Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and Puerto Rican mother. A precocious child who was reading and writing by age four, he was largely self-taught as an artist. At 17, he began spray-painting enigmatic graffiti messages across lower Manhattan under the tag SAMO© with his friend Al Diaz.

By his early twenties, Basquiat had rocketed from the streets to the most prestigious galleries in the world. His paintings — raw, frenetic, layered with text, crowns, skulls, and references to Black history, anatomy, and jazz — challenged the overwhelmingly white art establishment and introduced a voice that had never been heard in those spaces.

He collaborated with Andy Warhol, exhibited internationally, and became a superstar. But the pressures of fame and racism in the art world took their toll. Basquiat died of a heroin overdose at age 27. In 2017, his painting of a skull sold for $110.5 million — making him the most expensive American artist ever sold at auction.