Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist known for his raw, expressive paintings that fused street art with high art. Born in Brooklyn in 1960 to Haitian and Puerto Rican parents, he began as a graffiti artist under the name SAMO© before rising to fame in the early 1980s. His work blended text, symbols, and bold figuration to explore race, identity, and power. Though he died in 1988 at age 27, Basquiat remains one of the most influential figures in contemporary art