Jean Michel Basquiat was a solar eclipse in the art world- something you rarely see and that briefly exists. However, unlike a solar eclipse Basquiat left behind footprints. People all over the world view these footprints in art museums; they are works of art. While Basquiat only had a brief existence in the art world, he changed the art world forever. Basquiat is without a doubt one of America’s greatest artists. For the few lucky people that witnessed this anomaly, he had many names such as SAMO, Innovator, The First, Phenomenon and simply Basquiat, and his impact is everlasting. In order to truly grasp the magnitude of Basquiat’s influence, one must understand Basquiat’s life, his impact on the art world, and his remarkable artwork.
Basquiat’s…show more content… He attended a private school until the fourth grade after that he attended to several public schools throughout his early education. As part of an integration program, he was bus to P.S.101 in Bensonhurst, which was a predominantly white school. Basquiat made an impression on several of his teachers there. He ran away from home several times during his teenage years and would finally drop out of high school around the tenth grade. Basquiat’s introduction into street art probably occurred during the times he was running away from home. It was also during this time that he befriended a future pioneer in the hip-hop world and fellow street artist named Fab 5…show more content… Basquiat had a band, he achieved some modest successes with his band, Gray, which performed at local nightclubs. This time marked the beginning of a friendship with Andy Warhol, whom Basquiat met at a restaurant. Basquiat showed Warhol a few pieces of his work. Warhol and Basquiat would later go on to collaborate on several art pieces. Some experts claim that Warhol only used Basquiat to heighten his own reputation.
“It was in 1980, at the tender age of 20, when Basquiat first began to achieve notoriety in New York’s art circles. This year marked Basquiat’s first public exhibition, in the iconic ‘Times Square’ show. There were over 200 different artists exhibited” (Jean-Michel). Basquiat had his first solo exhibition at the Annina Nosei Gallery in 1982; it was a great success. Basquiat’s rise to wider recognition coincided with the New York arrival of the Neo Expressionist movement, which provided a congenial forum for his own street-smart, curbside