Jean Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) was a celebrated American artist who started his career as a graffiti artist.
Born in 1960, Basquiat was the son of a woman of Puerto Rican descent and his father was originally from Haiti. He grew up mostly in Brooklyn and was a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He demonstrated great artistic skill as early as 8-years-old. When his parents split up, Basquiat's father raised him. His mother struggled with mental illness which would lead to multiple stays in mental institutions when Basquiat was in his teens.
At 15, he dropped out of high school.
Basquiat would go on to gain notiriety for his graffiti art that appeared on Lower Manhattan buildings tagged SAMO. But it was when he was part of the noise rock band, Test Pattern, that Basquiat met the artist, Andy Warhol, with whom he would colloborate on many projects.
Basquiat's solo career took off in the 1980s. His art was featured in Artforum magazine in 1981. He went on to become an art world celebrity and a successful artist, but struggled with a growing addiction to heroin. In 1988, he died of a heroin overdose in his studio.-Heidi Durrow
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Mixed Experience History Month is the annual blog post series created by The New York Times best-selling author Heidi Durrow celebrating the history of the Mixed experience. Established in 2007, Mixed Experience History Month is an effort to highlight the long history of folks and events involved in the Mixed experience. Please look for more profiles of people, places and events of the Mixed experience every weekday of May at Lightskinned-ed Girl, the blog! Thanks for reading. And check out some of the previous year's profiles: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Copyright 2014.
