Jean-Michel Basquiat

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was an American artist who rose from New York's downtown graffiti scene—working under the tag SAMO alongside Al Diaz—to become one of the most significant Neo-Expressionist painters of his generation. His work fused text, symbols, anatomical imagery, and pointed social commentary on race, class, and identity into a raw, densely layered visual language that drew on street art, jazz, art history, and Afro-Caribbean heritage. Basquiat rose to prominence in the early 1980s downtown New York art scene and collaborated closely with Andy Warhol in the mid-1980s. Since his death in 1988 at age 27, Basquiat has become one of the most consistently valuable artists in the contemporary secondary market, with paintings and works on paper regularly achieving strong results across major international auction houses and private sale channels. As there is no official catalogue raisonné or artist-authorized authentication board currently in operation, authentication for Basquiat's work relies heavily on documented provenance, exhibition history, and prior ownership records. For collectors, Basquiat represents a foundational holding within any serious contemporary or blue-chip collection.