B 1960-1988 American Artist Jean Michel Basquiat - New York artist Jean-Michael Basquiat a young graffiti artist when he first becan his career in the New York Subway. He was from the streets of New York to the walls of its most prominent galleries. Jean-Michel Basquiat was catapulted to international fame in his early 20s and was a friend of Andy Warhol. Jean Michel Basquiat was dead by age 27. The subject of a feature film by fellow artist Julian Schnabel.

Basquiat is one of the most admired artists to emerge from the 1980s art boom. While his place in the history of American art is still under dispute, it cannot be denied that during the eight years that he painted, much of his work examines the legacy of the colonial enterprise and his relationship to that legacy.