December 22 marks the 56th birthday of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the highly influential artist who started graffitiing in the streets and ended up with a full retrospective at the Whitney. His rise to fame was emblematic of the scene that blew up in New York, with the aftermath of punk and Hip-Hop giving rise to new and revolutionary forms of artistic expression, seeking to challenge the status quo and question authoritarian structures. In celebration of his birthday, we have assembled the ultimate A-Z of his life.
Jean-Michel Basquiat wearing an Armani Suit. Image from bevelcode.com
A is for Armani
His ultimate sartorial wear, Basquiat could be found wearing Armani when painting, often giving interviews still splattered in paint.
B Is For Brooklyn
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Basquiat had a privileged childhood, raised in a middle-class household. Yet, when he was 13 his mother was admmitted to a mental hospital, after which his father kicked him out of the house.
C Is For CBGB
Originally named in 1973 after the supposed genres they wanted to play — Country, Bluegrass and Blues — it soon became the nexus of Punk Rock and New Wave, featuring performances from The Talking Heads, Television and Patti Smith. Basquiat was a regular here.
D Is For Dropout
Basquiat attended Edward R. Murrow High School, whose alumni also boast Joey Badass and Darren Aronofsky. He dropped out of there in the tenth grade before attending alternative school City-As-School High School instead.
“Untitled (1982)” Jean-Michel Basquiat. Image from observer.com
E Is For Expensive
Basquiat’s works are known for their insanely high price tags, with his most expensive painting, “Untitled, 1982”, selling at Christie’s in May for $57.3 million.
F Is For Fluency
Basquiat was as a precocious child. Not only could he read and write by the age of four, but he learned Spanish, French, and English by the age of 11.
G Is For Gray’s Anatomy
His appreciation for the human anatomy was due to an accident that occurred as a child. Hit by a car at the age of eight, his mother gave him a copy of Gray’s Anatomy to distract him. The book became a huge inspiration for his depiction of bodies.
“Beat Bop” Cover. 1983. Jean-Michel Basquiat. Image from theredlist.com
H Is For Hip-Hop
Basquiat was born out of New York’s burgeoning Hip-Hop scene, the four pillars of which were considered to be breakdancing, rap, graffiti and turntablism. His biggest contribution to the world of rap was producing Beat Bop, featuring Rammellzee and K-Rob, generally considered to be the Ulysses of rap music.
I Is For “Irony Of Negro Policeman”
One of Basquiat’s most famous works, this large-scale painting depicted the ways in which black policeman internalised the power structures handed to them by white society, his fragmented nature reflected by the disjointed blocks that comprised his body.
J Is For Junk
A heavy drug user throughout his life, Basquiat finally succumbed to heroin in 1988, dying of a heroin overdose. His early death makes him a member of the 27 Club, also including Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain.
“King Alphonso. 1983” Jean-Michel Basquiat. Image from wikiart.org
K Is For “King Alphonso”
This work of art from 1983 is an archetypal demonstration of Basquiat’s style. Part of The Daros Suite of Thirty-Two Drawnings, it shows both his disjointed sense of composition, coupled with a chaotic imagination that goes in many different ways. Additionally, the crown was a key motif in his work.
L Is For Legacy
As well as his work still being used by clothing brands such as Urban Outfitters and Uniqlo, Basquiat’s legacy also stretches far into the world of modern rap music. Rappers including Jay-Z, ASAP Rocky and Macklemore have referenced him in their lyrics.
N Is For Neo-Expressionism
His work is considered to be a key part of Neo-Expressionism. A highly diverse movement that also included David Hockney and Ida Applebroog, it sought to update expressionist models to make them fit for the postmodern era.
Throwback: Madonna and Jean Michel Basquiat in the Early 80s. Image from lipstickalley.com
M Is For Madonna
Before she was the omnipresent pop star of the 80s, and before he broke into the New York arts scene, she and Basquiat had a brief and turbulent relationship that ended because he couldn’t stop his heroin abuse. She said of him on the Howard Stern show:
“I remember getting up in the middle of the night and he wouldn’t be in bed lying next to me; he’d be standing, painting, at four in the morning, this close to the canvas, in a trance. I was blown away by that, that he worked when he felt moved.”
O Is For “Olympic Rings”
In one of the most famous events in Pop Art, Basquiat joined forces with Andy Warhol for a series of paintings. One of the most interesting of these collaborations is “Olympic Rings”, which saw both artists create their own response to the classic Olympics logo.
P Is For Post-Punk
Basquiat grew up with and was highly inspired by the world of Punk Rock. When that evolved into the New Wave and Post-Punk of the 80s, he took its ethos of deconstructing the rules as inspiration for some of his best work.
Q Is For Quotes
As one of the most iconic figures of the 80s, Basquiat was also highly quotable, acting as inspiration for anyone considering becoming an artist. Take this anecdote about his childhood:
“I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist, or I’d draw a ram’s head, really messy. I’d never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect spiderman”
R Is For Rapture
One of his early claims to fame was an appearance on the music video to Blondie’s “Rapture”, the first song featuring a rapped verse to reach number one on the billboard top 100.
S Is For SAMO
When he started out as a graffiti artist, the name of his collective was SAMO. Standing for Same Old Shit, him and his crew would spray-paint around the SoHo Gallery and School of Visual Arts, emblazoned their walls with slogans such as “SAMO© SAVES IDIOTS AND GONZOIDS…” and “SAMO©… 4 THE SO-CALLED AVANT-GARDE”. Using a trademark logo, this helped to build Basquiat as a brand.
T Is For Test Pattern
In 1979 Basquiat formed a noise rock band called Test Pattern. Later changing their name to Gray, they played at venues such as CBGB, Mudd Club and Max’s Kansas City.
“Untitled (History Of The Black People). 1983” Jean-Michel Basquiat. Image from studyblue.com
U Is For “Untitled (History Of The Black People)”
A hugely influential artwork, this painting reclaims the role of black people in beginning Western civilisation. By evoking the hieroglyphic structure of the Egyptians and combining it with political content, this is an excellent example of Basquiat’s form meeting function.
V Is For da Vinci
The drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci, replete with word lists and technical diagrams, were a huge inspiration for Basquiat.
X Is For Xerox
Xeroxing played a key part in Basquiat’s early work. Printing off large amounts of material, he would assemble them into large and impressive colour collages.
W Is For Jeffrey Wright
A film version of Basquiat’s life was made in 1996, directed by fellow neo-expressionist Julian Schanbel. In a star-making role, Westworld-star Jeffrey Wright took on the role of playing the artist, while David Bowie himself played Andy Warhol.
Y Is For “Year Of The Boar”
To celebrate the new Chinese year of 1983, Basquiat offered his unique take. With stark design and a menacing looking boar, this painting is valued at over $2 million.
Z Is For Zodiac Sign
His Zodiac sign was Capricorn, which according to experts, explains his nurturing mother, creative nature and his drug use. His 22 December birthday is also shared by Ralph Fiennes, Ted Cruz and Meghan Trainor.