1960

December 22, Jean-Michel Basquiat born at Brooklyn Hospital, New York. His father, Gerard Basquiat, born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; his mother, Matilde Andrades, born in Brooklyn of Puerto Rican parents. The Basquiats live in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

1964 

Sister, Lisane, is born in Brooklyn.

 

Gerard Basquiat and his three children move to the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn. Basquiat leaves St. Ann’s for public school, P.S. 181, the first of many New York City public schools he will attend, including P.S. 6, 101,45, and I.S. 293.

1974

Due to a job promotion and relocation, Gerard Basquiat moves with his three children to Mira Mar, Puerto Rico, near San Juan, where Basquiat attends an Episcopalian school.

1975

Basquiat runs away from home, staying for a few hours at a local radio station until the employees call his father, who immediately brings him home.

”Jean-Michel did not like obedience. He gave me a lot of trouble” (Gerard Basquiat).4

In December, Basquiat again runs away, this time for about two weeks, hanging out in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village, a place he and Diaz would often frequent. After much searching, Gerard Basquiat finds him and brings him home. Basquiat proclaims, “Papa, I will be very, very famous one day. 5

“I left home at 15, and went to Washington Square Park. I just sat there dropping acid …. Now that all seems boring; it eats your mind up” (Basquiat). 6

Photo Credit: Downtown 81 (New York Beat) © New York Beat Film LLC.© The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Photo by Edo Bertoglio 

“The stuff you see on the subways now is inane. Scribbled. SAMO was like a refresher course because there’s some kind of statement being made” (Al Diaz). 8

Nora Fitzpatrick begins residing with Gerard Basquiat. She becomes a maternal figure, and friend, to the younger Basquiat.

At Diaz’s graduation from the City-as-School in June, Basquiat, on a dare, prepares a box full of shaving cream, and while the principal is speaking he runs up to the podium and dumps the box on his head. Although only a year away from graduating, Basquiat feels there is “no point in going back.” 9

Photo Credit: Downtown 81 (New York Beat) © New York Beat Film LLC.© The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat Photo by Edo Bertoglio 

Basquiat stays at the homes of various friends, frequently at the Canal Street loft of British artist Stan Peskett, who throws parties that bring the uptown graffitists, including Fred Braithwaite and Lee Quinones, downtown, although more for the exchange of musical ideas than art. At these parties, Basquiat also meets Michael Holman, a future member of Gray, and Danny Rosen, who immediately becomes a companion on the downtown club scene. Basquiat, Rosen, Holman, and Vincent Gallo, who would also join Gray, are referred to as the “baby crowd” at the clubs.

“They were gorgeous, extremely stylish, and danced fantastically” (Edit DeAk).12

Shortly after the article in The Village Voice, Basquiat and Diaz have a falling out that ends the SAMO collaboration, and “SAMO is dead” begins appearing on various SoHo walls.

“Jean-Michel saw SAMO as a vehicle, the graffiti was an advertisement for himself. … all of a sudden he just started taking it over” (Al Diaz). 20

Basquiat concentrates on painting T-shirts and making postcards, drawings, and collages. They display a combination of graffiti art and Abstract Expressionism, and focus on baseball players, the Kennedy assassination, and consumer items such as Pez candy. Basquiat collaborates on many of these with John Sex and Jennifer Stein, and sells the work in Washington Square Park, around SoHo, and in front of The Museum of Modern Art.

Photo Credit: Henry Flynt ‘The SAMO© Graffiti Portfolio, 1979-91’, ‘Boom For Real’ Catalogue

In May, Basquiat, along with Michael Holman, Shannon Dawson, and Vincent Gallo form the band Channel 9, later renamed Test Pattern, then Gray. They are subsequently joined by Wayne Clifford and Nick Taylor. Basquiat plays clarinet and synthesizers for the group, which performs a distinct blend of jazz, punk, and synth-pop, often referred to as “noise music.”

“It wasn’t about the level of playing, it was about the sound”

(Michael Holman) .21

In the fall, while wandering around the School of Visual Arts, Basquiat meets fellow artists and downtown scenemakers Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf. Haring and Scharf are as much a part of the scene at Club 57 as Basquiat is at the Mudd Club. Basquiat and Haring share an on-again, off-again relationship for the rest of their lives. Basquiat admires the raw, graffiti qualities of Haring’s work, and he sees Haring as truly a part of the graffiti subculture in a way that he is not. After reading “SAMO is dead,” Haring per- forms a eulogy for SAMO at Club 57. In 1988, Haring paints A Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat as a memorial to Basquiat.

In June, Basquiat’s art is publicly exhibited for the first time in the “Times Square Show,” a group exhibition held in a vacant building at 41st Street and Seventh Avenue in the Times Square area of New York. The exhibition is organized by Colab (Collaborative Projects Incorporated), an artist-run group based on the Lower East Side, and Fashion Moda, a graffiti-based alternative gallery space in the South Bronx. Like members of the two organizing groups, the conjunction of artists in the show represents two very distinct subcultures: the downtown avant-garde consisting of new wave and neo-pop, and the uptown avant-garde of rap and graffiti.

Some of the other artists in the show are: John Ahearn, Jane Dickson, Mike Glier, Mimi Gross, David Hammons, Jenny Holzer, Joe Lewis, Candace Hill-Montgomery, Tom Otterness, Lee Quinones, Kenny Scharf, Kiki Smith, and Robin Winters.

Photo Credit: Red Kings, 1981 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

In April, Braithwaite and Futura organize an exhibition at the Mudd Club, “Beyond Words: Graffiti Based-Rooted-Inspired Works.” The show includes the work of Basquiat (as SAMO), Tseng Kwong Chi, Daze, Dondi, Keily Jenkins, Phase II, Iggy Pop, Quick, Rammellzee, and Zephyr.

In May, Basquiat travels to Europe for the first time, for his first one-artist exhibition, at the Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzoli in Modena, Italy. The work is shown under the name SAMO.

Basquiat is invited by Annina Nosei to participate in the group show “Public Address” at her gallery in September. Sociopolitical content is the focus of the exhibition, with works by Bill Beckley, Mike Glier, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and Peter Nadin. Basquiat is given the entire rear gallery for his paintings, whose subjects include policemen, rabbis, and Native Americans. Following this exhibition, Nosei becomes Basquiat’s primary dealer and, knowing he has no studio space of his own, invites him to use her gallery basement space as a studio. 

Pictured Here: “SAMO”, FIRST ONE MAN SHOW, Exhibit Invitation Card, Galleria d’Arte Emilio Mazzoli Italy, 1981 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

The first extensive article on Basquiat, “The Radiant Child,” by Rene Ricard, appears in the December 1981 issue of Artforum. The detailed essay examines the emerging New York artists from the Mudd Club shows, the “Times Square Show,” and “New York/New Wave.” Some of the other artists discussed are John Ahearn, Fred Braithwaite, Francesco Clemente, Dondi, Futura 2000, Keith Haring, Lady Pink, and Judy Rifka.

“I’m always amazed by how people come up with things. Like Jean- Michel. How did he come up with those words he puts all over every-thing.? Their aggressively handmade look fits his peculiarly political sensibility …. Here the possession of almost anything of even marginal value becomes a token of corrupt materialism …. The elegance of Twombly is there but from the same source (graffiti) and so is the brut of the young Dubuffet” (Rene Ricard). 25

Photo Credit: Jean-Michel Basquiat in his studio, New York 1982. Photo by Gianfranco Gorgoni © Maya Gorgoni

In January, Basquiat moves with Suzanne Mallouk to 151 Crosby Street in SoHo, an apartment that Nosei arranges for Basquiat.

Basquiat meets Shenge Kapharoah, an artist from Barbados. The two become inseparable friends, sharing interests in African ideologies and the concerns of artists within the African diaspora, subjects that were not of interest to many of Basquiat’s friends.

“You can see our friendship in the work. The paintings speak for them- selves … Moses and the Egyptians, Charles the First, lines like ‘most kings get their heads chopped off. ‘ This is what we were talking about” (Shenge Kapharoah). 26

In March, Basquiat has his first one-artist exhibition in the United States at the Annina Nosei Gallery. Paintings in this show include Arroz con Pollo, Self-Portrait, Untitled (Per Capita), and Untitled (Two Heads on Gold). The exhibition is a huge success.

Pictured Here: Arroz con Pollo, 1981  © Collection of Felipe Grimberg.

In April, Basquiat travels to Los Angeles for his solo show at the Larry Gagosian Gallery, arranged by Gagosian with Annina Nosei. Paintings exhibited include Six Crimee, Untitled (LA Painting), and Untitled (Yellow Tar and Feathers).

“The traditional substructure of Basquiat’s art is Abstract Expressionism. He piles up rich palimpsests of paint over black grounds or snazzy oranges that are structured with architectonic solidity …. There is never any sense that Basquiat is faking” (William Wilson). 29

Pictured Here: Untitled (Sugar Ray Robinson), 1982 © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat; courtesy of Robert Miller Gallery, New York

Nevertheless, because he is young and because he is black, Basquiat’s paintings and drawings encourage the recognition of graffiti art within the art world. By this time, the Lower East Side arts scene has graduated from exhibitions in clubs to small storefront alternative gallery spaces that exhibit hundreds of young artists from the downtown club scene, artists who were rarely accepted by the larger art community of New York. Among these alternative venues are the Fun Gallery, East Seventh Street Gallery, Kenkeleba House, Gracie Mansion, B-Side, Area-X, and Civilian Warfare.

By the fall of 1982, personal differences have brought Basquiat’s relationship with Annina Nosei almost to an end. He works feverishly in his studio apartment on Crosby Street.

I had some money; I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people.” 31

Pictured Here: ‘Self-Portrait,’ 1982 © Collection of Bo Franzen

In November, Basquiat has a one-artist exhibition at the Fun Gallery, located at 254 East 10th Street and run by Bill Stelling and Patti Astor. Paintings in the show are severely underpriced with no regard for Basquiat’s present market value. This show, held contrary to the advice of Annina Nosei marks the end of Basquiat’s association with his first American dealer. The canvases reveal a terrific rawness in a crowded installation designed by Basquiat. The “messy” character of the installation may have been Basquiat’s response to criticism that, with his rising international fame and “cleaner” shows in the more finished spaces of SoHo galleries, his work had lost some of its originality. The paintings in this show, the fruit of his hermetic season in the Crosby Street loft, prove the critics wrong.

The show included approximately thirty works, among them Cabeza, Charles the First, Jawbone of an Ass, Three Quarters of Olympia Minus the Servant, and Untitled (Sugar Ray Robinson), which were among his favorites and which he kept for his personal collection.

“Gut emotions lie behind the phrases and images, not the desire to make neo-expressionist commodities …. Basquiat makes paintings, but eschews the medium’s traditional rules” (Susan Hapgood). 32

Pictured Here: Untitled (Crown) 1982 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

 “Jean-Michel Basquiat’s show at the Fun Gallery was his best show yet. He was at home; the hanging was perfect, the paintings more authentic than ever” (Nicolas A. Moufarrege).33

Basquiat poses for the renowned photographer James Van Der Zee, famous for his documentary photos of the Harlem Renaissance and his portraits of the artists, singers, and writers of the period. Basquiat grows to admire the elder Van Der Zee and later paints his portrait. The photo session with Van Der Zee is arranged by Diego Cortez to accompany Henry Geldzahler’s interview with Basquiat for Interview. This photo portrait places Basquiat in a geneaological line with other black artists of the twentieth century.

In December, Basquiat’s paintings are presented in a one-artist exhibition at the Galerie Delta in Rotterdam. In these works, like those in the Fun Gallery show, the crossbars of the stretcher corners are exposed and often hung on the wall by twine. LNAPRK and Kings of Egypt are among the paintings in the show.

With Rammellzee and graffiti artist Toxic, Basquiat returns to California. He spends part of winter 1982-83 in Los Angeles, often staying at the L’Ermitage hotel and dining with friends at Mr. Chow’s in Beverly Hills. He frequently gives paintings to Michael and Tina Chow, in return for food and drink.

Photo Credit: James Van Der Zee. Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982. Estate of James Van Der Zee; courtesy Donna Van Der Zee

In February, Annina Nosei presents a one-artist exhibition of Basquiat’s work that includes Untitled and the Anatomy print portfolio.

In March, Basquiat returns to Los Angeles for his second show at the Larry Gagosian Gallery. Paintings include Untitled (Sugar Ray Robinson), Jack Johnson, Horn Players, Eyes and Eggs, Hollywood Africans, and All Colored Cast (Parts I and II). They feature texts and images related to famous boxers, musicians, and Hollywood films and the roles played by blacks in them.

Also in March, Basquiat is included in the 1983 Biennial Exhibition” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. The exhibition includes more than forty artists, many being shown for the first time at the Museum, among them Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, David Salle, and Cindy Sherman. Basquiat, at age twenty-two is one of the youngest artists ever to be included in a Whitney Biennial. The two works exhibited are Dutch Settlers and Untitled (Skull).

We got tickets for the opening of the New Art show at the Whitney, the Biennial. And the show is just like the sixties …. These kids are selling everything-Jean-Michel Basquiat’s show sold out in Los Angeles” (Andy Warhol). 35

Pictured Here: Hollywood Africans, 1983, © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

“One thing that affected Jean-Michel greatly was the Michael Stewart story …. He was completely freaked out. It was like it could have been him. It showed him how vulnerable he was” (Keith Haring). 39

“It could have been me, it could have been me” (Basquiat). 40

In October, Basquiat and Warhol leave New York for Milan. Basquiat spends time in Madrid and Zurich as well as a week in Tokyo with dealer Bruno Bischofberger to attend a November exhibition of his work at the Akira Ikeda Gallery.

Basquiat returns to New York in November. He, Warhol, and Francesco Clemente begin working on collaborative paintings in New York, an endeavor arranged by Bruno Bischofberger. Basquiat and Warhol also execute their own collaborative paintings.

“Jean-Michel came up to the office but he was out of it. Clemente brought up some of the paintings that the three of us are working on together, and Jean-Michel was so out of it he began painting away. Jean-Michel and Clemente paint each other out. There’s about fifteen paintings that we’re working on together” (Andy Warhol). 41

Pictured Here: Dos Cabezas, 1982 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat returns to New York in March. Although skeptical about affiliating himself with another dealer he joins the Mary Boone Gallery.

“He was very unsure of this prospect, though he considered it a good career move, he was not interested in the idea of becoming an artist for another dealer” (Paige Powell). 44

Boone and Bischofberger become Basquiat’s primary dealers. Boone is also the dealer for Eric Fischl, David Salle, and Julian Schnabel, while Bischofberger, European dealer for Andy Warhol, also represents the European Neo-Expressionists- Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, and Gerhard Richter. Boone and Bischofberger organize joint exhibitions for Basquiat.

Photo Credit: Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1983 © Roland Hagenberg

In May, Basquiat has his first one-artist exhibition at the Mary Boone Gallery. Paintings include Bird as Buddha, Brown Spots, Eye, Untitled (Africa), and Wine of Babylon. The show was met by mixed reviews.

“The early work is of an original primitivism, with a graffiti heritage. The originality has quickly become stylized and somewhat self-conscious in this current show” (Donald Kuspit), 45

“The young artist uses color well …. But more remarkable is the educated quality of his line and the stateliness of his compositions, both of which bespeak a formal training that, in fact, he never had” (Vivien Raynor).” 46

“And throughout floated a disembodied eye, which seemed to allude both to the self-the ‘I’-and to the witness or seer. But one sensed little of what Basquiat is witness to, or of why it bears accounting” (Kate Linker). 47

Also in May, Basquiat is included in An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, which inaugurates the reopening of the museum.

Pictured Here: Tenor, 1985 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat’s friends become more and more concerned about his excessive drug use. They often find Basquiat in a state of paranoia and uncharacteristically unconcerned with his appearance. Basquiat’s paranoia is also fueled by the very real threat of people stealing work from his apartment.

“Many drawings were destroyed because Jean-Michel knew that people might steal them or art dealers might come and take unfinished work” (Melode Ferguson). 48

“Jean-Michel called at 8:00 in the morning and we philosophized. He got scared reading the Belushi book. I told him that if he wanted to become a legend, too, he should just keep going on like he was. But actually if he’s even on the phone talking to me, he’s okay” (Andy Warhol). 49

Pictured Here: ‘Untitled’ Yellow Tar and Feathers, 1986 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

In January, Basquiat has a one-artist exhibition at the Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich. Paintings shown include Max Roach, Tabac, and Zydeco.

On February 10, he appears on the cover of The New York Times magazine, posing barefoot for Cathleen McGuigan‘s extensive article,” New Art, New Money: The Marketing of American Artist.” This portrait, in comparison with the 1982 Van Der Zee photograph, arouses many questions about media hype marketing, and quality in the increasingly image-conscious art world of the 1980s, in which Basquiat proved to be a more than competent provocateur. In Van Der Zee’s frontal photograph, Basquiat comes off looking dignified, yet aggressive. In contrast, Lizzie Himmel’s photograph for The New York Times Magazine poses Basquiat with his bare foot up on a chair, coyly gazing at the viewer, the dreadlocks nicely cropped.

“To be a race-identified race-refugee is to tap-dance on a tightrope, making your precarious existence a question of balance and to whom you concede a mortgage on your mind and body and lien on your soul” (Greg Tate). 50

 

Photograph by: Lizzie Himmel for The New York Times Magazine, 1985

Gerard Basquiat recalls his son and Warhol coming to the house that Sunday with a stack of copies to celebrate the fame and success of the twenty-four-year-old Basquiat.

“The extent of Basquiat’s success would no doubt be impossible for an artist of lesser gifts. Not only does he possess a bold sense of color and composition, but, in his best paintings, unlike many of his contemporaries, he maintains a fine balance between seemingly contradictory forces: control and spontaneity, menace and wit …. Still, the nature and rapidity of his climb is unimaginable in another era” (Cathleen McGuigan). 51

Pictured Here: Gerard and Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York, 1985 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Basquiat’s deteriorating health becomes more noticeable, particularly the dark spots on his face. These discolorations may have been caused by the removal of his spleen, which kept his body from cleaning out the toxins from the drugs.

“Jean-Michel was really upset about the spots and asked me and lots of other people for advice about dermatologists and treatments. I told him that if his blood was pure they’d go away. He thought it was sadly funny that Andy s oxidation portrait of him had given him spots like those on his face …. You can see lots of self-fulfilling prophesies in his work, or in the work of anybody whose work runs deep” (Glenn O ‘Brien). 53

In September, sixteen collaborative paintings by Basquiat and Warhol are shown at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. At Shafrazi’s suggestion the two artists pose together in boxing trunks and gloves for a poster advertising the show. Unfavorable reviews cause tension in and, ultimately, weaken the Warhol-Basquiat friendship.

Pictured Here: Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982 © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat

Carrying the baggage of black manhood, Basquiat often correctly perceives such criticism as evidence of racism.

“He had to live up to being a young prodigy, which is a kind of false sainthood” ( Keith Haring). 57

 

“Being black, he was always an outsider. Even after he was flying on the Concorde, he wouldn’t be able to get a cab” (Fred Braithwaite). 58

Image Credit: Photo by © Jean Kallina.

In January, Basquiat has a one-artist exhibition of twelve paintings at the Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris. Some works in the exhibition are Gin Soaked Critic, Gri Gri, Mono, and Sacred Monkey.

On February 22, Andy Warhol dies. Though their friendship had suffered greatly in the last year, Basquiat appears to be devastated by this loss. Basquiat paints Gravestone, a memorial to Andy Warhol.

“It put him into a total crisis …. He couldn’t even talk” (Fred Braithwaite). 59 

“The death of Warhol made the death of Basquiat inevitable, somehow Warhol was the one person that always seemed to be able to bring Jean- Michel back from the edge. Always when Jean-Michel was in the most trouble it seemed that Andy Warhol was the person who he would approach …. After Andy was gone there was no one that Jean-Michel was in such awe of that he would respond to” (Donald Rubell). 60

Pictured Here: Gravestone, 1987 Collection of Enrico Navarra © The Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat