shaped his interest in bodies, organs and skeletal forms.
As a teenager he first became known on the streets of Lower Manhattan, writing sharp, poetic messages under the name SAMO with his friend Al Diaz. By the early 1980s he had moved into galleries, and his paintings combined words, symbols, crowns and bold figures. He drew on jazz, boxing, history and everyday life, often celebrating Black heroes while also questioning power, race and wealth.
Basquiat rose quickly, showing in the United States and Europe and working closely with Andy Warhol in 1984–85. The friendship was intense and sometimes controversial, but it underlined his standing at the centre of the New York art scene. He died in 1988, aged 27.
Despite his short life, Basquiat’s influence has only grown. His work remains instantly recognisable, mixing urgency with insight, and it continues to shape painting, music and fashion today.