The art establishment was never quite sure what to do with a self-taught artist like Basquiat, who owed as much to bebop and William S. Burroughs’s cut-up technique as he did to African influences.
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Posted inNews
FBI Raids Florida Museum and Seizes 25 Disputed Basquiats
The authenticity of the works, whose owners say Basquiat sold to Hollywood screenwriter Thaddeus Mumford in 1982, has been heavily scrutinized.
Posted inNews
Is the Orlando Museum of Art Displaying Fake Basquiats?
The FBI is investigating the authenticity of works that are said to have been found in the storage unit of a Hollywood screenwriter.
Posted inNews
“Brazen” Couple Tries to Walk Out of Manhattan Gallery With a Basquiat
The suspects attempted to take a Basquiat artwork valued at $45,000 from Taglialatella Galleries but instead made off with a half-empty bottle of whiskey.
Posted inNews
Art Dealer Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for $86M Fraud Scheme
Inigo Philbrick misrepresented the ownership of and fraudulently traded in works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama, and others.
Posted inNews
Listen to the Music That Shaped Jean-Michel Basquiat
From Nina Simone to Run-DMC, four newly released playlists celebrate the musicians who inspired the artist — and the many he influenced.
Posted inNews
Tiffany’s Wants You to Think It Inspired a Blue Basquiat Painting
As Beyoncé and JAY-Z’s ad for Tiffany’s stirs up controversy, some question the company’s suggestion that the blue hue of Basquiat’s painting was inspired by the brand.
Posted inNews
Basquiat’s Painting on an Apartment Door Acquired by Dallas Museum of Art
Jean-Michel Basquiat painted the portrait in 1985, on the door of a Dallas apartment where he was staying.
Posted inArt
The Street Wisdom of Al Díaz, a First-Generation Graffiti Artist
Although many discussions on Díaz begin with his partnership with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the late 1970s, he still has something real to say.
Posted inArt
How Music Steered the Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat
The online documentary series “Time Decorated” argues that Basquiat was the connection between the bebop and hip-hop worlds.
Posted inArt
Hip-Hop’s Afrofuturistic Hive Mind
Basquiat’s oeuvre can now be said to constitute a Black male wall of fame, one exploding with markers of the fraught conquests, Pyrrhic victories, and traumatic vicissitudes of Black male being-and-nothingness in America.
Posted inOpinion
Barbie’s Back, as Basquiat?
The latest from Mattel suggests another 20th-century artist has become just a recognizable style easily packaged for kids.