Introduction to Jean Michel Basquiat

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Jean Michel Basquiat. Jean Michel Basquiat, though he left school at 17 was a very educated man, born to a Haitian father a Puerto Rican mother his work shows immense talent and asks a lot of questions in regard to see how we see race, despite his short carer of 6 yeas he managed in a few short years to become one of the most celebrated artists of his style of neo-expressionist in the 20th century. The artist started out as a graffiti artist with his tag SAMO, partnered with another artist he created the term SAMO which is shorting for “same old shit” this is what he and his partner referred to as the weed they smoked, the tag SAMO became synonymous for the streets of New York city from 1977 to 1980, the tag often partnered with a slogan commented on commercialism in the 20th century. in 1980 after a disagreement with his partner the tag “SAMO is dead” started to appear which signified an end of an era. He became widely popular in the summer of 1980 as he moved more into the style the art which we know him for today, his graffiti artist beginnings shows throughout his work. his work is an example of how the punk rock movement effected every industry and was embraced and celebrated in the 1980s. His paintings subject matters, often black figures in a graffiti esc style, with latin (more often or not misspelled.) gives the impression that it pays homage to his african caribbean roots with the givers being presented almost mask like, apart of a tribal civilisation that never came to be. Though his work looks unstudied, Basquiat is a talented artist, his work has been described as a cultural collage mixing the influence of his urban setting and his african caribbean heritage.In his work he tries to challenge peoples perceptions of what it means to be an african american man. He often collaborated with his dear friend and pop artist Andy Warhol, from the

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