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Basquiat and Keith Haring were really the beginning of street art, modern street art. Banksy & the Rise of Outlaw Art, Sky Arts 2021
Basquiat: These are painting from someone who couldn’t help but paint incredibly well … In fact he couldn’t help but be a star, to be beautiful. Jean-Michel Basquiat as a graffiti artist, spray-painting imagery and words on the New York subway. Matthew Collings, This is Modern Art III: Lovely Lovely, Channel 4 1999
By 1982 he had been taken up by a gallery and had his first one-man show. It was off the streets and in the art world. And he immediately became famous. He was the first black art star. He stayed successful for 6 years, during that time became increasingly distracted by drugs until finally dying of a heroin overdose in 1988 aged only 27. ibid.
People think [Jean-Michel] Basquiat is either only superficial or amazingly soulful. No-one says he’s actually an artist as good as Matisse but I think he is. ibid.
Basquiat’s colour is very strong but incredibly subtly orchestrated. ibid.
A painting by late graffiti artist-turned-expressionist painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, has become the most expensive at auction of any US artist, fetching $110.5m (£85m) in New York.
Untitled, a 1982 work in oil stick, acrylic and spray paint, depicting a powerful crazed face shaped as a skull, also broke the salesroom record for a black artist, and is the first created since 1980 to top the $100m mark.
It places the Brooklyn-born Basquiat, who died in 1988 of a heroin overdose aged 27, as one of the most coveted artists in the world alongside Francis Bacon, Pablo Picasso, and the young American’s friend and mentor, Andy Warhol. The Guardian online 19 May 2017, ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat breaks US art record with £85 million sale’
‘This work that’s just screaming revolutionary intentions.’ Basquiat: Rage to Riches, BBC 2017
‘Unbelievable talent and unbelievable charisma.’ ibid.
‘New York City from the mid-70s up to the early 80s was a creative paradise.’ ibid.
Untitled (Car Crash) 1980; The Ruffians 1982; Untitled (Man With Hat) 1982; Pork 1981; Irony of Negro Policeman 1981; Bird on Money 1981; Museum Security 1983; Self Portrait 1982; Per Capita 1982; Mona Lisa 1983; Obnoxious Liberals 1982; Black Tar & Feathers 1982; LA Painting 1982; Trumpet 1984. ibid.
‘The first painting that he sold was to Debbie Harry for $200.’ ibid. ex-girlfriend
‘Then he really got into drugs.’ ibid.
Everybody wants to get on the Van Gogh boat. There’s no trip so horrible that someone won’t take it … We must credit the life of Vincent van Gogh for really sending this myth into orbit. Basquiat 1996 starring Jeffrey Wright & David Bowie & Benicio del Toro & Dennis Hopper & Gary Oldman & Michael Wincott & Courtney Love & Claire Forlani & Tatum O’Neal & Christopher Walken & Willem Dafoe & Parker Posey & Sam Rockwell et al, director Julian Schnabel, opening commentary
One is at the mercy of the recognition factor. ibid.
It’s about integrity. ibid. friend to Basquiat
There’s never been a black painter in art history who’s been considered really important. ibid. dude
The real voice of the gutter. ibid. patron
I can’t even see what’s good any more. ibid. Warhol
Jean Michel Basquiat, American painter, died on August 12th 1988 of a heroin overdose. He was 27 years old. ibid. caption
I want to be a rock star, not a gallery mascot. Jean-Michel Basquiat, cited Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World, news headline, Netflix 2017
He could deconstruct many influences and create something new that was unexpected. Back to Basquiat, fan, Sky Arts, 2022
Basquiat, a name of fragmentation, like a grenade in a schoolbook. We already know almost everything about the enfant terrible, about the interiority of an adolescent wildcat, an absolute bolt of lightning, forever testing the outer limits. There is fire in the hand of this son of Ogan, flamer of carnivorous canvases, painter-volcano, mixed-blood pyromaniac. With charcoal he weaves his crown as Grand Prince of the Cosmos. ibid. French-language documentary
On 12th August 1988 the body of Jean-Michel was found lifeless in New York after an overdose of cocaine and heroin. ibid. fan