Jean-Michel Basquiat
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The Afro-American painter Jean-Michel Basquiat began his artistic career with graffiti - comical combinations of writing and symbols with a poignant humour - which he painted on the fascades of buildings and the New York subway.The artist signed all his graffiti with SAMO (Same Old Shit), a character he invented, which earns a living by preaching a substitute religion to the people. Basquiat also was a musician and played in a band, he made drawings, created assemblages from scrap and sold hand-painted postcards and T-shirts in order to earn a living after having dropped out of high school and having left his parent's house. Basquiat's very original works, which he began painting on canvas and paper during the 1980s, were very successful and turned him into a star overnight. At the age of 21 Basquiat was the youngest artist to be invited to participate at the renowned 'documenta' in Kassel. Exhibitions in Europe, Japan and the United States made him famous around the world and his works gained increasing popularity among critics, collectors and artists alike. Andy Warhol not only became his greatest supporter but also a close friend, who worked and exhibited with Basquiat. Basquiat's works on unprimed canvas and paper with their symbol language, their groupings and combinations of words and phrases and figurative motifs reflect a marked and authentic image of his surroundings and his time: New York in the 1980s. In 1988 Jean-Michel Basquiat died of a heroin overdose at the age of 27. In the mid 1990s Basquiat's life became the subject of a film.
