Jean-Michel Basquiat#Final years and death: 1986–1988

Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City, the second of four children to Matilde Basquiat (née Andrades, 1934–2008) and Gérard Basquiat (1930–2013). He had an older brother, Max, who died shortly before Jean-Michel's birth, and two younger sisters, Lisane (b. 1964) and Jeanine (b. 1967).{{Cite web|last1=Sowa|first1=Emily|last2=Hershkowitz|first2=Toby|date=February 27, 2019|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat's sisters talk growing up with the Brooklyn-born art icon|url=https://abc7ny.com/5145785/|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=ABC7 New York|language=en}}{{cite book |title=Artists, Performers, and Black Masculinity in the Haitian Diaspora |first=Jana Evans |last=Braziel |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |year=2008 |page=174 |isbn=978-0-253-35139-5}} His father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and his mother was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents.{{Cite web|last=Guerrero|first=Naiomy|date=June 16, 2017|title=Basquiat's Record Sale Highlights the Invisibility of the Latinx Market|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-americas-expensive-artist-latinx-one|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Artsy|language=en|archive-date=May 13, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513043631/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-americas-expensive-artist-latinx-one|url-status=dead}} He was raised Catholic.{{Cite web|date=March 3, 2021|title=Art, Friendship, and An Awakening|work=Carnegie Magazine|url=https://carnegiemuseums.org/carnegie-magazine/spring-2021/art-friendship-and-an-awakening/|access-date=June 8, 2021|publisher=Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh|location=New York City|language=en-US}}

Matilde instilled a love for art in her young son by taking him to local art museums and enrolling him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art.{{Cite news|last=Bosworth|first=Patricia|date=August 9, 1998|title=Hyped to Death|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/09/books/hyped-to-death.html|access-date=April 4, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{subscription required}}{{Cite news|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|date=January 11, 2018|title=Basquiat Skull Painting Is Coming to the Brooklyn Museum|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/arts/basquiat-skull-painting-is-coming-to-the-brooklyn-museum.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/arts/basquiat-skull-painting-is-coming-to-the-brooklyn-museum.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=April 4, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}{{subscription required}} Basquiat was a precocious child who learned to read and write by the age of four.{{Cite web|date=December 15, 2016|title=The Ultimate Guide To Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://www.sleek-mag.com/article/ultimate-guide-jean-michel-basquiat/|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Sleek|language=en}} His mother encouraged her son's artistic talent and he often tried to draw his favorite cartoons.{{Cite book|last=jegede|first=dele|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dWdFCQAAQBAJ&dq=matilde+basquiat+brooklyn+puerto+rican&pg=PA17|title=Encyclopedia of African American Artists|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Santa Barbara, California|year=2009|isbn=978-0-313-08060-9|pages=17–18|language=en}} In 1967, he started attending Saint Ann's School, a private school.{{Cite web|last=Curtis|first=Lisa J.|date=April 15, 2005|title=Homecoming|url=https://www.brooklynpaper.com/homecoming/|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Brooklyn Paper|language=en-US}} There he met his friend Marc Prozzo and together they created a children's book, written by Basquiat at the age of seven and illustrated by Prozzo.{{Cite book|last1=Basquiat|first1=Jean-Michel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K5JIAQAAIAAJ&q=Marc+Prozzo+basquiat|title=Basquiat. Fantasmi da scacciare. Ediz. bilingue|last2=Berggruen|first2=Olivier|date=2008|publisher=Skira|isbn=978-88-6130-946-3|pages=142|language=it}}

In 1968, at the age of seven, Basquiat was hit by a car while playing in the street.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=5}} His arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, which required a splenectomy.{{cite book|last=Emmerling|first=Leonard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ildOSz1bKuMC|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1960–1988|publisher=Taschen|year=2003|isbn=3-8228-1637-X|location=|page=11}} While he was hospitalized, his mother brought him a copy of Gray's Anatomy to keep him occupied.{{citation|last=Hoban|first=Phoebe|title=SAMO Is Dead: The Fall of Jean Michel Basquiat|date=September 26, 1988|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7uQCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA36|work=New York|volume=21|issue=38|pages=36–44|issn=0028-7369|mode=cs1}} After his parents separated that year, Basquiat and his sisters were raised by their father. His mother was admitted to a psychiatric hospital when he was ten and thereafter spent her life in and out of institutions.{{Harvnb|Fretz|2010|p=7}} By the age of eleven, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish and English, and an avid reader of all three languages.{{Cite book|last=Wilson|first=Jamia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iSDtDwAAQBAJ&q=Basquiat+fluent+in+French,+Spanish+and+English&pg=PA16|title=Young Gifted and Black: Meet 52 Black Heroes from Past and Present|date=February 1, 2018|publisher=Wide Eyed Editions|isbn=978-1-78603-158-7|pages=16|language=en}}

Basquiat's family resided in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill and then in 1974, moved to Miramar, Puerto Rico.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=330}}{{Cite web|title=One Basquiat|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/exhibitions/3356|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Brooklyn Museum}} When they returned to Brooklyn in 1976, Basquiat attended Edward R. Murrow High School.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=21}} He struggled to deal with his mother's instability and rebelled as a teenager. He ran away from home at 15 when his father caught him smoking cannabis in his room.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=22}} He slept on park benches at Washington Square Park and took LSD.{{Cite web|last=Manatakis|first=Lexi|date=November 21, 2017|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat in his own words|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/38129/1/-jean-michel-basquiat-in-his-own-words|access-date=November 20, 2020|website=Dazed|language=en}} Eventually, his father spotted him with a shaved head and called the police to bring him home.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=23}}

In the 10th grade, he enrolled at City-As-School, an alternative high school in Manhattan, home to many artistic students who found conventional schooling difficult.{{Cite web|last=Gotthardt|first=Alexxa|date=December 1, 2017|title=Basquiat Left School at 17—and Made New York Museums His Classroom|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-basquiat-left-school-17-made-new-york-museums-classroom|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Artsy|language=en}} He would skip school with his friends, but still received encouragement from his teachers, and began to write and illustrate for the school newspaper.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=25}} He developed the character SAMO to endorse a faux religion.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=25-26}} The saying "SAMO" had started as a private joke between Basquiat and his schoolmate Al Diaz, as an abbreviation for the phrase "Same old shit."{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=25}} They drew a series of cartoons for their school paper before and after using SAMO©.

{{quote box |width=20em |quote = SAMO (for "same old") marked the witty sayings of a precocious and worldly teenage mind that, even at that early juncture, saw the world in shades of gray, fearlessly juxtaposing corporate commodity structures with the social milieu he wished to enter: the predominantly white art world.|source= —Franklin Sirmans, In the Cipher: Basquiat and Hip Hop Culture}} In May 1978, Basquiat and Diaz began spray painting graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan.{{Cite web|last=Goldstein|first=Caroline|date=June 1, 2017|title=Basquiat, the Teenage Years? A Trove of Unpublished Photos and Prints Is Released|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/basquiat-samo-al-diaz-977438|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=artnet News|language=en-US}} Working under the pseudonym SAMO, they inscribed poetic and satirical advertising slogans such as "SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GOD." In June 1978, Basquiat was expelled from City-As-School for pieing the principal.{{Cite magazine|last=Haden-Guest|first=Anthony|date=November 1988|title=Burning Out|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/11/jean-michel-basquiat|access-date=November 16, 2017|magazine=Vanity Fair}} At 17, his father kicked him out of the house when he decided to drop out of school. He worked for the Unique Clothing Warehouse in NoHo while continuing to create graffiti at night.{{Cite web|last=Lim|first=Robert|date=October 15, 2015|title=From Unique to Uniqlo: The Malling of Soho NYC|url=https://www.heddels.com/2015/10/from-unique-to-uniqlo-the-malling-of-soho-nyc-beneath-the-surface/|access-date=October 5, 2020|website=Heddels}}{{Cite news|last=Beyer|first=Gregory|date=September 30, 2007|title=$12,000 Postcards by Some Guy Named Basquiat|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/nyregion/thecity/30basq.html|access-date=October 5, 2020|issn=0362-4331}} On December 11, 1978, The Village Voice published an article about the SAMO graffiti.{{Cite web|last=Faflick|first=Philip|date=March 20, 2019|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Birth of SAMO|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/03/20/jean-michel-basquiat-and-the-birth-of-samo/|access-date=December 26, 2020|website=The Village Voice}}

In 1979, Basquiat appeared on the live public-access television show TV Party hosted by Glenn O'Brien.{{Cite news|last=Harris|first=Kelly|date=April 24, 2018|title=The Enduring Style of an Underground '80s TV Show|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/t-magazine/fashion/tv-party-1980s-style-glenn-obrien.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/24/t-magazine/fashion/tv-party-1980s-style-glenn-obrien.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=October 5, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}} Basquiat and O'Brien formed a friendship and he made regular appearances on the show over the next few years. Eventually, he began spending time writing graffiti around the School of Visual Arts, where he befriended students John Sex, Kenny Scharf, and Keith Haring.{{Sfn|Fretz|2010|p=43}}

In April 1979, Basquiat met Michael Holman at the Canal Zone Party and they founded the noise rock band Test Pattern, which was later renamed Gray.{{Cite web|date=October 7, 2016|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat's prolific artwork extended well past the canvas as noise-rock band Gray|url=https://afropunk.com/2016/10/jean-michel-basquiats-prolific-artwork-extended-well-past-the-canvas-as-noise-rock-band-gray/|access-date=August 9, 2020|website=AFROPUNK|language=en-US}} Other members of Gray included Shannon Dawson, Nick Taylor, Wayne Clifford and Vincent Gallo. They performed at nightclubs such as Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Hurrah and the Mudd Club.

Around this time, Basquiat lived in the East Village with his girlfriend Alexis Adler, a Barnard biology graduate.{{Cite news|last=Straaten|first=Laura van|date=February 13, 2017|title=The Jean-Michel Basquiat You Haven't Seen|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/arts/design/jean-michel-basquiat-artwork.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/arts/design/jean-michel-basquiat-artwork.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=October 3, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}} He often copied diagrams of chemical compounds borrowed from Adler's science textbooks. She documented Basquiat's creative explorations as he transformed the floors, walls, doors and furniture into his artworks.{{Cite web|title=Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980|url=https://mcadenver.org/exhibitions/basquiat-basquiat|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Museum of Contemporary Art Denver|language=en}} He also made postcards with his friend Jennifer Stein.{{Cite news|last=Dowd|first=Vincent|date=September 25, 2017|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: The neglected genius|language=en-GB|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41359913|access-date=October 3, 2020}} While selling postcards in SoHo, Basquiat spotted Andy Warhol at W.P.A. restaurant with art critic Henry Geldzahler. He sold Warhol a postcard titled Stupid Games, Bad Ideas.{{Cite web|last=Brumfitt|first=Stuart|date=September 19, 2017|title=New York Inspiration {{!}} Tales from Teen Basquiat's Best Friend|url=https://amuse.vice.com/en_us/article/qv9q87/basquiats-best-friend|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Amuse|language=en|archive-date=October 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022034128/https://amuse.vice.com/en_us/article/qv9q87/basquiats-best-friend|url-status=dead}}

File:AsPoster-SAMO-Mania-D.-363x500.jpg

In October 1979, at Arleen Schloss's open space called A's, Basquiat showed his SAMO montages using color Xerox copies of his works.{{Cite web|last=de la Haba|first=Gregory|title=December 2012: In Conversation with Arlene Schloss|url=https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/in-conversation-with-arlene-schloss/2682|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art|language=en}} Schloss allowed Basquiat to use the space to create his "MAN MADE" clothing, which were painted upcycled garments.{{Cite web|last=Mugrabi|first=Colby|date=May 21, 2019|title=Exploring Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1970's Clothing Collection, 'Man Made.'|url=https://garage.vice.com/en_us/article/paj34g/exploring-jean-michel-basquiats-1970s-clothing-collection-man-made|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Garage|language=en}}{{Harvnb|Fretz|2010|p=40}} In November 1979, costume designer Patricia Field carried his clothing line in her upscale boutique on 8th Street in Greenwich Village.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-25 |title=Patricia Field's Village Shops – Village Preservation |url=https://www.villagepreservation.org/2023/10/25/patricia-fields-village-shops/,%20https://www.villagepreservation.org/2023/10/25/patricia-fields-village-shops/ |access-date=2024-03-13 |website=www.villagepreservation.org |language=en-US}} Field also displayed his sculptures in the store window.{{Cite web |title=Man Made by Basquiat |url=https://www.minniemuse.com/articles/musings/basquiat-man-made |access-date=August 9, 2020 |website=Minnie Muse |language=en}}

When Basquiat and Diaz had a falling out, he inscribed "SAMO IS DEAD" on the walls of SoHo buildings in 1980.{{Cite book|last=Haden-Guest|first=Anthony|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ACMbY9yahNsC&q=samo|title=True Colors: The Real Life of the Art World|date=1998|publisher=Atlantic Monthly Press|isbn=978-0-87113-725-8|pages=128|language=en}} In June 1980, he appeared in High Times magazine, his first national publication, as part of an article titled "Graffiti '80: The State of the Outlaw Art" by Glenn O'Brien.{{Cite journal|last=O'Brien|first=Glenn|date=June 1980|title=Graffiti '80: The State of the Outlaw Art|journal=High Times|pages=53–54}} Later that year, he began filming O'Brien's independent film Downtown 81 (2000), originally titled New York Beat, which featured some of Gray's recordings on its soundtrack.[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r551298|pure_url=yes}} Andy Kellman. Downtown 81 Original Soundtrack]. Retrieved January 16, 2008.

In June 1980, Basquiat participated in The Times Square Show, a multi-artist exhibition sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated (Colab) and Fashion Moda.{{Cite web|last=Brown|first=Emma|date=August 30, 2012|title=Times Square: The Underbelly of New York Culture|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/the-times-square-show-revisited|access-date=November 20, 2020|website=Interview|language=en-US}} He was noticed by various critics and curators, including Jeffrey Deitch, who mentioned him in an article titled "Report from Times Square" in the September 1980 issue of Art in America.{{Cite journal|last=Deitch|first=Jeffrey|date=September 1980|title=Report from Times Square|journal=Art in America|pages=61}} In February 1981, Basquiat participated in the New York/New Wave exhibition, curated by Diego Cortez at New York's P.S.1.{{Cite web|last=Kane|first=Ashleigh|date=January 26, 2018|title=The New York curator who helped launch Basquiat's career|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/38813/1/curator-helped-launch-basquiats-career-diego-cortez-new-york-new-wave|access-date=August 9, 2020|website=Dazed|language=en}} Italian artist Sandro Chia recommended Basquiat's work to Italian dealer Emilio Mazzoli, who promptly bought 10 paintings for Basquiat to have a show at his gallery in Modena, Italy in May 1981. In December 1981, art critic Rene Ricard published "The Radiant Child" in Artforum magazine, the first extensive article on Basquiat.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=December 1981|title=The Radiant Child|url=https://www.artforum.com/print/198110/the-radiant-child-35643|access-date=January 1, 2021|website=Artforum|language=en-US}} During this period, Basquiat painted many pieces on objects he found in the streets, such as discarded doors.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: Street As Studio|url=http://basquiat.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/street-as-studio/|access-date=January 10, 2021|website=Guggenheim Museum Bilbao|language=en}}

Basquiat sold his first painting, Cadillac Moon (1981), to Debbie Harry, lead singer of the punk rock band Blondie, for $200 after they had filmed Downtown 81 together.{{Cite news|last=Eshun|first=Ekow|date=September 22, 2017|title=Bowie, Bach and Bebop: How Music Powered Basquiat|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/arts/design/basquiat-barbican-london.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/arts/design/basquiat-barbican-london.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=September 29, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}} He also appeared as a disc jockey in the 1981 Blondie music video "Rapture", a role originally intended for Grandmaster Flash.{{Cite web|last=Laneri|first=Raquel|date=July 7, 2021|title=Blondie looks back on iconic music video 'Rapture' on its 40th anniversary|url=https://nypost.com/2021/07/07/blondie-looks-back-on-iconic-80s-music-video-rapture/|access-date=February 9, 2022|website=New York Post|language=en-US}} At the time, Basquiat was living with his girlfriend, Suzanne Mallouk, who financially supported him as a waitress.{{Cite news|last=Sawyer|first=Miranda|date=September 3, 2017|title=The Jean-Michel Basquiat I knew…|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/03/jean-michel-basquiat-retrospective-barbican|access-date=October 2, 2020|issn=0261-3077}}

In September 1981, art dealer Annina Nosei invited Basquiat to join her gallery at the suggestion of Sandro Chia. Soon after, he participated in her group show Public Address.{{Cite web|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/christies-its-culture-or-its-not-culture-an|title='IT'S CULTURE OR IT'S NOT CULTURE': An Interview with Annina Nosei|date=March 4, 2014|website=Artsy|language=en|access-date=April 4, 2019}} She provided him with materials and a space to work in the basement of her gallery. In 1982, Nosei arranged for him to move into a loft, which also served as a studio at 101 Crosby Street in SoHo.{{Cite web|last=Maitland|first=Hayley|date=September 20, 2017|title=American Graffiti: Memories of Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/jean-michel-basquiat-barbican-exhibition-boom-for-real-interviews|access-date=October 5, 2020|website=British Vogue|language=en-GB}}{{Cite journal|last=Metcalf|first=Stephen|date=July–August 2018|title=The Enigma of the Man Behind the $110 Million Painting|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/jean-michel-basquiat-artist-or-celebrity/561728/|journal=The Atlantic}} He had his first American one-man show at the Annina Nosei Gallery in March 1982. He also painted in Modena for his second Italian exhibition in March 1982.{{Cite book|last=Emmerling|first=Leonhard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ildOSz1bKuMC&q=basquiat+modena+march+1982&pg=PA31|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1960–1988|date=2003|publisher=Taschen|isbn=978-3-8228-1637-0|pages=31}} With Basquiat saying he felt exploited, that show was canceled because he was expected to make eight paintings in one week.

By the summer of 1982, Basquiat had left the Annina Nosei Gallery, and gallerist Bruno Bischofberger became his worldwide art dealer.{{Cite web|title=History|url=http://www.brunobischofberger.com/history|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=Galerie Bruno Bischofberger|language=en}} In June 1982, at 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany.{{Cite web|date=June 21, 2019|title=21 Facts About Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/21-facts-about-jean-michel-basquiat|website=Sotheby's|access-date=August 3, 2020|archive-date=December 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201224021846/https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/21-facts-about-jean-michel-basquiat|url-status=dead}} His works were exhibited alongside Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol.{{Cite web|title=documenta 7 – Retrospective – documenta|url=https://www.documenta.de/en/retrospective/documenta_7|access-date=August 3, 2020|website=www.documenta.de}} Bischofberger gave Basquiat a one-man show at his Zurich gallery in September 1982, and arranged for him to meet Warhol for lunch on October 4, 1982.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|pp=134–135}} Warhol recalled, "I took a Polaroid and he went home and within two hours a painting was back, still wet, of him and me together." The painting, Dos Cabezas (1982), ignited a friendship between them.{{Cite web|date=July 13, 2020|title=Warhol and Basquiat|url=https://www.phillips.com/article/54957058/photographs-andy-warhol-jean-michel-basquiat-polaroid-new-york-auction|access-date=October 3, 2020|website=Phillips|language=en}} Basquiat was photographed by James Van Der Zee for an interview with Henry Geldzahler published in the January 1983 issue of Warhol's Interview magazine.{{Cite web|last=Geldzahler|first=Henry|date=March 25, 2011|title=From the Subways to Soho|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/jean-michel-basquiat-henry-geldzahler|access-date=October 4, 2020|website=Interview|language=en-US}}File:Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) home on 57 Great Jones Street.jpg in NoHo, where he died. A plaque commemorating his life was placed outside the building in 2016.]]

In November 1982, Basquiat's solo exhibition opened at the Fun Gallery in the East Village.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=341}} Among the works exhibited were A Panel of Experts (1982) and Equals Pi (1982).{{Cite news|last=Friedman|first=Vanessa|date=September 1, 2021|title=The Mystery of That Basquiat Painting – and Its Tiffany Blue|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/style/tiffany-basquiat-jay-z-beyonce.html|access-date=November 9, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} In early December 1982,{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=172}} Basquiat began working at the Market Street studio space art dealer Larry Gagosian had built below his Venice Beach, California home.{{Cite news |last=Hoffman |first=Fred |date=March 13, 2005 |title=Basquiat's L.A. |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-mar-13-ca-basquiat13-story.html}} In Los Angeles, he frequented the Whisky a Go Go and Tail o' the Pup with his friend artist George Condo.{{Cite web |last=Amadour |date=2023-02-15 |title=15 Minutes with George Condo |url=https://lamag.com/art/15-minutes-with-george-condo |access-date=2023-12-31 |website=LAmag – Culture, Food, Fashion, News & Los Angeles |language=en}} There, he commenced a series of paintings for a March 1983 show, his second at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, then-unknown singer Madonna.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/larry-gagosian-reminisces-about-the-days-madonna-was-his-driver-8446624.html|title=Larry Gagosian reminisces about the days Madonna was his driver|work=The Independent | location=London|first=Alice|last=Jones|date=January 10, 2013}} Gagosian recalled: "Everything was going along fine. Jean-Michel was making paintings, I was selling them, and we were having a lot of fun. But then one day Jean-Michel said, 'My girlfriend is coming to stay with me.' ... So I said, 'Well, what's she like?' And he said, 'Her name is Madonna and she's going to be huge.' I'll never forget that he said that."{{Cite web|last=Brant|first=Peter M.|date=November 27, 2012|title=Larry Gagosian|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/larry-gagosian|access-date=September 25, 2020|website=Interview|language=en-US}}

Basquiat took considerable interest in the work that artist Robert Rauschenberg was producing at Gemini G.E.L. in West Hollywood. He visited him on several occasions and found inspiration in his accomplishments. While in Los Angeles, Basquiat painted Hollywood Africans (1983), which portrays him with graffiti artists Toxic and Rammellzee.{{Cite web|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat, Hollywood Africans, 1983|url=https://whitney.org/media/1326|access-date=September 26, 2020|website=whitney.org|language=en}} He often painted portraits of other graffiti artists—and sometimes collaborators—in works such as Portrait of A-One A.K.A. King (1982), Toxic (1984), and ERO (1984).{{Cite web|last=McGreevy|first=Nora|title=How Jean-Michel Basquiat and His Peers Made Graffiti Mainstream|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-basquiat-and-his-peers-brought-graffiti-art-world-180976189/|access-date=April 10, 2021|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en}} In 1983, he produced the hip-hop record "Beat Bop" featuring Rammellzee and rapper K-Rob.{{Cite web|last=Nosnitsky|first=Andrew|date=November 14, 2013|title=Basquiat's 'Beat Bop': An Oral History of One of the Most Valuable Hip-Hop Records of All Time|url=https://www.spin.com/2013/11/beat-bop-basquiat-k-rob-rammellzee-freak-freak/|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Spin}} It was pressed in limited quantities on his Tartown Inc. imprint. He created the cover art for the single, making it highly desirable among both record and art collectors.{{Cite web|last=Nosnitsky|first=Andrew|date=November 14, 2013|title=Basquiat's 'Beat Bop': An Oral History of One of the Most Valuable Hip-Hop Records of All Time|url=https://www.spin.com/2013/11/beat-bop-basquiat-k-rob-rammellzee-freak-freak/|access-date=September 26, 2020|website=Spin}}File:Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bruno Bischofberger and Fransesco Clemente, New York, 1984.tif, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bruno Bischofberger, and Francesco Clemente in 1984]]

In March 1983, at 22 years old, Basquiat became one of the youngest artists to participate in the Whitney Biennial exhibition of contemporary art.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=346}}{{Cite web|date=September 23, 2019|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: 'Painter to the core'|url=https://www.christies.com/features/Jean-Michel-Basquiat-8283-1.aspx|access-date=August 3, 2020|website=Christie's|language=en}} Paige Powell, an associate publisher for Interview magazine, organized a show of his work at her friend's New York apartment in April 1983.{{Cite web |title=Paige Powell on documenting '80s New York |url=https://www.grandlife.com/culture/interviews/photographer-paige-powell-interview-new-york |access-date=May 29, 2022 |website=www.grandlife.com |language=en}}{{Cite web|last=Dazed|date=January 30, 2014|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat, Reclining Nude|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/18660/1/jean-michel-basquiat-reclining-nude|access-date=July 2, 2021|website=Dazed|language=en}} Shortly after, he began a relationship with Powell, who was instrumental in fostering his friendship with Warhol.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=346}} In August 1983, Basquiat moved into a loft owned by Warhol at 57 Great Jones Street in NoHo, which also served as a studio.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=347}}

In the summer of 1983, Basquiat invited Lee Jaffe, a former musician in Bob Marley's band, to join him on a trip throughout Asia and Europe.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=July 15, 2019|title=The Artist Who Travelled the World with Basquiat|url=https://elephant.art/lee-jaffes-intimate-portraits-of-basquiat/|access-date=January 15, 2021|website=Elephant|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Scheinfeld|first=Jillian|date=June 27, 2019|title=The Intimate, Marijuana-Laced Portraiture of Lee Jaffe|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/lee-jaffe-jean-michel-basquiat-bob-marley-eva-prenshuber|access-date=January 15, 2021|website=Interview|language=en-US}} On his return to New York, he was deeply affected by the death of Michael Stewart, an aspiring black artist in the downtown club scene who was killed by transit police in September 1983. He painted Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart) (1983) in response to the incident.{{Cite magazine|last=Schjeldahl|first=Peter|date=July 8, 2019|title=Basquiat's Memorial to a Young Artist Killed by Police|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/08/basquiats-memorial-to-a-young-artist-killed-by-police|access-date=September 25, 2020|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us}} He also participated in a Christmas benefit with various New York artists for the family of Michael Stewart in 1983.{{Cite web|last=America *~.*|first=Haoyan of|date=December 30, 2020|title=North Store, Michael Stewart Benefit, Haring, Basquiat, Futura, Warhol, Xerox, 1983|url=http://gallery.98bowery.com/2020/north-store-michael-stewart-benefit-haring-basquiat-futura-warhol-xerox-1983/|access-date=April 9, 2021|website=Gallery 98|language=en}}

Having joined the Mary Boone's SoHo gallery in 1983, Basquiat had his first show there in May 1984.{{Cite news|last=Raynor|first=Vivien|date=May 11, 1984|title=Art: Paintings by Jean Michel Basquiat at Boone|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/11/arts/art-paintings-by-jean-michel-basquiat-at-boone.html|access-date=February 18, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} A large number of photographs depict a collaboration between Warhol and Basquiat in 1984 and 1985.{{Cite magazine|last=Vanderhoof|first=Erin|date=July 31, 2019|title=Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the Friendship That Defined the Art World in 1980s New York City|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/07/andy-warhol-jean-michel-basquiat-friendship-book|access-date=January 13, 2021|magazine=Vanity Fair|language=en-us}} When they collaborated, Warhol would start with something very concrete or a recognizable image and then Basquiat defaced it in his animated style.{{Cite web|last=Gotthardt|first=Alexxa|date=June 6, 2019|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat on How to Be an Artist|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artist-jean-michel-basquiat|access-date=April 30, 2021|website=Artsy|language=en}} They made an homage to the 1984 Summer Olympics with Olympics (1984). Other collaborations include Taxi, 45th/Broadway (1984–85) and Zenith (1985). Their joint exhibition, Paintings, at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, caused a rift in their friendship after it was panned by critics, and Basquiat was called Warhol's "mascot".{{Cite web|date=May 28, 2019|title=The best, worst, and weirdest parts of Warhol and Basquiat's friendship|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/44600/1/never-before-seen-photos-diary-andy-warhol-jean-michel-basquiat-friendship|access-date=August 3, 2020|website=Dazed|language=en}}

Basquiat often painted in expensive Armani suits and would appear in public in the same paint-splattered clothes.{{Cite web|last=Dazed|date=February 16, 2017|title=The meaning and magic of Basquiat's clothes|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/34691/1/jean-michel-basquiat-fashion-and-sense-of-style|access-date=October 31, 2020|website=Dazed|language=en}}{{cite book|last=Cork|first=Richard|title=New Spirit, New Sculpture, New Money: Art in the 1980s|year=2003|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=0-300-09509-0|page=147}} He was a regular at the Area nightclub, where he sometimes worked the turntables as a DJ for fun.{{Cite news|last=O'Brien|first=Glenn|date=August 27, 2006|title=Culture Club|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/27/style/tmagazine/t_w_1576_1577_well_area_.html|access-date=June 18, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} He also painted murals for the Palladium nightclub in New York City.{{Cite web|last=Kaplan|first=Isaac|date=October 14, 2016|title=6 Iconic New York Artworks That Were Destroyed|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-6-iconic-new-york-artworks-that-were-destroyed/amp|access-date=June 18, 2021|website=Artsy|archive-date=June 24, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210624200112/https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-6-iconic-new-york-artworks-that-were-destroyed/amp|url-status=dead}} His swift rise to fame was covered in the media. He appeared on the cover of the February 10, 1985, issue of The New York Times Magazine in a feature titled "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist".{{Cite news|last=McGuigan|first=Cathleen|date=February 10, 1985|title=NEW ART, NEW MONEY|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/02/10/magazine/new-art-new-money.html|access-date=October 31, 2020|issn=0362-4331}} His work appeared in GQ and Esquire, and he was interviewed for MTV's "Art Break" segment.{{Cite web|title=Art Breaks: Jean Michel Basquiat -|url=https://www.mtv.com/video-clips/6ta8e9/art-breaks-jean-michel-basquiat|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709182937/https://www.mtv.com/video-clips/6ta8e9/art-breaks-jean-michel-basquiat|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 9, 2021|access-date=July 2, 2021|website=MTV|language=en}}{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=6}} In 1985, he walked the runway for the Comme des Garçons Spring fashion show in New York.{{Cite book |last1=Warhol |first1=Andy |url=http://archive.org/details/andywarholdiarie00warh |title=The Andy Warhol Diaries |last2=Hackett |first2=Pat |publisher=Warner Books |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-446-51426-2 |location=New York |pages=699}} Entry date: Sunday, December 8, 1985.{{Cite web |last=Bierut |first=Michael |date=1986 |title=IDCNY 19: News from the International Design Center Fashionable! |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/idcny-19-news-from-the-international-design-center-fashionable-bierut-michael/dQFFhGP9MnVqsQ?hl=en}}

In the mid-1980s, Basquiat was earning $1.4 million a year and he was receiving lump sums of $40,000 from art dealers.{{Cite news|last=Tarmy|first=James|date=May 16, 2019|title=How Contemporary Art Became a Fiat Currency for the World's Richest|language=en|work=Bloomberg|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-16/boom-review-michael-shnayerson-chronicles-contemporary-art-rise|access-date=May 12, 2021}} Despite his success, his emotional instability continued to haunt him. "The more money Basquiat made, the more paranoid and deeply involved with drugs he became," wrote journalist Michael Shnayerson. Basquiat's cocaine use became so excessive that he blew a hole in his nasal septum. A friend claimed that Basquiat confessed he was on heroin in late 1980. Many of his peers speculated that his drug use was a means of coping with the demands of his newfound fame, the exploitative nature of the art industry, and the pressures of being a black man in the white-dominated art world.{{Cite news|last=Wines|first=Michael|date=August 27, 1988|title=Jean Michel Basquiat: Hazards Of Sudden Success and Fame|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/27/arts/jean-michel-basquiat-hazards-of-sudden-success-and-fame.html|access-date=December 5, 2017|issn=0362-4331}}

For what would be his last exhibition on the West Coast, Basquiat returned to Los Angeles for his show at the Gagosian Gallery in January 1986.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=355}} In February 1986, Basquiat traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for an exhibition of his drawings at Fay Gold Gallery.{{Harvnb|Hoban|1998|p=276}} That month, he participated in Limelight's Art Against Apartheid benefit.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=April 17, 2018|title=Limelight, Basquiat, Afrika Bambaataa, Dondi, Art Against Apartheid, Benefit Poster, February 1986|url=http://gallery.98bowery.com/2018/limelight-basquiat-afrika-bambaataa-dondi-art-against-apartheid-benefit-poster-1986/|access-date=April 9, 2021|website=Gallery 98|language=en}} In the summer, he had a solo exhibition at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=355}} He was also invited to walk the runway for Rei Kawakubo again, this time at the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus fashion show in Paris.{{Cite book |last1=Basquiat |first1=Lisane |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1265004114 |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure |last2=Heriveaux |first2=Jeanine |last3=Fitzpatrick |first3=Nora |date=2022 |isbn=978-0-8478-7187-2 |location=New York, NY |publisher=Rizzoli |pages=80 |oclc=1265004114}}{{Cite web|last1=Pace|first1=Lilly|last2=Kelly|first2=Alyssa|date=August 2, 2019|title=Comme des Garçons Muses Throughout History|url=https://www.crfashionbook.com/fashion/g28551877/comme-des-garcons-muses-alexander-mcqueen/?slide=5|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=CR Fashion Book|language=en-US}}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} In October 1986, Basquiat flew to Ivory Coast for an exhibition of his work organized by Bruno Bischofberger at the French Cultural Institute in Abidjan.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=355}}{{Cite web|last=Jacobs|first=Sean|title=When Basquiat went to Africa|url=https://africasacountry.com/2013/08/when-jean-michel-basquiat-went-to-africa|access-date=August 2, 2020|website=Africa Is a Country|language=en-US}} He was accompanied by his girlfriend Jennifer Goode, who worked at his frequent hangout, Area nightclub.{{Cite web|date=February 13, 2017|title=Jennifer Goode and Area's Heydey|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/jennifer-goode|access-date=August 2, 2020|website=Interview|language=en-US}}{{Harvnb|Hoban|1998|p=278}} In November 1986, at 25 years old, Basquiat became the youngest artist given an exhibition at Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany.{{Cite web|title=Jean Michel Basquiat – Artists – Leila Heller Gallery|url=http://www.leilahellergallery.com/artists/jean-michel-basquiat|access-date=January 4, 2021|website=www.leilahellergallery.com}}

During their relationship, Goode began snorting heroin with Basquiat since drugs were at her disposal. She said: "He didn't push it on me, but it was just there and I was so naïve." In late 1986, she successfully got herself and Basquiat into a methadone program in Manhattan, but he quit after three weeks.{{Sfn|Fretz|2010|p=152}} According to Goode, he did not start injecting heroin until after she ended their relationship. In the last 18 months of his life, Basquiat became something of a recluse. His continued drug use is thought to have been a way of coping after the death of his friend Andy Warhol in February 1987.

In 1987, Basquiat had exhibitions at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris, the Akira Ikeda Gallery in Tokyo, and the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=357}} Allen Ginsberg photographed Basquiat at the Shafrazi gallery attending William Burroughs ‘Shotgun Artshow’ on December 17th, 1987. He designed a Ferris wheel for André Heller's Luna Luna, an ephemeral amusement park in Hamburg from June to August 1987 with rides designed by renowned contemporary artists.{{Cite web|last=Mugrabi|first=Colby|date=October 30, 2018|title=Luna Luna|url=https://www.minniemuse.com/articles/musings/luna-luna|access-date=May 3, 2021|website=Minnie Muse|language=en}}

In January 1988, Basquiat traveled to Paris for his exhibition at the Yvon Lambert Gallery and to Düsseldorf for an exhibition at the Hans Mayer Gallery. While in Paris, he befriended Ivorian artist Ouattara Watts.{{Cite web|last=O'Leary|first=Hannah|date=March 22, 2018|title=Ouattara Watts – From Côte d'Ivoire to Basquiat's New York|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/ouattara-watts-from-cote-divoire-to-basquiats-new-york|website=Sotheby's}} They made plans to travel together to Watts' birthplace, Korhogo, that summer.{{Cite book|last=Emmerling|first=Leonhard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ildOSz1bKuMC&q=Yvon+Lambert+Gallery+basquiat+1988&pg=PA76|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1960–1988|date=2003|publisher=Taschen|isbn=978-3-8228-1637-0|pages=76|language=en}} Following his exhibition at the Vrej Baghoomian Gallery in New York in April 1988, Basquiat traveled to Maui in June to withdraw from drug use. After returning to New York in July, Basquiat ran into Keith Haring on Broadway, who stated that this last encounter was the only time Basquiat ever discussed his drug problem with him.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=304}} Glenn O'Brien also recalled Basquiat calling him and telling him he was "feeling really good."{{Cite web|last=O'Brien|first=Glenn|title=Glenn O'Brien on the death of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol|url=https://purple.fr/magazine/purple-25yrs-anniv-issue-28/glenn-obrien-on-the-death-of-jean-michel-basquiat-and-andy-warhol/|access-date=May 3, 2021|website=Purple|language=fr}}

Despite attempts at sobriety, Basquiat died at the age of 27 of a heroin overdose at his home on Great Jones Street in Manhattan on August 12, 1988. He had been found unresponsive in his bedroom by his girlfriend Kelle Inman and was taken to Cabrini Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.{{Cite magazine|last=Michals|first=Susan|date=November 17, 2010|title=Rare Polaroids and Snapshots of Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/11/basquiat-slide-show-201011|access-date=October 5, 2020|magazine=Vanity Fair|language=en-us}}

File:Jean-Michel Basquiat - grave.jpg in Brooklyn, New York]]

Basquiat is buried at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. A private funeral was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on August 17, 1988.{{Cite book|last=Basquiat|first=Jean-Michel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qz9xDwAAQBAJ&q=Greenwood|title=Basquiat-isms|date=June 4, 2019|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-19283-3|pages=112–113|language=en}} The funeral was attended by immediate family and close friends, including Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Glenn O'Brien, and Basquiat's former girlfriend Paige Powell. Art dealer Jeffrey Deitch delivered a eulogy.{{Cite magazine|last=Tomkins|first=Calvin|date=November 5, 2007|title=A Fool for Art|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/11/12/a-fool-for-art|access-date=November 20, 2020|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us}}

A public memorial was held at Saint Peter's Church on November 3, 1988. Among the speakers was Ingrid Sischy, who as the editor of Artforum got to know Basquiat well and commissioned a number of articles that introduced his work to the wider world.{{cite magazine | first=Ingrid | last=Sischy | date=May 2014 | url=https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/05/jean-michel-basquiat-drawings-herbert-lenore-schorr | title=For The Love of Basquiat | magazine=Vanity Fair | access-date=December 29, 2016}} Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk recited sections of A. R. Penck's "Poem for Basquiat" and his friend Fab 5 Freddy read a poem by Langston Hughes.{{Cite book |first=Phoebe |last=Hoban |title=Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art |chapter=One. Overdosing on Art |publisher=Viking |isbn=0-670-85477-8 |date=1988 |via=The New York Times |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoban-basquiat.html|access-date=June 18, 2023}} The 300 guests included musicians John Lurie and Arto Lindsay, Keith Haring, poet David Shapiro, Glenn O'Brien, and members of Basquiat's former band Gray.{{Cite news|date=November 3, 1988|title=Basquiat Memorial|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/03/arts/basquiat-memorial.html|access-date=November 20, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}

In memory of the late artist, Keith Haring created the painting A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat.{{Cite web | first=Robin | last=Muir | date=May 7, 1999 | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/keith-haring-1092216.html | title=Keith Haring | work=The Independent | access-date=December 29, 2016}} In the obituary Haring wrote for Vogue, he stated: "He truly created a lifetime of works in ten years. Greedily, we wonder what else he might have created, what masterpieces we have been cheated out of by his death, but the fact is that he has created enough work to intrigue generations to come. Only now will people begin to understand the magnitude of his contribution."{{Cite book|last=Haring|first=Keith|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7MXaDwAAQBAJ&q=He+truly+created+a+lifetime+of+works+in+ten+years.+Greedily%2C+we+wonder+what+else+he+might+have+created%2C+what+masterpieces+we+have+been+cheated+out+of+by+his+death&pg=PA103|title=Haring-isms|date=September 29, 2020|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-20985-2|pages=103|language=en}}{{Cite news|last=Lindy|first=Percival|date=November 22, 2019|title=Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat: art stars who shone too briefly|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/keith-haring-and-jean-michel-basquiat-art-stars-who-shone-too-briefly-20191114-p53aly.html}}

{{See also|List of paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat}}{{quote box

| width = 20em

| quote = Basquiat's canon revolves around single heroic figures: athletes, prophets, warriors, cops, musicians, kings and the artist himself. In these images the head is often a central focus, topped by crowns, hats, and halos. In this way the intellect is emphasized, lifted up to notice, privileged over the body and the physicality of these figures (i.e. black men) commonly represent in the world.

| source = —Kellie Jones, Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix

}}Art critic Franklin Sirmans analyzed that Basquiat appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique.Sirmans, Franklin. (2005) In the Cipher: Basquiat and Hip Hop Culture from the book Basquiat. Mayer, Marc (ed.). Merrell Publishers in association with the Brooklyn Museum, {{ISBN|1-85894-287-X}}, pp. 91–105. His social commentary was acutely political and direct in its criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. He also explored artistic legacies from wide sources, including an interrogation of the classical tradition.{{cite journal |last1=Connolly |first1=Serena |date=January 2018 |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat and Antiquity |journal=Article Navigation Jean-Michel Basquiat and Antiquity Get Access Arrow Serena Connolly Classical Receptions Journal |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1093/crj/clx012}} Art historian Fred Hoffman hypothesizes that the underlying of Basquiat's self-identification as an artist was his "innate capacity to function as something like an oracle, distilling his perceptions of the outside world down to their essence and, in turn, projecting them outward through his creative act",{{Cite web|last=Hoffman|first=Fred|date=December 22, 2013|title=Notes on Five Key Jean-Michel Basquiat Works|url=https://americansuburbx.com/2013/12/five-key-basquiat-works.html|access-date=June 18, 2023|website=American Suburb X}} and that his art focused on recurrent "suggestive dichotomies" such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience.

Before his career as a painter began, Basquiat produced punk-inspired postcards for sale on the street, and became known for his political–poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO. He often drew on random objects and surfaces, including other people's clothing. The conjunction of various media is an integral element of his art. His paintings are typically covered with codes of all kinds: words, letters, numerals, pictograms, logos, map symbols, and diagrams.{{Cite magazine |last1=Berger |first1=John |author-link=John Berger |year=2011 |title=Seeing Through Lies: Jean-Michael Basquiat |magazine=Harper's |publisher=Harper's Foundation |volume=322 |issue=1,931 |pages=45–50 |url=http://harpers.org/archive/2011/04/0083368 |access-date=July 18, 2011 }}

Basquiat primarily used texts as reference sources.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=171}} A few of the books he used were Gray's Anatomy, Henry Dreyfuss' Symbol Sourcebook, Leonardo da Vinci published by Reynal & Company, and Burchard Brentjes' African Rock Art, Flash of the Spirit by Robert Farris Thompson.{{Cite web|date=December 8, 2017|title=Basquiat and Books|url=https://www.barbican.org.uk/read-watch-listen/basquiat-and-books|access-date=October 5, 2020|website=Barbican|language=en}}{{Cite web|date=June 15, 2020|title=Dr. Robert Farris Thompson Remembers the Spirit of Basquiat|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/dr-robert-farris-thompson-remembers-the-spirit-of-basquiat|website=Sotheby's}}

A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery. The years 1984 to 1985 were also the period of the Basquiat–Warhol collaborations.{{Cite web|last=Scott|first=Chadd|title=Judge Jean-Michel Basquiat-Andy Warhol Collaborations For Yourself At Jack Shainman Gallery's The School|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/chaddscott/2019/06/26/judge-jean-michel-basquiat-andy-warhol-collaborations-for-yourself-at-jack-shainman-gallerys-the-school/|access-date=October 5, 2020|website=Forbes|language=en}}

File:Drawing by Jean-Michel Basquiat, (Axe-Rene) 1982.jpeg, Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984)]]

In his short but prolific career, Basquiat produced around 1,500 drawings, around 600 paintings, and many sculpture and mixed media works.{{Cite magazine|last=Gregory|first=Alice|date=August 2015|title=New Art|url=https://harpers.org/archive/2015/08/new-art-2/|access-date=January 13, 2021|magazine=Harper's Magazine|language=en}} He drew constantly and often used objects around him as surfaces when paper was not immediately at hand.{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/24/jean-michel-basquiat-boom-for-real-barbican-review|title=Basquiat: Boom for Real review – restless energy|last=Cumming|first=Laura|date=September 24, 2017|website=the Guardian|language=en|access-date=April 19, 2018}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-art-biographies/jean-michel-basquiat|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat facts, information, pictures {{!}} Encyclopedia.com articles about Jean-Michel Basquiat|website=www.encyclopedia.com|language=en|access-date=April 19, 2018}} Since childhood, he produced cartoon-inspired drawings when encouraged by his mother's interest in art, and drawing became a part of his expression as an artist.{{Cite news|url=https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/new-york/articles/the-art-of-jean-michel-basquiat-legacy-of-a-cultural-icon/|title=The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat: Legacy of a Cultural Icon|last=Steel|first=Rebecca|work=Culture Trip|access-date=April 19, 2018}} He drew in many different media, most commonly ink, pencil, felt-tip or marker, and oil-stick. He sometimes used Xerox copies of fragments of his drawings to paste onto the canvases of larger paintings.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/1988/11/jean-michel-basquiat|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat|last=Haden-Guest|first=Anthony|website=Vanity Fair|date=April 2, 2014 |access-date=April 20, 2018}}

The first public showing of Basquiat's paintings and drawings was in 1981 at the MoMA PS1 New York/New Wave exhibition. Rene Ricard's article "Radiant Child" in Artforum magazine brought Basquiat to the attention of the art world.{{cite book|title=100 Contemporary Artists A-Z|last1=Holzwarth|first1=Hans W.|date=2009|publisher=Taschen|isbn=978-3-8365-1490-3|edition=Taschen's 25th anniversary special|location=Köln|pages=54–61}} Basquiat immortalized Ricard in two drawings, Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984) and René Ricard (1984).{{Cite web|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: René Ricard|url=https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2013/may-2013-contemporary-day-n08992/lot.240.html|website=Sotheby's}}

A poet as well as an artist, words featured heavily in his drawings and paintings, with direct references to racism, slavery, the people and street scene of 1980s New York, black historical figures, famous musicians, and athletes, as his notebooks and many important drawings demonstrate.{{Cite web|url=https://www.artforum.com/print/201504/jean-michel-basquiat-50730|title=Glenn O'Brien on the notebooks and drawings of Jean-Michel Basquiat|website=www.artforum.com|date=April 2015 |access-date=April 19, 2018}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/inner-workings-the-notebooks-of-jean-michel-basquiat-are-unveiled-at-the-brooklyn-museum|title=Inner workings: the notebooks of Jean-Michel Basquiat are unveiled at the Brooklyn Museum|last=Magazine|first=Wallpaper*|date=April 7, 2015|work=Wallpaper*|access-date=April 19, 2018}} Often Basquiat's drawings were untitled, and as such, to differentiate works, a word written within the drawing is commonly in parentheses after Untitled. After Basquiat died, his estate was controlled by his father Gérard Basquiat, who also oversaw the committee that authenticated artworks, and operated from 1994 to 2012 to review over 2000 works, the majority of which were drawings.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130905/boerum-hill/jean-michel-basquiats-dad-leaves-behind-sons-art-tax-problem/|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat's Dad Leaves Behind Son's Art, and Tax Problem|website=DNAinfo New York|access-date=April 19, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180420073914/https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20130905/boerum-hill/jean-michel-basquiats-dad-leaves-behind-sons-art-tax-problem/|archive-date=April 20, 2018|url-status=dead}}

A prominent theme in Basquiat's work is the portrayal of historically prominent black figures, who were identified as heroes and saints. His early works often featured the iconographic depiction of crowns and halos to distinguish heroes and saints in his specially chosen pantheon. "Jean-Michel's crown has three peaks, for his three royal lineages: the poet, the musician, the great boxing champion. Jean measured his skill against all he deemed strong, without prejudice as to their taste or age," said his friend and artist Francesco Clemente.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat {{!}} Heroes and Saints|url=http://basquiat.guggenheim-bilbao.eus/en/heroes-and-saints/|access-date=February 1, 2021|website=Guggenheim Museum Bilbao|language=en}} Reviewing Basquiat's show at the Bilbao Guggenheim, Art Daily noted that "Basquiat's crown is a changeable symbol: at times a halo and at others a crown of thorns, emphasizing the martyrdom that often goes hand in hand with sainthood. For Basquiat, these heroes and saints are warriors, occasionally rendered triumphant with arms raised in victory."{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title='Jean-Michel Basquiat: Now's the Time' on view at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao|url=https://artdaily.cc/news/79956/-Jean-Michel-Basquiat--Now-s-the-Time--on-view-at-the-Guggenheim-Museum-Bilbao#.YBgoXehKhPY|access-date=February 1, 2021|website=Artdaily|language=English}}

Basquiat was particularly a fan of bebop and cited saxophonist Charlie Parker as a hero. He frequently referenced Parker and other jazz musicians in paintings such as Charles the First (1982) and Horn Players (1983), and King Zulu (1986). "Basquiat looked to jazz music for inspiration and for instruction, much in the same way that he looked to the modern masters of painting," said art historian Jordana Moore Saggese.{{Cite web|first=Jordana Moore|last=Saggese|title=Basquiat, Horn Players|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/later-europe-and-americas/modernity-ap/a/basquiat-horn-players|date=June 30, 2015|access-date=June 18, 2023|website=Khan Academy}}

File:Untitled acrylic and mixed media on canvas by --Jean-Michel Basquiat--, 1984.jpg (1981)]]In his exploration of death and marginalization, Basquiat’s portrayal of dismembered black bodies serves as a radical commentary on the trauma of displacement and the alienation experienced by African Americans. His depiction of anatomical parts, such as exposed internal organs and skeletal structures, mirrors the violent fragmentation of black identity under systemic racism. Basquiat’s repeated use of skulls and corpses underscores the existential anxiety of blackness in a society that dehumanizes and objectifies the black body.{{Cite journal |last=Kaushik |first=Rajiv |date=2011-10-01 |title=The Obscene and the Corpse: Reflections on the Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/jh/content/jh_2011_0012_0002_0085_0100 |journal=Janus Head |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=85–100 |doi=10.5840/jh201112230}}

A major reference source used by Basquiat throughout his career was the book Gray's Anatomy, which his mother had given him while he was in the hospital when he was seven. It remained influential in his depictions of human anatomy, and in its mixture of image and text as seen in Flesh and Spirit (1982–83). Art historian Olivier Berggruen situates in Basquiat's anatomical screen prints Anatomy (1982) an assertion of vulnerability, one which "creates an aesthetic of the body as damaged, scarred, fragmented, incomplete, or torn apart, once the organic whole has disappeared. Paradoxically, it is the very act of creating these representations that conjures a positive corporeal valence between the artist and his sense of self or identity."{{cite book|last=Berggruen|first=Olivier|author-link=Olivier Berggruen|chapter=Some Notes on Jean-Michel Basquiat's Silk-Screen Prints|page=127|title=The Writing of Art|publisher=Pushkin Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-906548-62-9}}

Heads and skulls are significant focal points of many of Basquiat's most seminal works.{{Cite web|last=Lee|first=Shannon|date=July 9, 2020|title=Why Basquiat's Heads Are His Most Sought-After Works|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-basquiats-heads-sought-after-works|access-date=October 5, 2020|website=Artsy|language=en}} Heads in works like Untitled (Two Heads on Gold) (1982) and Philistines (1982) are reminiscent of African masks, suggesting a cultural reclamation. The skulls allude to Haitian Vodou, which is filled with skull symbolism; the paintings Red Skull (1982) and Untitled (1982) can be seen as primary examples.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/19/jean-michel-basquiat-110m-sothebys|title=Is this Basquiat worth $110m? Yes – his art of American violence is priceless |website=the Guardian|date=May 19, 2017 |access-date=March 26, 2019}} In reference to the potent image depicted in Untitled (Skull) (1981), art historian Fred Hoffman writes that Basquiat was likely "caught off guard, possibly even frightened, by the power and energy emanating from this unexpected image." Further investigation by Hoffman in his book The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat reveals a deeper interest in the artist's fascination with heads that proves an evolution in the artist's oeuvre from one of raw power to one of more refined cognizance.Hoffman, Fred. The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gallerie Enrico Navarra / 2017

Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage was one of his many sources of inspiration. He often incorporated Spanish words into his artworks like Untitled (Pollo Frito) (1982) and Sabado por la Noche (1984). Basquiat's La Hara (1981), a menacing portrait of a white police officer, combines the Nuyorican slang term for police (la jara) and the Irish surname O'Hara.{{Cite web|last=Ben-Meir|first=Sam|date=August 21, 2019|title=Basquiat's Story We Need to Hear|url=https://thewire.in/the-arts/basquiats-story-we-need-to-hear|access-date=January 12, 2021|website=The Wire}} The black-hatted figure that appears in his paintings The Guilt of Gold Teeth (1982) and Despues De Un Pun (1987) is believed to represent Baron Samedi, the spirit of death and resurrection in Haitian Vodou.{{Cite book|last=Saggese|first=Jordana Moore|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o1UlDQAAQBAJ&q=Baron+Samedi+basquiat&pg=PA56|title=Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American Art|date=May 30, 2014|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-27624-6|pages=56|language=en}}

Basquiat has various works deriving from African-American history, namely Slave Auction (1982), Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta (1983), El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983), and Jim Crow (1986).{{Cite web|date=July 1, 2020|title=Iconic Artworks: Basquiat's Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta|url=https://magazine.artland.com/iconic-artworks-basquiats-undiscovered-genius-of-the-mississippi-delta/|access-date=September 30, 2020|website=Artland Magazine|language=en-US}} Another painting, Irony of Negro Policeman (1981), illustrates how African-Americans have been controlled by a predominantly white society. Basquiat sought to portray that African-Americans have become complicit with the "institutionalized forms of whiteness and corrupt white regimes of power" years after the Jim Crow era had ended.{{citation|last=Frohne|first=Andrea|title=The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities|date=1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkUZqSBlXM4C|pages=439–451|author-link=Isidore Okpewho|editor1-last=Okpewho|editor1-first=Isidore|chapter=Representing Jean-Michel Basquiat|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nkUZqSBlXM4C&pg=PA441|edition=1st|location=Bloomington, Indiana|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-33425-1|editor2=Carole Boyce Davies|editor3=Ali Al'Amin Mazrui|mode=cs1}} This concept has been reiterated in additional Basquiat works, including [https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-michel-basquiat/created-equal-1984 Created Equal] (1984).

In the essay "Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix," Kellie Jones posits that Basquiat's "mischievous, complex, and neologistic side, with regard to the fashioning of modernity and the influence and effluence of black culture" are often elided by critics and viewers, and thus "lost in translation."Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix, by Kellie Jones, from the book Basquiat, edited by Marc Mayer, 2005, Merrell Publishers in association with the Brooklyn Museum, {{ISBN|978-1-85894-287-2}}, pp. 163–179.

Basquiat’s artwork stands at the intersection of blackness, identity, and aesthetics, grappling with complex questions of representation and self-reflexivity. His work disrupts the boundaries of high art, redefining the aesthetics of black identity through distinctive use of symbols, language, and visual style. Basquiat's engagement with black identity is inseparable from his exploration of a commodified American Africanism. His oeuvre, which includes graffiti under the moniker "SAMO©," critiques mainstream racial representations and constructs a fluid African American identity. Through his "economies of accumulation,"{{Cite journal |last=Rodrigues |first=Laurie A. |date=2011 |title="SAMO© as an Escape Clause": Jean-Michel Basquiat's Engagement with a Commodified American Africanism |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23016272 |journal=Journal of American Studies |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=227–243 |doi=10.1017/S0021875810001738 |jstor=23016272 |issn=0021-8758}} Basquiat challenges the simplified constructions of blackness, rejecting the essentialist narratives imposed by the art world. His art incorporates motifs that signify historical and modern racial struggles, rendering the African American experience as both a subject of critique and aesthetic innovation.

Basquiat’s artwork serves as a method of identity formation, navigating the ontological and aesthetic challenges posed by blackness. His depictions of the black body resist reductive racial representations, instead offering a vibrant, complex subjectivity that reclaims blackness from its [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jafrireli.1.1.0109 "aesthetic colonization"]. Basquiat's use of graffiti and street art, often marginalized within the traditional art world, communicates stories of resistance and identity that resonate with the broader African diaspora.{{Cite journal |last=Pinn |first=Anthony B. |date=2013 |title="Why Can't I Be Both?": Jean-Michel Basquiat and Aesthetics of Black Bodies Reconstituted |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jafrireli.1.1.0109 |journal=Journal of Africana Religions |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=109–132 |doi=10.5325/jafrireli.1.1.0109 |jstor=10.5325/jafrireli.1.1.0109 |issn=2165-5405}}

Moreover, Basquiat's artworks evoke a historical and political consciousness, often referencing figures from both the African American cultural pantheon and Western scientific history. His 1983 piece Untitled (Charles Darwin) juxtaposes the legacy of evolutionary science with broader themes of marginality, connecting the legacies of Darwin, Huxley, and Mendel to the commodification of blackness and the manipulation of scientific discourse for socio-political ends. This interplay between science and art highlights how Basquiat critiques both racial and intellectual histories, revealing their entanglement in narratives of oppression and commodification.{{Cite journal |last1=Econopouly |first1=Bethany F. |last2=Jones |first2=Stephen S. |date=2018 |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat, Charles Darwin, T. H. Huxley, the Origin of Cotton and Gregor Mendel (Inventor of X-rays) |journal=Leonardo |volume=51 |issue=3 |pages=265–269 |doi=10.1162/leon_a_01261 |jstor=26808623 |issn=0024-094X|doi-access=free }}

Finally, Basquiat’s relationship with hip-hop culture further enriches his aesthetic of blackness. His collaborations with artists from the hip-hop generation, such as Fab 5 Freddy and Lady Pink, emphasize the fusion of neo-expressionism with the rhythmic, improvisational qualities of hip-hop. This synthesis of art and music positions Basquiat as a figure who not only represented blackness but actively participated in shaping its cultural expression during the 1980s. His works, much like the art of graffiti, blur the lines between high art and street culture, reinforcing the legitimacy of non-traditional forms of black expression.{{Cite journal |date=2022 |title=Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation |url=https://journalpanorama.org/article/writing-the-future/ |journal=Panorama |volume=l |issue=g |doi=10.24926/24716839.11870 |issn=2471-6839|doi-access=free }}

{{quote box

| width = 20em

| quote = Like a DJ, Basquiat adeptly reworked Neo-expressionism's clichéd language of gesture, freedom, and angst and redirected Pop art's strategy of appropriation to produce a body of work that at times celebrated black culture and history but also revealed its complexity and contradictions.

| source = —Lydia Lee

}}Shortly after his death, The New York Times indicated that Basquiat was "the most famous of only a small number of young black artists who have achieved national recognition." Art critic Bonnie Rosenberg wrote that Basquiat experienced a good taste of fame in his last years when he was a "critically embraced and popularly celebrated artistic phenomenon"; and that some people focused on the "superficial exoticism of his work", missing the fact that it "held important connections to expressive precursors."{{Cite news|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat Biography, Art, and Analysis of Works|language=en-US|work=The Art Story|url=http://www.theartstory.org/artist-basquiat-jean-michel.htm|access-date=December 5, 2017}}

Traditionally, the interpretation of Basquiat's works at the visual level comes from the subdued emotional tone of what they represent compared to what is actually depicted. For example, the figures in his paintings, as stated by writer Stephen Metcalf, "are shown frontally, with little or no depth of field, and nerves and organs are exposed, as in an anatomy textbook. Are these creatures dead and being clinically dissected, one wonders, or alive and in immense pain?" Writer Olivia Laing noted that "words jumped out at him, from the back of cereal boxes or subway ads, and he stayed alert to their subversive properties, their double and hidden meaning."{{Cite web|first=Olivia|last=Laing|date=September 8, 2017|title=Race, power, money – the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/08/race-power-money-the-art-of-jean-michel-basquiat|access-date=June 18, 2023|website=the Guardian}}

A second recurrent reference to Basquiat's aesthetics comes from the artist's intention to share, in the words of gallerist Niru Ratnam, a "highly individualistic, expressive view of the world".Niru Ratnam (November 16, 2013), [https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/11/collectors-love-him-critics-hate-him-what-do-you-think-of-jean-michel-basquiat/ Do you think this painting is worth $48.4 million?] The Spectator. Art historian Luis Alberto Mejia Clavijo believes Basquiat's work inspires people to "paint like a child, don't paint what is in the surface but what you are re-creating inside.{{Cite web|first=Luis Alberto|last=Mejia Clavijo|title=Voodoo Child: Ernok of Jean Michel Basquiat|url=https://luissioamclavijo.blogspot.com/2012/07/voodoo-child-ernok-of-jean-michel.html|date=July 10, 2012|access-date=June 18, 2023|website=Contemporary Art Theory}} Musician David Bowie, who was a collector of Basquiat's works, stated that "he seemed to digest the frenetic flow of passing image and experience, put them through some kind of internal reorganization and dress the canvas with this resultant network of chance."

Art critics have also compared Basquiat's work to the emergence of hip-hop during the same era. "Basquiat's art—like the best hip-hop—takes apart and reassembles the work that came before it", said art critic Franklin Sirmans in a 2005 essay, "In the Cipher: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Culture".{{Sfn|Saggese|2014|p=61}}

Art critic Rene Ricard wrote in his 1981 article "The Radiant Child":

I'm always amazed at how people come up with things. Like Jean-Michel. How did he come up with the words he puts all over everything, his way of making a point without overstating the case, using one or two words he reveals a political acuity, gets the viewer going in the direction he wants, the illusion of the bombed-over wall. One or two words containing a full body. One or two words on a Jean-Michel contain the entire history of graffiti. What he incorporates into his pictures, whether found or made, is specific and selective. He has a perfect idea of what he's getting across, using everything that collates to his vision.

Basquiat speaks articulately while dodging the full impact of clarity like a matador. We can read his pictures without strenuous effort—the words, the images, the colors and the construction—but we cannot quite fathom the point they belabor. Keeping us in this state of half-knowing, of mystery-within-familiarity, had been the core technique of his brand of communication since his adolescent days as the graffiti poet SAMO. To enjoy them, we are not meant to analyze the pictures too carefully. Quantifying the encyclopedic breadth of his research certainly results in an interesting inventory, but the sum cannot adequately explain his pictures, which requires an effort outside the purview of iconography ... he painted a calculated incoherence, calibrating the mystery of what such apparently meaning-laden pictures might ultimately mean.Basquiat, edited by Marc Mayer, 2005, Merrell Publishers in association with the Brooklyn Museum, {{ISBN|978-1-85894-287-2}}, p. 50.

In the 1980s, art critic Robert Hughes dismissed Basquiat's work as absurd.Graham Thompson, American Culture in the 1980s, Edinburgh University Press, 2007, p. 68 He attributed the Basquiat phenomenon to be a mixture of hype, overproduction, and a greedy art market.{{Cite web |last=D'Arcy |first=David |title=BASQUIAT CASE {{!}} Vanity Fair {{!}} November 1992 |url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1992/11/basquiat-case |access-date=May 19, 2022 |website=Vanity Fair {{!}} The Complete Archive |language=en-US}}

In a 1997 review for The Daily Telegraph, art critic Hilton Kramer begins by stating that Basquiat had no idea what the word "quality" meant. He relentlessly criticized Basquiat as a "talentless hustler" and "street-smart but otherwise invincibly ignorant", arguing that he "used his youth, his looks, his skin colour and his abundant sex appeal to win an overnight fame that proved to be his undoing" and that art dealers of the time were "as ignorant about art as Basquiat himself." In saying that Basquiat's work never rose above "that lowly artistic station" of graffiti "even when his paintings were fetching enormous prices", Kramer argued that graffiti art "acquired a cult status in certain New York art circles." He further opined, "As a result of the campaign waged by these art-world entrepreneurs on Basquiat's behalf—and their own, of course—there was never any doubt that the museums, the collectors and the media would fall into line" when talking about the marketing of Basquiat's name.{{Cite news|date=March 22, 1997|title=He had everything but talent|language=en-GB|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4707974/He-had-everything-but-talent.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504015415/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4707974/He-had-everything-but-talent.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 4, 2014|access-date=December 5, 2017|issn=0307-1235}}

Basquiat's first public exhibition was at The Times Square Show in New York in June 1980. In May 1981, he had his first solo exhibition at Galleria d'Arte Emilio Mazzoli in Modena.{{Cite web|date=June 8, 2018|title=Sotheby's Brings Basquiat Held in Italy for 35 Years to London|url=https://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2018/06/08/sothebys-brings-basquiat-held-in-italy-for-35-years-to-london/|access-date=September 20, 2020|website=Art Market Monitor|language=en-US|archive-date=January 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115231202/https://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2018/06/08/sothebys-brings-basquiat-held-in-italy-for-35-years-to-london/|url-status=dead}} In late 1981, he joined the Annina Nosei Gallery in New York, where he had his first American one-man show from March 6 to April 1, 1982.{{Cite web|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat | MoMA|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/370|access-date=2023-01-08|website=The Museum of Modern Art|language=en}} In 1982, he also had shows at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, and the Fun Gallery in the East Village.{{Cite web|last=Gotthardt|first=Alexxa|date=April 1, 2018|title=What Makes 1982 Basquiat's Most Valuable Year|url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-1982-basquiats-valuable-year|access-date=October 5, 2020|website=Artsy|language=en}} Major exhibitions of his work have included Jean-Michel Basquiat: Paintings 1981–1984 at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh in 1984, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 1985. In 1985, the University Art Museum, Berkeley hosted Basquiat's first solo American museum exhibition.{{Cite web|title=Jean Michel Basquiat / MATRIX 80 {{!}} BAMPFA|url=https://bampfa.org/program/jean-michel-basquiat-matrix-80|access-date=January 4, 2021|website=bampfa.org|date=December 22, 2014 }} His work was showcased at Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover in 1987 and 1989.{{Cite web|title=Basquiat biography {{!}} Galerie Bruno Bischofberger|url=https://www.brunobischofberger.com/basquiat-biography|access-date=August 18, 2021|website=Mysite|language=en}}

The first retrospective of his work was held by the Baghoomian Gallery in New York from October to November 1989.{{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=July 22, 1991 |title=The Basquiat Touch Survives the Artist In Shows and Courts |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/22/arts/the-basquiat-touch-survives-the-artist-in-shows-and-courts.html |access-date=May 19, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} His first museum retrospective, Jean-Michel Basquiat, was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from October 1992 to February 1993.{{Cite news |last=Lipson |first=Karin |date=January 23, 1993 |title=Basquiat Retrospective: Well-Earned or Hype? : Art: Four years after his death, a Whitney show raises questions: Is this a look at a productive career? Or a new spin on a dubious phenomenon? |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-23-ca-1493-story.html}}{{Cite news |last=Smith |first=Roberta |date=October 23, 1992 |title=Review/Art; Basquiat: Man For His Decade |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/23/arts/review-art-basquiat-man-for-his-decade.html |access-date=May 19, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}} The show was sponsored by AT&T, MTV and Basquiat's former girlfriend Madonna.{{Cite web |last=D'Arcy |first=David |date=October 31, 1992 |title=Whitney compares Basquiat to Leonardo da Vinci in new retrospective |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/1992/11/01/whitney-compares-basquiat-to-leonardo-da-vinci-in-new-retrospective |access-date=August 2, 2020 |website=The Art Newspaper}}{{subscription required}} It subsequently traveled to the Menil Collection in Texas; the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa; and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama, from 1993 to 1994.{{Cite web |date=September 30, 1992 |title=First American Basquiat retrospective to be held at the Whitney |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/1992/10/01/first-american-basquiat-retrospective-to-be-held-at-the-whitney |access-date=May 19, 2022 |website=The Art Newspaper – International art news and events}} The exhibition's catalog was edited by Richard Marshall and included several essays from different perspectives.Marshall, Richard. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Abrams / Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992 (out of print). In 1996, Madonna sponsored an exhibition of his work at the Serpentine Gallery in London.{{Cite web|last=Bevan|first=Roger|date=March 1, 1996|title=The Serpentine asks how good was Jean-Michel Basquiat, really?|url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/1996/03/01/the-serpentine-asks-how-good-was-jean-michel-basquiat-really|access-date=February 1, 2022|website=The Art Newspaper – International art news and events}}{{Cite news|date=February 17, 1996|title=Madonna Sponsors Show|page=5|work=The Guardian}}{{Cite journal|date=April 8, 1996|title=Requiescat in Spago|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOECAAAAMBAJ&dq=Madonna+sponsors+basquiat+serpentine+1996&pg=PA15|journal=New York Magazine|pages=15}}

In March 2005, the retrospective Basquiat was mounted by the Brooklyn Museum in New York.{{Cite web|title=Basquiat|url=https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat|access-date=December 5, 2020|website=Brooklyn Museum}} It traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.Mayer, Marc, Hoffman Fred, et al. Basquiat, Merrell Publishers / Brooklyn Museum, 2005. From October 2006 to January 2007, the first Basquiat exhibition in Puerto Rico was held at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico, produced by ArtPremium, Corinne Timsit and Eric Bonici.{{Cite web|title=Basquiat: An anthology for Puerto Rico|url=https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/40871/basquiat-an-anthology-for-puerto-rico/|access-date=September 20, 2020|website=www.e-flux.com|language=en}} In 2016, the Brooklyn Museum organized and presented Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, the first major viewing of Basquiat's sketches, poetry, notetaking, and overall artist's book practice. The show traveled to the Pérez Art Museum Miami later on. A monograph featuring essays by Pérez Art Museum Miami executive director, the art historian Franklin Sirmans and Henry Louis Gates, was published in the occasion of this exhibition{{Cite web |title=Basquiat at PAMM Pérez Art Museum Miami - Artmap.com |url=https://artmap.com/pamm/exhibition/basquiat-2016 |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=artmap.com}}{{Cite book |title=Basquiat: the unknown notebooks. [on the occasion of the Exhibition Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks, held at the Brooklyn Museum, April 3 – August 23, 2015] |date=2015 |publisher=Skira Rizzoli [u.a.] |isbn=978-0-8478-4582-8 |editor-last=Buchhart |editor-first=Dieter |location=New York |editor-last2=Basquiat |editor-first2=Jean Michel |editor-last3=Gates |editor-first3=Henry Louis |editor-last4=Bloom |editor-first4=Tricia Laughlin |editor-last5=Brooklyn Museum}}

Basquiat remains an important source of inspiration for a younger generation of contemporary artists all over the world, such as Rita Ackermann and Kader Attia—as shown, for example, at the exhibition Street and Studio: From Basquiat to Séripop co-curated by Cathérine Hug and Thomas Mießgang and previously exhibited at Kunsthalle Wien, Austria, in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://www.kunsthallewien.at/#/de/ausstellungen/vergangene-ausstellungen/street-and-studio |title= Street and Studio|publisher=Kunsthalle Wien |access-date=March 26, 2019}} Basquiat and the Bayou, a 2014 show presented by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, focused on the artist's works with themes of the American South.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2014/10/basquiat_and_the_bayou_the_num.html|title='Basquiat and the Bayou,' the No. 1 Prospect.3 art festival stop in New Orleans|last=MacCash|first=Doug|date=November 11, 2014|work=NOLA.com|access-date=October 9, 2018|language=en-US}} The Brooklyn Museum exhibited Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks in 2015.{{cite web|title=Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks|url=http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat_notebooks/5|access-date=December 29, 2016|publisher=Brooklyn Museum|archive-date=October 9, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171009041817/https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/basquiat_notebooks/5|url-status=dead}} In 2017, Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980 exhibited as Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, which displayed works created during the year Basquiat lived with his friend Alexis Adler. Later that year, the Barbican Centre in London exhibited Basquiat: Boom for Real.{{Cite web|title=Basquiat: Boom for Real exhibition, 21 Sep 2017–28 Jan 2018 {{!}} Barbican|url=https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2017/event/basquiat-boom-for-real|access-date=September 26, 2020|website=www.barbican.org.uk|date=September 21, 2017 |language=en}}

In 2019, the Brant Foundation in New York, hosted an extensive exhibition of Basquiat's works with free admission.{{Cite web|last=Cascone|first=Sarah|date=April 8, 2019|title=The Basquiat Show at the Brant Foundation Is Such a Big Hit That Organizers Are Releasing More Free Tickets|url=https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/brant-founation-more-basquiat-tickets-1511968|access-date=September 30, 2020|website=artnet News|language=en-US}} All 50,000 tickets were claimed before the exhibition opened, so additional tickets were released.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/with-east-village-exhibition-the-art-of-jean-michel-basquiat-comes-home |title= Interview by Jeffrey Brown on Basquiat Brant Foundation exhibit. May 6, 2019.|date= May 6, 2019|publisher=PBS NewsHour |access-date=June 26, 2019}} In June 2019, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented Basquiat's "Defacement": The Untold Story.{{Cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/basquiats-defacement-the-untold-story|title=Basquiat's "Defacement": The Untold Story|date=October 15, 2018|website=Guggenheim|language=en-US|access-date=January 4, 2019}} Later that year, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne opened the exhibition Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines.{{Cite web|title=Keith Haring {{!}} Jean-Michel Basquiat {{!}} NGV|url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/keith-haring-jean-michel-basquiat/|access-date=September 20, 2020|website=National Gallery of Victoria}} In 2020, the Lotte Museum of Art mounted the first major exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Seoul.{{Cite web|last=Park|first=Yuna|date=July 20, 2020|title=Lotte Museum of Art to host first major exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Seoul|url=http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200720000728|access-date=September 24, 2020|website=The Korea Herald|language=en}} The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibited Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation from October 2020 to July 2021.{{Cite web|title=Writing the Future|url=https://www.mfa.org/exhibition/writing-the-future|access-date=September 20, 2020|website=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston|language=en}}

Basquiat's family curated Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, an immersive exhibition with over 200 never-before-seen and rarely shown works.{{Cite web |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure © |url=https://kingpleasure.basquiat.com/ |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=King Pleasaure |language=en}} King Pleasure debuted at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, New York in April 2022.{{Cite web |last=Weaver |first=Shaye |date=February 28, 2022 |title=EXCLUSIVE: Tickets to the immersive Basquiat exhibition are on sale right now |url=https://www.timeout.com/newyork/news/exclusive-tickets-to-the-immersive-basquiat-exhibition-are-on-sale-right-now-022822 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=Time Out New York |language=en-US}} In March 2023, the exhibition traveled to the Grand LA in Los Angeles.{{Cite web |date=2023-04-13 |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure© |url=https://gagosian.com/news/museum-exhibitions/jean-michel-basquiat-king-pleasure-grand-la-los-angeles/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Gagosian |language=en}}

In 2022, the Albertina presented the first museum retrospective of Basquiat's work in Austria.{{Cite web |last=Batycka |first=Dorian |date=September 25, 2022 |title=In Pictures: See Inside the Albertina's Legacy-Defining Basquiat Retrospective |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/in-pictures-see-inside-the-albertinas-legacy-defining-basquiat-retrospective-2180795 |access-date=September 26, 2022 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}} The exhibition Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music was mounted at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2022.{{Cite web |last=Gural |first=Natasha |date=January 24, 2023 |title='Seeing Loud: Basquiat And Music' Amplifies The Neo-Expressionist Master's Undeniable Bond With Sound And Vision |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/natashagural/2023/01/24/seeing-loud-basquiat-and-music-amplifies-the-neo-expressionist-masters-undeniable-bond-with-sound-and-vision/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=Forbes |language=en}} In 2023, the show traveled to Paris as Basquiat Soundtracks at the Philharmonie de Paris.{{Cite news |date=2023-04-19 |title='Basquiat Soundtracks' at the Philharmonie de Paris: Painting with the sound turned up |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/article/2023/04/19/basquiat-soundtracks-at-the-philharmonie-de-paris-when-the-artist-painted-with-the-sound-turned-up_6023405_30.html |access-date=2024-01-11 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=en}} Later that year, the Brant Foundation held the exhibition Basquiat X Warhol at their East Village location.{{Cite web |title=Warhol x Basquiat {{!}} Brant Foundation {{!}} Review |url=https://andipaeditions.com/blog/194-warhol-x-basquiat-a-review/ |access-date=2023-12-21 |website=Andipa Editions |language=en}}

In 2024, the gallery Hauser & Wirth presented "Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin", Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first solo exhibition dedicated to the paintings he created in and inspired by his visits to Switzerland at Hauser & Wirth's St. Moritz gallery.{{Cite web |last=VADIAN. NET AG |first=St Gallen |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: «Engadin» - Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz zeigt Werke aus der Schweiz |url=https://www.st.moritz.im/de/Jean+Michel+Basquiat+Engadin+Hauser+Wirth+St+Moritz+zeigt+Werke+aus+der+Schweiz/703291/detail.htm |access-date=2024-12-17 |website=www.st.moritz.im |language=de}}

Basquiat sold his first painting to singer Debbie Harry for $200 in 1981. Advised by Italian artist Sandro Chia, gallerist Emilio Mazzoli purchased ten of Basquiat's works for $10,000 and held an exhibition at his gallery in Modena in May 1981. Spurred by the Neo-expressionism art boom, his work was in great demand by 1982, which is considered his most valuable year. A majority of his highest-selling paintings at auction date to 1982. Recalling that year, Basquiat said, "I had some money; I made the best paintings ever." His paintings were priced at $5,000 to $10,000 in 1983—lowered from the range of $10,000 to $15,000 when he joined Mary Boone's gallery to reflect what she felt was consistent with those of other artists in her gallery.{{Cite news|last=Glueck|first=Grace|date=June 12, 1983|title=When Money Talks, What Does It Say About Art|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/12/arts/when-money-talks-what-does-it-say-about-art.html|access-date=February 1, 2022|issn=0362-4331}} In 1984, it was reported that in two years his work appreciated in value by 500%.{{Sfn|Saggese|2021|p=115}} In the mid-1980s, Basquiat was earning $1.4 million a year as an artist. By 1985, his paintings were selling for $10,000 to $25,000 each. Basquiat's rise to fame in the international art market landed him on the cover of The New York Times Magazine in 1985, which was unprecedented for a young African-American artist.{{Cite web|date=2018-04-12|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat, 555 West 24th Street, New York, February 7 – April 6, 2013|url=https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2013/jean-michel-basquiat/|access-date=2023-01-08|website=Gagosian|language=en}}

Since Basquiat's death in 1988, the market for his work has developed steadily—in line with overall art market trends—with a dramatic peak in 2007 when, at the height of the art market boom, the global auction volume for his work was over $115 million. Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of Christie's, is quoted describing Basquiat's market as "two-tiered ... The most coveted material is rare, generally dating from the best period, 1981–83."Georgina Adam and Gareth Harris (June 17, 2010), [http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Basquiat-comes-of-age/21078 Basquiat comes of age] The Art Newspaper. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100822015318/http://theartnewspaper.com/articles/Basquiat-comes-of-age/21078 |date=August 22, 2010 }} Until 2002, the highest amount paid for an original work of Basquiat's was $3.3 million for Self-Portrait (1982), sold at Christie's in 1998.{{Cite news|last=Vogel|first=Carol|date=November 13, 1998|title=Graffiti Artist Makes Good: A Basquiat Sells for a Record $3.3 Million|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/13/nyregion/graffiti-artist-makes-good-a-basquiat-sells-for-a-record-3.3-million.html|access-date=January 8, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} In 2002, Basquiat's Profit I (1982) was sold at Christie's by drummer Lars Ulrich of the heavy metal band Metallica for $5.5 million.{{cite web|url=http://www.thecityreview.com/s02ccon1.html |title=Art/Auctions: Post-War & Contemporary Art evening auction, May 14, 2002 at Christie's |access-date=January 17, 2008 |last=Horsley |first=Carter }} The proceedings of the auction were documented in the 2004 film Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.{{Cite web|last=Gleiberman|first=Owen|title=Metallica: Some Kind of Monster|url=https://ew.com/article/2004/07/08/metallica-some-kind-monster-2/|access-date=April 30, 2021|website=EW.com|language=en}}

In June 2002, New York artist Alfredo Martinez was charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with attempting to deceive two art dealers by selling them $185,000 worth of fake Basquiat drawings.{{Cite web|last=Artdaily|title=Basquiat Forger Arrested By FBI|url=https://artdaily.cc/news/1592/Basquiat-Forger-Arrested-By-FBI#.X_hG-OhKhPY|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=artdaily.cc|language=English}} The charges against Martinez, which landed him in Manhattan's Metropolitan Correction Center for 21 months, involved a scheme to sell drawings he copied from authentic artworks, accompanied by forged certificates of authenticity.{{Cite web|last=Lehmann|first=John|date=February 27, 2003|title=Fraud Artist Finds Prison Less Filling|url=https://nypost.com/2003/02/27/fraud-artist-finds-prison-less-filling/|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=New York Post|language=en-US}} Martinez claimed he got away with selling fake Basquiat drawings for 18 years.{{Cite web|last=Spies|first=Michael|date=February 13, 2007|title=Trigger Happy|url=https://www.villagevoice.com/2007/02/13/trigger-happy/|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=The Village Voice}}{{Cite web|last=Nelson|first=Joe Heaps|date=|title=July 2013: In Conversation with Alfredo Martinez|url=https://whitehotmagazine.com/articles/in-conversation-with-alfredo-martinez/2796|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art|language=en}}

In 2007, Basquiat's painting Hannibal (1982) was seized by federal authorities as part of an embezzlement scheme by convicted Brazilian money launderer and former banker Edemar Cid Ferreira.{{Cite news|last=Cohen|first=Patricia|date=May 13, 2013|title=Valuable as Art, but Priceless as a Tool to Launder Money|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/arts/design/art-proves-attractive-refuge-for-money-launderers.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/13/arts/design/art-proves-attractive-refuge-for-money-launderers.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=January 18, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}} Ferreira had purchased the painting with illegally acquired funds while he controlled Banco Santos in Brazil. It was shipped to a Manhattan warehouse, via the Netherlands, with a false shipping invoice stating it was worth $100.{{Cite web|last=Kinsella|first=Eileen|date=June 19, 2015|title=Bad Banker's $8 Million Basquiat Smuggled With Shipping Invoice for $100 Returns Home|url=https://news.artnet.com/market/smuggled-basquiat-returned-brazil-309813|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=artnet News|language=en-US}} The painting was later sold at Sotheby's for $13.1 million.{{Cite web|last=Freeman|first=Nate|date=October 7, 2016|title=Sotheby's Contemporary Sale Nets $59.6 M., Beating High Estimate, With $13.1 M. Basquiat Leading the Way|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/sothebys-59-6-m-contemporary-sale-becomes-frieze-weeks-biggest-auction-with-a-13-1-m-basquiat-leading-the-way-7112/|access-date=January 18, 2021|website=ARTnews|language=en-US}}

Between 2007 and 2012, the price of Basquiat's work continued to steadily increase up to $16.3 million.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6660487.stm |title=Huge bids smash modern art record |publisher=BBC |date=May 16, 2007 |access-date=May 16, 2007}}{{Cite news|last=Vogel|first=Carol|date=May 11, 2012|title=Basquiat Painting Brings $16.3 Million at Phillips Sale|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/nyregion/basquiat-painting-brings-16-3-million-at-phillips-sale.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/11/nyregion/basquiat-painting-brings-16-3-million-at-phillips-sale.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=January 8, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cbignore}}{{Cite news|last=Melikian|first=Souren|date=2012-06-29|title=Wary Buyers Still Pour Money Into Contemporary Art|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/arts/30iht-melikian30.html|access-date=2023-01-08|issn=0362-4331}}

The sale of Untitled (1981) for $20.1 million in 2012 elevated his market to a new stratosphere.{{Cite web|last=Harris|first=Gareth|date=August 31, 2012|title=Basquiat leaps into different league: A market analysis|url=http://www.theartnewspaper.com/archive/basquiat-leaps-into-different-league|access-date=January 8, 2021|website=The Art Newspaper}}{{subscription required}} Soon other works in his oeuvre outpaced that record. Another work, Untitled (1981), depicting a fisherman, sold for $26.4 million in 2012.{{Cite news|last=|first=|date=November 15, 2012|title=Records set for Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons|language=en-US|work=CBC News|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/records-set-for-jean-michel-basquiat-jeff-koons-1.1145631|access-date=January 8, 2021}} In 2013, Dustheads (1982) sold for $48.8 million at Christie's.{{cite web|url=https://news.artnet.com/market/jean-michel-basquiat-most-expensive-works-2016-496796|title=Basquiat's Most Expensive Works at Auction|date=May 16, 2016|work=Artnet.com|access-date=December 29, 2016}}

In 2016, Basquiat's work Air Power, part of David Bowie's art collection, was sold at auction for nearly $9 million.{{Cite web |url=http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/bowie-collector/2016/11/bowie-collector-auction-results.html |title=Sotheby's: David Bowie's Art Captivates Collectors |access-date=2016-12-05 |archive-date=2018-01-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101213145/http://www.sothebys.com/en/news-video/blogs/all-blogs/bowie-collector/2016/11/bowie-collector-auction-results.html |url-status=dead }}

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa purchased Untitled (1982), depicting a devil-like figure, for $57.3 million at Christie's in 2017.{{Cite news|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|date=2016-05-15|title=A Collector's-Eye View of the Auctions|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/16/arts/design/a-collectors-eye-view-of-the-auctions.html|access-date=2023-01-08|issn=0362-4331}} He sold the painting for $85 million at Phillips in 2022.{{Cite web |last=Porterfield |first=Carlie |date=May 18, 2022 |title=Billionaire Yusaku Maezawa Sells Basquiat Painting For $85 Million As Market For Artist's Work Heats Up |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/05/18/billionaire-yusaku-maezawa-sells-basquiat-painting-for-85-million-as-market-for-artists-work-heats-up/ |access-date=May 19, 2022 |website=Forbes |language=en}} Maezawa also purchased Basquiat's Untitled (1982), a powerful depiction of a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, for a record-setting $110.5 million in May 2017.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/arts/jean-michel-basquiat-painting-is-sold-for-110-million-at-auction.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220103/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/arts/jean-michel-basquiat-painting-is-sold-for-110-million-at-auction.html |archive-date=January 3, 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=A Basquiat Sells for 'Mind-Blowing' $110.5 Million at Auction |editor1=Pogrebin, Robin|editor2=Reyburn, Scott |date=May 18, 2017 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=June 13, 2017}}{{cbignore}} It is the second highest price ever paid at an auction for artwork by an American artist.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-may-basquiat-painting-auction-1495159714-htmlstory.html |title=Basquiat painting sells for $110.5 million, the most ever paid for an American artwork |editor=D'Zurilla, Christie |date=May 18, 2017 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=June 13, 2017}}{{Cite news |last=Pogrebin |first=Robin |date=May 10, 2022 |title=Warhol's 'Marilyn,' at $195 Million, Shatters Auction Record for an American Artist |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/arts/design/warhol-auction-marilyn-monroe.html |access-date=May 10, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}

In 2018, Flexible (1984) sold for $45.3 million, becoming Basquiat's first post-1983 painting to surpass the $20 million mark.{{Cite web|last=Armstrong|first=Annie|date=May 18, 2018|title=$45.3 M. Basquiat Is Top Lot in Robust $131.6 M. Phillips Sale of 20th-Century and Contemporary Art|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/45-3-m-basquiat-leads-robust-131-6-m-phillips-sale-20th-century-contemporary-art-10343/|access-date=January 10, 2021|website=ARTnews|language=en-US}} In June 2020, Untitled (Head) (1982), sold for $15.2 million; a record for a Sotheby's online sale and a record for a Basquiat work on paper.{{Cite web|last=Villa|first=Angelica|date=July 3, 2020|title=Mitchell, Basquiat Top $41 M. Phillips Contemporary Evening Sale, Thirst for Young Artists Brings New Records|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/phillips-june-2020-evening-sale-1202693351/|access-date=January 23, 2021|website=ARTnews|language=en-US}} In July 2020, Loïc Gouzer's Fair Warning app announced that an untitled drawing on paper sold for $10.8 million, which is a record high for an in-app purchase.{{Cite web|date=July 31, 2020|title=Art Industry News: Loïc Gouzer's Fair Warning Sold a Basquiat for $10.8 Million, a Record for an In-App Purchase of Anything + Other Stories|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-industry-news-july-31-other-stories-1898750|access-date=August 3, 2020|website=artnet News|language=en-US}} Earlier that year, American businessman Ken Griffin purchased Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) for upwards of $100 million from art collector Peter Brant.{{Cite news|last=Johnson|first=Steve|date=July 25, 2020|title=Now hanging at the Art Institute: Chicago billionaire Ken Griffin's new, $100 million Basquiat canvas|work=Chicago Tribune|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/museums/ct-ent-griffin-basquiat-art-institute-loan-0725-20200725-g2l2lzlkhfdh7dpobezyvqw4p4-story.html|access-date=September 30, 2020}}{{Cite web|last=Kazakina|first=Katya|date=June 4, 2020|title=Ken Griffin Buys Basquiat Painting for More Than $100 Million|url=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-04/ken-griffin-buys-basquiat-painting-for-more-than-100-million|access-date=September 30, 2020|website=Bloomberg}} In March 2021, Warrior (1982) sold for $41.8 million at Christie's in Hong Kong, which is the most expensive Western work of art sold at auction in Asia.{{Cite web|last=Rea|first=Naomi|date=March 23, 2021|title=A Basquiat Painting of a Warrior Just Fetched $41.8 Million at Christie's Hong Kong, Setting a Record for Western Art in Asia|url=https://news.artnet.com/market/basquiat-hong-kong-christies-1953938|access-date=March 24, 2021|website=Artnet News|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|title=Basquiat's Warrior becomes most expensive Western artwork ever sold in Asia at HK$323,600,000 / $41,857,351|url=https://www.christies.com/features/20th-Century-Evening-Sale-results-March-2021-11551-3.aspx|access-date=March 24, 2021|website=Christie's|language=en}} In May 2021, In This Case (1983) sold for $93.1 million at Christie's in New York.{{Cite web|last=Kazakina|first=Katya|date=May 11, 2021|title=A Prized Basquiat Skull Painting Fetched $93.1 Million at Christie's, the Second-Highest Price Ever Paid for a Work by the Artist at Auction|url=https://news.artnet.com/market/basquiat-christies-second-highest-record-1966135|access-date=May 12, 2021|website=Artnet News|language=en-US}} Later that year, Donut Revenge (1982) sold for $20.9 million at Christie's in Hong Kong.{{Cite web|last=Raybaud|first=Sebastien|date=December 2, 2021|title=Basquiat's painting garners US$20 million at Christie's Evening Sale|url=https://en.thevalue.com/articles/christies-hong-kong-modern-contemporary-art-evening-sales-2021-basquiat|access-date=December 7, 2021|website=The Value|language=en-US}} In 2022, Sugar Ray Robinson (1982) sold for $32.6 million at Christie's in New York.{{Cite web |date=November 17, 2022 |title=Basquiat, Rothko and Modigliani lead Christie's 20th and 21st Century Evening Sales |url=https://www.christies.com/features/20-21-nov-2022-marquee-week-sale-results-12547-3.aspx?sc_lang=en |website=Christie's}} In 2023, El Gran Espectaculo (The Nile) (1983) sold for $67.1 million at Christie's, and Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two) (1982) sold for $42 million at Sotheby's in New York.{{Cite web |last=Schultz |first=Abby |title=Jean-Michel Basquiat Triptych Achieves $67 Million at Christie's |url=https://www.barrons.com/articles/jean-michel-basquiat-triptych-achieves-67-million-at-christies-c8bf64e3 |access-date=2023-05-18 |website=www.barrons.com |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Rabb |first=Maxwell |date=2023-11-16 |title=Julie Mehretu breaks auction record at Sotheby's evening sales. |url=https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-julie-mehretu-breaks-auction-record-sotheby-s-evening-sales |access-date=2024-01-12 |website=Artsy |language=en}}

In 1994, three paintings displayed as Basquiats at the FIAC were revealed to be fakes.{{Cite web |date=2020-10-08 |title=Basquiat drawings found in French village 'a scam', experts say |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20201008-basquiat-drawings-found-in-french-village-a-scam-experts-say |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=France 24 |language=en}} In 2007 Christie's was sued in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly selling a fake Basquiat.{{Cite web |last=Carlson |first=Jen |title=Christie's and the Bogus Basquiat |url=https://gothamist.com/arts-entertainment/christies-and-the-bogus-basquiat |website=gothamist.com|date=September 19, 2007 }}{{Cite web |last=Grant |first=Daniel |date=2007-10-02 |title=Gallerist Accuses Christie's of Selling Him a Fake Basquiat |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/gallerist-accuses-christies-of-selling-him-a-fake-basquiat-1544/ |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}} Christie's rejected the charge{{Cite web |date=2008-03-01 |title=Christie's hits back over disputed Basquiat |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2008/03/01/christies-hits-back-over-disputed-basquiat |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=The Art Newspaper – International art news and events}} but the suit proceeded.{{Cite web |title=Suit Proceeds Against Christie's Auction House Over Fake Basquiat |url=https://www.law.com/almID/1202426019155/ |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=Law.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR)-Case Summary-Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Inc. v. Christie's Inc. |url=https://www.ifar.org/case_summary.php?docid=1284656448 |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=www.ifar.org}} In 2020 a Los Angeles man, Philip Bennet Righter, plead guilty to art fraud after trying to sell forged paintings by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat.{{Cite news |last=Flanagin |first=Jake |date=2020-03-11 |title=US man pleads guilty to duping art buyers with fake Basquiats and Warhols |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/10/los-angeles-art-fraud-basquiat-warhol-philip-bennet-righter |access-date=2023-11-06 |issn=0261-3077}} Also in 2020, in France, an exhibition of drawings attributed to Basquiat at the Volcano gallery in Nuits-Saint-Georges was disputed.{{Cite web |date=2020-09-30 |title=Une galerie est soupçonnée d'exposer 35 faux dessins de Basquiat – Arts in the City |url=https://www.arts-in-the-city.com/2020/09/30/une-galerie-est-soupconnee-dexposer-35-faux-dessins-de-basquiat/ |access-date=2023-11-06 |language=fr}}

In February 2022, the Orlando Museum of Art mounted the controversial exhibition Heroes & Monsters, which consisted of 25 cardboard works that were claimed to have been sold by Basquiat directly to screenwriter Thad Mumford in 1982, and then placed in storage, where they remained until being rediscovered in 2012.{{Cite news |last=Sokol |first=Brett |date=February 16, 2022 |title=In Orlando, 25 Mysterious Basquiats Come Under the Magnifying Glass |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/arts/design/basquiat-painting-orlando-mumford-museum.html |access-date=March 18, 2022 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |last=Galbraith |first=Alex |date=February 18, 2022 |title=Orlando Museum of Art fires back at claims they are showing fake Basquiat paintings |url=https://www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/orlando-museum-of-art-fires-back-at-claims-they-are-showing-fake-basquiat-paintings/Content?oid=31036103 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=Orlando Weekly |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Dafoe |first=Taylor |date=February 17, 2022 |title=A Florida Museum Is Showing What It Claims Is a Trove of Previously Unknown Basquiats, But Experts Remain Unconvinced |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/florida-museum-showing-trove-previously-unknown-basquiats-2074578 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}} The paintings were seized in a raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2022.{{Cite web |last=Fischer |first=David |date=June 24, 2022 |title=FBI seizes disputed Basquiat artwork from Florida museum |url=https://apnews.com/article/travel-crime-ea8b1f40028430bec675a6f30babe74a |access-date=June 29, 2022 |website=AP NEWS |language=en}} The New York Times obtained an affidavit that revealed Mumford signed a declaration in the presence of federal agents stating that "at no time in the 1980s or any other time did I meet with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and at no time did I acquire or purchase any paintings from him."{{Cite news |last1=Sokol |first1=Brett |last2=Stevens |first2=Matt |date=June 24, 2022 |title=F.B.I. Raids Orlando Museum and Removes Basquiat Paintings |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/arts/design/fbi-orlando-museum-basquiat.html |access-date=June 29, 2022 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} Los Angeles auctioneer Michael Barzman confessed to creating a suite of 25 Basquiat forgeries that wound up at the Orlando Museum of Art and was sentenced to community service and probation.{{Cite news |last=Stevens |first=Matt |date=2023-08-18 |title=Auctioneer Who Helped Create Fake Basquiats Gets Probation |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/arts/design/fake-basquiats-sentencing.html |access-date=2023-11-06 |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news |last=Luscombe |first=Richard |date=2023-04-13 |title=Man admits to Basquiat forgery scheme which saw fakes displayed in museum |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/13/basquiat-forgery-scheme-fake-paintings-orlando-museum |access-date=2023-11-06 |issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web |date=2022-06-01 |title=FBI Investigates Whether These 25 Works by Jean-Micheal Basquiat Are Fake |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/fbi-investigates-25-works-jean-michel-basquiat |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=Architectural Digest |language=en-US}}

In 2023, Florida art dealer Daniel Elie Bouaziz was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for a money laundering scheme to sell counterfeit contemporary artworks, including pieces purportedly by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, and Banksy.{{Cite web |last=Solomon |first=Tessa |date=2023-05-31 |title=Disgraced Florida Dealer Gets Prison Time for Peddling Fake Basquiats, Warhols |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/disgraced-florida-dealer-gets-prison-time-for-peddling-fake-basquiats-1234670060/ |access-date=2023-11-06 |website=ARTnews.com |language=en-US}}

The authentication committee of the estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat was formed by the Robert Miller Gallery, the gallery that was assigned to handle Basquiat's estate after his death, in part to wage battle against the growing number of fakes and forgeries in the Basquiat market.{{Cite news|title=The tricky art of authentication Truth: Sometimes, only the artist or his or her family knows for sure whether a work is the real thing.|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-09-29-1996273100-story.html|first=Daniel|last=Grant|newspaper=Baltimore Sun|date=September 29, 1996|access-date=January 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413160137/https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-09-29-1996273100-story.html|archive-date=April 13, 2019|url-status=live}} The cost of the committee's opinion was $100. The committee was headed by Basquiat's father Gérard Basquiat. Members varied depending on who was available at the time when a piece was being authenticated, but they have included the curators and gallerists Diego Cortez, Jeffrey Deitch, Annina Nosei, John Cheim, Richard Marshall, Fred Hoffman, and publisher Larry Warsh.{{Cite web|last=Ghorbani|first=Liza|title=The Devil on the Door|url=https://nymag.com/arts/art/features/jean-michel-basquiat-2011-9/|access-date=June 18, 2023|website=New York Magazine|date=September 16, 2011}}

In 2008, the authentication committee was sued by collector Gerard De Geer, who claimed the committee breached its contract by refusing to offer an opinion on the authenticity of the painting Fuego Flores (1983).{{Cite news |url=http://www.nysun.com/arts/lawsuits-challenge-basquiat-boetti-authentication/75664/ |title=Lawsuits Challenge Basquiat, Boetti Authentication Committees |first=Kate |last=Taylor |newspaper=The New York Sun |date=May 1, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821152201/http://www.nysun.com/arts/lawsuits-challenge-basquiat-boetti-authentication/75664/ |archive-date=August 21, 2008}} After the lawsuit was dismissed, the committee ruled the work genuine.Georgina Adam and Riah Pryor (December 11, 2008), [http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/The-law-vs-scholarship/25155 The law vs scholarship] The Art Newspaper. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130515155215/http://www.theartnewspaper.com/articles/The-law-vs-scholarship/25155 |date=May 15, 2013 }} In January 2012, the committee announced that after eighteen years it would dissolve in September of that year and no longer consider applications.{{Cite web|last=Kinsella|first=Eileen|date=January 24, 2012|title=Basquiat Committee to Cease Authenticating Works|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/basquiat-committee-to-cease-authenticating-works-657/|access-date=December 25, 2020|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}

Basquiat had romantic relationships with many women, including singer Madonna.{{Cite news |last=Madonna |date=1996-03-05 |title=Me, Jean-Michel, love and money |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-me-jean-michel-love-and-m/137357501/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |work=The Guardian |pages=9}}{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=55}} Although he never publicly identified as bisexual, a few of his friends have stated that he had sexual relationships with men.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|pp=50–52}}{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=104}} Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk described his sexual interest as "not monochromatic. It did not rely on visual stimulation, such as a pretty girl. It was a very rich multichromatic sexuality. He was attracted to people for all different reasons. They could be boys, girls, thin, fat, pretty, ugly ... He was attracted to intelligence more than anything and to pain."{{Cite web|last=Clement|first=Jennifer|date=December 15, 2014|title=What It Was Like to Be Basquiat's Lover|url=https://www.vulture.com/2014/12/what-it-was-like-to-be-basquiats-lover.html|access-date=December 5, 2021|website=Vulture|language=en-us}}

Biographer Phoebe Hoban wrote on Basquiat's first sexual experiences, which were with men.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=95}} When Basquiat was a minor in Puerto Rico he was orally raped by a barber dressed in drag, then he got involved with a deejay.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=21}} Art critic Rene Ricard, who helped launch Basquiat's career, said that Basquiat was into everything and had "turned tricks" in Condado when he lived in Puerto Rico. As a teenager, Basquiat told a friend that he worked as a prostitute on 42nd Street in Manhattan when he ran away from home.{{Sfn|Hoban|1998|p=25}} Andy Warhol said Basquiat had refused to go with him and Keith Haring to Rounds, a gay hustler bar,{{Cite news |last=Lambert |first=Bruce |date=1994-09-04 |title=NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: MIDTOWN; Gay Bar Shut in 'Loop' |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/04/nyregion/neighborhood-report-midtown-gay-bar-shut-in-loop.html |access-date=2024-01-11 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} because it brought back bad memories of when he was hustling.{{Cite book |last1=Warhol |first1=Andy |url=https://archive.org/details/andywarholdiarie00warh/page/594/mode/2up |title=The Andy Warhol Diaries |last2=Hackett |first2=Pat |publisher=Warner Books |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-446-51426-2 |location=New York |pages=594}} Entry date: Thursday, August 7, 1984.

File:Place Jean-Michel Basquiat, Paris, FRANCE.jpg in Paris]]

Basquiat's estate was administered by his father, Gerard Basquiat, until his passing in 2013. It is now run by his sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux and Lisane Basquiat.{{Cite web |title=The Basquiat Sisters on Managing One of Art's Hottest Brands – The Journal. – WSJ Podcasts |url=https://www.wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal/the-basquiat-sisters-on-managing-one-of-art-hottest-brands/4355329b-cadb-4424-bc6b-3b204aa587f7 |access-date=April 19, 2022 |website=WSJ |language=en}} His work had a significant impact on the street art and hip hop scene,{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/arts/design/basquiat-street-artists-hip-hop.html|title=How Basquiat and Street Artists Left Their Mark on Hip-Hop Culture|website=New York Times|date=2021-06-24|access-date=2024-03-16|first=Julianne|last=McShane}} and has been noted as an influence on a range of contemporary artists including Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and Halim Flowers.{{cite web|url=https://www.wpbmagazine.com/halim-flowers-blossoming-bouquet-flowers/|title=A Blossoming Bouquet of Flowers|work=WBP Magazine|date=2021-05-26|access-date=2024-03-16|first=Bruce|last=Helander}}{{cite web|url=https://andipaeditions.com/blog/164-the-influence-of-jean-michel-basquiat-in-popular-culture/|title=The Influence of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Popular Culture|website=Andipa Editions|date=2023-09-14|access-date=2024-03-16}}

In 2015, Basquiat was featured on the cover of Vanity Fair{{'}}s Art and Artists Special Edition.{{Cite web|last=Sischy|first=Ingrid|date=November 2015|title=For the Love of Basquiat|url=https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/2015/11/for-the-love-of-basquiat|access-date=April 5, 2021|website=Vanity Fair {{!}} The Complete Archive|language=en-US}} In 2016, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation placed a plaque commemorating Basquiat's life outside his former residence at 57 Great Jones Street in Manhattan.{{Cite web|last=Meier|first=Allison|date=July 14, 2016|title=Basquiat's Former Home and Studio Gets a Permanent Plaque|url=https://hyperallergic.com/311137/basquiats-former-home-and-studio-gets-a-permanent-plaque/|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}} In 2017, Basquiat was posthumously awarded the key to the city of Brooklyn by Borough President Eric Adams and honored on the Celebrity Path at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.{{Cite web |last=McGoldrick • |first=Meaghan |date=June 22, 2017 |title=Fabolous, Jean-Michel Basquiat awarded "keys to Brooklyn" during arts weekend |url=https://brooklynreporter.com/2017/06/fabolous-jean-michel-basquiat-awarded-keys-to-brooklyn-during-arts-weekend/ |access-date=April 21, 2022 |website=The Brooklyn Home Reporter |language=en-US}}

Before the exhibition Basquiat: Boom for Real at London's Barbican Centre in 2017, graffiti artist Banksy created two murals inspired by Basquiat on the walls of the Barbican.{{Cite web|date=September 20, 2017|title=Banksy artworks appear on Barbican walls ahead of Basquiat exhibition|url=https://www.dezeen.com/2017/09/20/banksy-creates-artwork-on-barbican-walls-ahead-of-basquiat-exhibition/|access-date=February 23, 2021|website=Dezeen|language=en}} The first mural depicts Basquiat's painting Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) being searched by two police officers.{{Cite web|title=Banksy Collaborates with Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://fineartmultiple.com/blog/banksy-jean-michel-basquiat-collaborate/|access-date=February 23, 2021|website=fineartmultiple.com|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415131545/https://fineartmultiple.com/blog/banksy-jean-michel-basquiat-collaborate|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|title=The Avery Review {{!}} Banksy Does Basquiat|url=https://averyreview.com/issues/28/banksy-does-basquiat|access-date=February 23, 2021|website=averyreview.com|language=en}} The second mural depicts a carousel with the carriages replaced with Basquiat's signature crown motif.{{Cite news |last=Sulcas |first=Roslyn |date=September 18, 2017 |title=Banksy Strikes Again, With Nod to Basquiat |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/arts/design/banksy-jean-michel-basquiat-barbican-center.html |access-date=April 19, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}

In 2018, a public square in the 13th arrondissement of Paris was named Place Jean-Michel Basquiat in his memory.{{Cite web|last=Thiessen|first=Tamara|date=December 7, 2019|title=American Street Art Pioneer, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Immortalized In Paris|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarathiessen/2019/12/07/american-street-art-pioneer-jean-michel-basquiat-immortalized-in--paris/|access-date=December 30, 2020|website=Forbes|language=en}} For the 2020–21 NBA season, the Brooklyn Nets honored Basquiat with their City Edition uniform and a court design inspired by his art.{{Cite web|last=Stewert|first=Nan|date=October 29, 2020|title=Anyone for Basquiatball? The Brooklyn Nets Will Adopt Jerseys Inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat for Its Upcoming Season|url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/brooklyn-nets-basquiat-alternate-jersey-1919442|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=artnet News|language=en-US}}{{Cite web|last=Lewis|first=Brian|date=October 29, 2020|title=Nets honor Basquiat, a Kevin Durant favorite, with new alternate threads|url=https://nypost.com/2020/10/28/nets-honor-basquiat-a-kevin-durant-favorite-with-new-alternates/|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=New York Post|language=en-US}} In 2021, the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation funded a Basquiat educational arts program developed in partnership between the Brooklyn Nets, the New York City Department of Education and the Fund for Public Schools.{{Cite web|date=July 26, 2021|title=Basquiat-inspired art show hosted by Barclays Center|url=https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2021/07/25/basquiat-inspired-art-show-hosted-by-barclays-center/|access-date=July 28, 2021|website=Brooklyn Eagle|language=en-US}} The Nets used a white version of the Basquiat City Edition uniform for the 2022–23 NBA season.{{Cite web |title=Brooklyn Nets 22/23 City Edition Uniform: Brooklyn Graffiti |url=https://www.nba.com/news/brooklyn-nets-city-edition |access-date=December 15, 2022 |website=NBA.com |language=en}}

In 2007, Basquiat was listed among GQ{{'}}s 50 Most Stylish Men of the Past 50 Years.{{Cite web|last=gq.com|date=September 13, 2007|title=The 50 Most Stylish Men of the Past 50 Years|url=https://www.gq.com/gallery/cary-grant-paul-newman-andre-3000-george-clooney-slideshow|access-date=December 25, 2020|website=GQ|language=en-us}} Basquiat often painted in expensive Armani suits and he did a photo shoot for Issey Miyake.{{Cite web|last=Marain|first=Alexandre|date=December 10, 2018|title=Never-before-seen photos of Basquiat from the 1980s are on display in Paris|url=https://www.vogue.fr/vogue-hommes/culture/diaporama/never-before-seen-photos-of-basquiat-from-the-1980s-are-on-display-in-paris/53951?image=5c360c417c9e436be928d1f3|access-date=January 15, 2021|website=Vogue Paris|language=en-GB}}{{Cite web|last=Manatakis|first=Lexi|date=November 27, 2018|title=Unseen photos of Jean-Michel Basquiat wearing Issey Miyake in the 80s|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/42352/1/unseen-photos-jean-michel-basquiat-in-issey-miyake-1983-yutaka-sakano|access-date=January 15, 2021|website=Dazed|language=en}} Comme des Garçons was one of his favorite brands; he was a model for the Spring 1986 fashion show in New York and the Homme Plus Spring/Summer 1987 fashion show in Paris.{{Cite web|last=Bobb|first=Brooke|date=November 2, 2018|title=If You've Got $20,000 to Spare, You Can Own Jean-Michel Basquiat's Favorite Comme des Garçons Coat|url=https://www.vogue.com/article/jean-michel-basquiat-comme-des-garcons-coat-auction|access-date=August 4, 2020|website=Vogue|language=en-us}}{{Cite web|last=Balster|first=Trisha|date=February 22, 2018|title=Know your Icons: Tracing the Basquiat Fashion Influence|url=https://indie-mag.com/2018/02/basquiat-fashion-influence/|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=INDIE Magazine|language=en-GB|archive-date=November 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108041607/https://indie-mag.com/2018/02/basquiat-fashion-influence/|url-status=dead}} To commemorate Basquiat's runway appearances, Comme des Garçons featured his prints in the brand's Fall/Winter 2018 collection.{{Cite web|last=Tesema|first=Feleg|date=October 2, 2018|title=These CdG SHIRT x Basquiat Pieces Are an Art Lover's Dream|url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/comme-des-garcons-shirt-jean-michel-basquiat/|access-date=October 31, 2020|website=Highsnobiety|language=en}} In 2015, Basquiat was featured on the cover of T: The New York Times Style Magazine Men's Style issue.{{Cite web|title=T Magazine – Men's Fashion Issue – Spring 2015 – The New York Times|url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/indexes/2015/03/08/t-magazine/mens-fashion-issue/index.html|access-date=April 5, 2021|website=archive.nytimes.com}}

Valentino's Fall/Winter 2006 collection paid homage to Basquiat.{{Cite web|last=Phelps|first=Nicole|date=March 5, 2006|title=Valentino Fall 2006 Ready-to-Wear Collection|url=https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/fall-2006-ready-to-wear/valentino|access-date=December 23, 2020|website=Vogue|language=en-us}} Sean John created a capsule collection for the 30th anniversary of Basquiat's death in 2018.{{Cite web|date=February 23, 2018|title=This Sean John Capsule Collection Celebrates Basquiat on the 30th Anniversary of His Death|url=https://remezcla.com/culture/sean-john-basquiat-collection/|access-date=October 31, 2020|website=Remezcla|language=en-US}} Apparel and accessories companies that have featured Basquiat's work include Uniqlo,{{Cite web|last=Pauly|first=Alexandra|date=September 1, 2020|title=UNIQLO UT to Launch Jean-Michel Basquiat x Warner Bros. Collection|url=https://hypebae.com/2020/9/uniqlo-ut-jean-michel-basquiat-warner-bros-collaboration-collection-joker-batman-hoodie-t-shirt-release|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=HYPEBAE}} Urban Outfitters, Supreme,{{Cite web|last=Li|first=Maverick|date=December 22, 2020|title=Is Jean-Michael Basquiat the Original Father of Streetwear?|url=https://www.crfashionbook.com/culture/a34554939/jean-michel-basquiat-everlasting-impact-on-fashion/|access-date=December 23, 2020|website=CR Fashion Book|language=en-US|archive-date=December 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201222214211/https://www.crfashionbook.com/culture/a34554939/jean-michel-basquiat-everlasting-impact-on-fashion/|url-status=dead}} Herschel Supply Co.,{{Cite web|last=Tesema|first=Feleg|date=June 21, 2019|title=These New Herschel Supply Bags Are Perfect for Basquiat Lovers|url=https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/basquiat-herschel-supply-accessories-buy-online/|access-date=October 31, 2020|website=Highsnobiety|language=en}} Alice + Olivia,{{Cite web|last=Cheng|first=Andrea|date=November 4, 2016|title=Alice + Olivia Launches a Jean-Michel Basquiat Fashion Collection|url=https://www.instyle.com/fashion/alice-and-olivia-basquiat-fashion-collection|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=InStyle|language=EN}} Olympia Le-Tan,{{Cite web|last=Mira|first=Nicola|date=October 15, 2018|title=Olympia Le-Tan launches Jean-Michel Basquiat-inspired handbag line|url=https://us.fashionnetwork.com/news/Olympia-le-tan-launches-jean-michel-basquiat-inspired-handbag-line,1024377.html|access-date=October 31, 2020|website=Fashion Network|language=en-US}} DAEM,{{Cite web|last=Carmichael|first=Maiya|date=December 10, 2020|title=The DAEM x Basquiat Collaboration Tells More Than Time|url=https://www.essence.com/articles/daem-x-basquiat-collaboration-tells-more-than-time/|access-date=December 23, 2020|website=Essence|language=en-US}} Coach New York,{{Cite web|date=October 11, 2020|title=Coach meets Jean-Michel Basquiat in this year's coolest collaboration|url=https://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/news/coach-meets-jeanmichel-basquiat-in-this-years-coolest-collaboration/image-gallery/8515ab07c8d1f8517a0c62be64277710|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=Vogue Australia|language=en}} and Saint Laurent.{{Cite web|last=Nair|first=Shatricia|date=July 28, 2021|title=Saint Laurent Rive Droite honours Basquiat with capsule collection|url=https://www.lifestyleasia.com/sg/style/fashion/saint-laurent-rive-droite-honours-jean-michel-basquiat-with-a-capsule-collection-and-exhibition/|access-date=July 28, 2021|website=Lifestyle Asia Singapore|language=en-US}} Footwear companies such as Dr. Martens,{{Cite web|last=Solomon|first=Tessa|date=July 10, 2020|title=Dr. Martens Unveils New Collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/dr-martens-unveils-new-collaboration-with-the-basquiat-estate-1202694043/|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}} Reebok, and Vivobarefoot have also collaborated with Basquiat's estate.{{Cite web|last=Solomon|first=Tessa|date=October 8, 2020|title=Vivobarefoot to Sell Shoes Hand-Painted with Basquiat's Most Iconic Designs|url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/vivobarefoot-basquiat-estate-shoes-collaboration-1234573086/|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=ARTnews.com|language=en-US}}

In 2021, luxury jewelry company Tiffany & Co. partnered with American singer Beyoncé and rapper Jay-Z to promote the company's "About Love" campaign. The campaign incorporated Tiffany's recently acquired painting, Equals Pi (1982), by Basquiat. The painting heavily features a color close to the company's signature robin egg blue. The campaign was met with criticism from the artist's friends and colleagues.{{Cite web |last=Baker |first=Sinéad |title=Basquiat's friends and collaborators say they are 'horrified' by Beyoncé and Jay-Z's Tiffany campaign with his art |url=https://www.insider.com/basquiat-friends-collaborators-horrified-beyonce-jay-z-tiffany-ad-2021-9 |access-date=2023-12-25 |website=Insider |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Friedman |first=Vanessa |date=2021-09-01 |title=The Mystery of That Basquiat Painting — and Its Tiffany Blue |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/style/tiffany-basquiat-jay-z-beyonce.html |access-date=2023-12-25 |issn=0362-4331}}

In 2022, Basquiat's estate partnered with Black Fashion Fair for a limited-run capsule collection, which was on view at the exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure in New York City.{{Cite web |last=Benzine |first=Vittoria |date=December 14, 2022 |title=A Basquiat You Can Wear: The Late Artist's Sisters Have Tapped 9 New York City Designers to Reimagine His Art as High Fashion |url=https://news.artnet.com/art-world/jean-michel-basquiat-king-pleasure-2-2228877 |access-date=December 15, 2022 |website=Artnet News |language=en-US}}

His hair has been imitated by Canadian pop singer The Weeknd.{{Cite magazine |last=Stutz |first=Colin |date=2016-11-02 |title=The Weeknd Talks Cutting Off His Trademark Dreadlocks: 'It Didn't Feel Right Anymore' |url=https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/the-weeknd-cutting-hair-dreadlocks-didnt-feel-right-starboy-7564798/ |access-date=2025-03-14 |magazine=Billboard |language=en-US}}

Basquiat starred in Downtown 81, a vérité movie written by Glenn O'Brien and shot by Edo Bertoglio in 1980–81, but not released until 2000.{{Cite web|last=Cassell|first=Dessane Lopez|date=November 6, 2019|title=The Bittersweet Nostalgia of Watching Basquiat in Downtown 81|url=https://hyperallergic.com/526976/the-bittersweet-nostalgia-of-watching-basquiat-in-downtown-81/|access-date=October 30, 2020|website=Hyperallergic|language=en-US}}

Without Walls: Shooting Star, a British documentary by Geoff Dunlop on Basquiat's life, aired on Channel 4 in 1990.{{Cite news |last=Hurst |first=Andrew |date=1990-11-28 |title=The writing on the wall |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/huddersfield-daily-examiner-jean-michel/138485121/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |work=Huddersfield Daily Examiner |pages=8}} In 1996, painter Julian Schnabel made his filmmaking debut with the biopic Basquiat. It stars Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat and David Bowie as Andy Warhol.{{Cite news|last=Weinreich|first=Regina|date=August 11, 1996|title=Schnabel Becomes a Director To Film the Life of Basquiat|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/11/nyregion/schnabel-becomes-a-director-to-film-the-life-of-basquiat.html|access-date=December 8, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}

Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a documentary film directed by Tamra Davis, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was shown on the PBS series Independent Lens in 2011.{{Cite web|date=January 21, 2010|title=Sundance '10 {{!}} Tamra Davis Revisits the Life of Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2010/01/sundance-10-tamra-davis-revisits-the-life-of-jean-michel-basquiat-245926/|access-date=February 9, 2022|website=IndieWire|language=en}}{{cite web|last=Davis|first=Tamra|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child|url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/jean-michel-basquiat/|work=Independent Lens|publisher=PBS|access-date=March 30, 2011|author-link=Tamra Davis|format=One of the "Film Topics" sub-sections on the Independent Lens website and the documentary of the same name they describe|quote=Tamra Davis explains why she locked her footage of her friend Basquiat in a drawer for two decades, and what it took to be sure a film about him took the full measure of the man.}} Sara Driver directed the documentary film Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.{{cite web|url=https://deadline.com/2017/09/boom-for-real-clip-sara-driver-documentary-jean-michel-basquiat-toronto-film-festival-1202164675/|title='Boom For Real' Clip: Sara Driver's Documentary On Famed Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat – Toronto|work=Deadline Hollywood|first=Amanda|last=N'Duka|date=September 8, 2017|access-date=January 17, 2020}} In 2018, PBS aired the documentary Basquiat: Rage to Riches as part of the American Masters series.{{Cite web|last=R|first=Cindy|date=2018-08-02|title=Basquiat: Rage to Riches ~ About the Film | American Masters | PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/basquiat-rage-riches-documentary/10456/|access-date=2023-01-08|website=American Masters|publisher=Public Broadcasting Service}}

In 2022, it was reported that actor Kelvin Harrison Jr. will star as Basquiat in an upcoming biopic titled Samo Lives, which will be written, directed and produced by Julius Onah.{{Cite web|last=Jackson|first=Angelique|date=January 5, 2022|title=Kelvin Harrison Jr. to Star in Jean-Michel Basquiat Biopic 'Samo Lives' (EXCLUSIVE)|url=https://variety.com/2022/film/news/kelvin-harrison-jr-jean-michel-basquiat-samo-lives-1235146921/|access-date=January 8, 2022|website=Variety|language=en-US}} It was also announced that actor Stephan James will star and co-produce a limited series about Basquiat.{{Cite web|last=White|first=Peter|date=February 24, 2022|title=Stephan James Set To Star As Jean-Michel Basquiat In Limited Series In The Works With Boat Rocker Studios|url=https://deadline.com/2022/02/stephan-james-jean-michel-basquiat-in-limited-series-boat-rocker-studios-1234959120/|access-date=February 25, 2022|website=Deadline|language=en-US}}

In 2022, The Collaboration, a play by Anthony McCarten about Basquiat and Warhol debuted at London's Young Vic Theatre with Jeremy Pope portraying Basquiat, and Paul Bettany as Warhol.{{Cite web|last=Curtis|first=Nick|date=February 24, 2022|title=The Collaboration review: Basquiat and Warhol play brings fireworks|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/the-collaboration-review-young-vic-basquiat-warhol-paul-bettany-jeremy-pope-b984415.html|access-date=February 25, 2022|website=Evening Standard|language=en}} The play then moved to Broadway, for a limited run from December 2022 through March 2023, again starring Bettany and Pope, produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club.{{Cite news |last=Collins-Hughes |first=Laura |date=2022-12-21 |title='The Collaboration' Review: A Basquiat-Warhol Bromance in Bloom |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/20/theater/the-collaboration-review.html |access-date=2023-02-22 |issn=0362-4331}} The pair have also reprised their roles in a film version.{{Cite web |last=Lee Lenker |first=Maureen |date=December 20, 2022 |title=Paul Bettany and Jeremy Pope go deep on playing Warhol and Basquiat |url=https://ew.com/theater/the-collaboration-broadway-paul-bettany-jeremy-pope-warhol-basquiat/ |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=EW.com |language=en}}

Roger Guenveur Smith wrote, directed, and performed the solo show In Honor of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a tribute to Basquiat, whom he was friends with.{{cite news |url=https://www.startribune.com/review-with-spike-lee-actor-penumbras-basquiat-channels-painter-whose-piece-fetched-110-million/601164312 |title=Review: Penumbra's 'Basquiat' channels painter whose piece fetched $110 million |first=Rohan |last=Preston |date=October 18, 2024 |newspaper=The Minnesota Star Tribune |access-date=October 28, 2024}}

File:Basquait-johnnyblancoart.jpg

In 1991, poet Kevin Young published the book To Repel Ghosts, a compendium of 117 poems relating to Basquiat's life, individual paintings, and social themes found in the artist's work. He published a "remix" of the book in 2005.Kevin Young, To Repel Ghosts (1st edition), Zoland Books, 2001. In 1993, a children's book was released titled Life Doesn't Frighten Me, which combines a poem written by Maya Angelou with art made by Basquiat.{{Cite web|date=January 10, 2018|title=Maya Angelou and Basquiat made a book to help make life less frightening|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/38580/1/maya-angelou-and-basquiat-made-a-book-to-help-make-life-less-frightening|access-date=August 5, 2020|website=Dazed|language=en}}

In 1998, journalist Phoebe Hoban published the unauthorized biography Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art. In 2000, author Jennifer Clement wrote the memoir Widow Basquiat: A Love Story, based on the narratives told to her by Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk.{{Cite web|last=Walker|first=Rebecca|date=February 9, 2014|title=From Muse To Outcast, A Woman Comes Of Age In 'Widow Basquiat'|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/02/09/267027643/from-muse-to-outcast-a-woman-comes-of-age-in-widow-basquiat|access-date=April 30, 2021|website=NPR.org|language=en}}

In 2005, poet M. K. Asante published the poem "SAMO", dedicated to Basquiat, in his book Beautiful. And Ugly Too. The children's book Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, written and illustrated by Javaka Steptoe, was released in 2016.{{Cite web|title=Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-316-21388-2|website=Publishers Weekly| date=October 25, 2016 }} The picture book won the Caldecott Medal in 2017.{{cite web|url=http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecotthonors/2017-caldecott-medal-and-honor-books|title=2017 Caldecott Medal and Honor Books|last=LSCHULTE|date=December 21, 2017|website=Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)|access-date=March 26, 2019}} In 2019, illustrator Paolo Parisi wrote the graphic novel Basquiat: A Graphic Novel, following Basquiat's journey from street-art legend SAMO to international art-scene darling, up until his death.{{Cite web|title=Basquiat|url=https://us.laurenceking.com/products/basquiat|access-date=2023-01-08|website=Laurence King Publishing US|language=en}}

Shortly after Basquiat's death, guitarist Vernon Reid of the funk metal band Living Colour wrote a song called "Desperate People", released on their album Vivid. The song primarily addresses the drug scene of New York at that time. Reid was inspired to write the song after receiving a phone call from Greg Tate informing him of Basquiat's death.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJZtyMbiNl4| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/OJZtyMbiNl4| archive-date=December 11, 2021 | url-status=live|title=Living Colour – Interview with Vernon Reid|last=GuitarManiaEU|date=March 30, 2013|access-date=December 29, 2016|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}

In August 2014, Revelation 13:18 released the single "Old School" featuring Jean-Michel Basquiat, along with the self-titled album Revelation 13:18 x Basquiat. The release date of "Old School" coincided with the anniversary of Basquiat's death.{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jean-michel-basquiat-mn0000651659|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat {{!}} Album Discography|website=AllMusic|language=en-us|access-date=January 8, 2020}} In 2020, New York rock band the Strokes used Basquiat's painting Bird on Money (1981) as the cover art for their album The New Abnormal.{{Cite web|last=Horton|first=Ross|date=April 12, 2020|title=The Strokes – The New Abnormal|url=https://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/the-strokes-the-new-abnormal|access-date=April 4, 2021|website=musicOMH|language=en-GB}}

• List of paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat

{{Reflist}}

• Almiron, J. Faith; (2019). "[https://hyperallergic.com/497053/jean-michel-basquiat-brant-foundation/ No One Owns Basquiat: Not Even Peter Brant]". Hyperallergic
• Basquiat, Jean-Michel; Buchhart, Dieter; Keller, Sam; O'Brien, Glenn (2010) Jean-Michel Basquiat. Hatje Cantz. {{ISBN|978-3-7757-2593-4}}
• Basquiat, Jean-Michel; O'Brien, Glenn; Cortez, Diego (2007). Jean-Michel Basquiat: 1981: the Studio of the Street, Charta. {{ISBN|978-88-8158-625-7}}
• Basquiat, Jean Michel; Hoffman, Fred; Mayer, Marc (2005). Basquiat. Merrell Publishers. {{ISBN|1-85894-287-X}}
• Buchhart, Dieter; Nairne, Eleanor (2017). Basquiat: Boom for Real. London: Prestel Publishing. {{ISBN|978-3-7913-5636-5}}
• Clement, Jennifer (2014) Widow Basquiat: A Love Story. Broadway Books. {{ISBN|978-0-553-41991-7}}
• {{Cite book|last=Fretz|first=Eric|title=Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography|publisher=Greenwood|year=2010|isbn=978-0-313-38056-3}}
• {{Cite book|last=Hoban|first=Pheobe|title=Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art|publisher=Viking|year=1998|isbn=978-0-670-85477-6|location=New York}}
• Hoffman, Fred (2014). Jean-Michel Basquiat Drawing: Work from the Schorr Family Collection. Acquavella. {{ISBN|978-0-8478-4447-0}}
• Marenzi, Luca (1999) Jean-Michel Basquiat. Charta. {{ISBN|978-88-8158-239-6}}
• Saggese, Jordana Moore (2014). Reading Basquiat: Exploring Ambivalence in American. University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-27624-6}}
• {{Cite book|last=Saggese|first=Jordana Moore|title=The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader: Writings, Interviews, and Critical Responses|publisher=University of California Press|year=2021|isbn=978-0-520-30516-8}}
• {{cite web | last=Ettwig | first=Alicia | title=Basquiats Selbstporträt bei Sotheby's in New York | website=WELTKUNST, das Kunstmagazin der ZEIT | date=November 16, 2023 | url=https://www.weltkunst.de/auktionen/2023/11/selbstportraet-von-basquiat-fuer-39-millionen-dollar-versteigert-new-york-auktion | language=de | access-date=November 16, 2023}}

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• [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01s0bnn Jean-Michel Basquiat], BBC World Service program on Basquiat

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