Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a legendary artist who rose through the New York Downtown creative scene of the 80s into art stardom during his brief lifetime. Brooklyn born and of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat began as a street tagger under the name SAMO in the 70s, then moved to selling xerox art and hand-drawn postcards, which caught the attention of Andy Warhol and led to a body of larger, painted works. Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Art of Storytelling is an impressive, in-depth monograph featuring large-scale, full color reproductions of Basquiat's vibrant, energetic and richly expressive work. Using juxtapositions of text, image and poetic wordplay, his work is an homage to Black culture, New York City and in his own words, "loyalty, heroism and the streets." Each chapter documents a year of Basquiat's life before his untimely death in 1988 at the age of twenty-seven. However, in under a decade Basquiat's imprint can be seen in the subcultures of graffiti, hip hop, skateboarding and more, proving that his singular visual language continues to be unparalleled.   •by Hans Werner Holzwarth and Eleanor Nairne  •hardcover •500 pages   Dimensions •12.25"W x 3.25"D x 18.5"H