A poet, musician, and graffiti prodigy in the late 1970's New York, Jean-Michael Basquiat had honed his signature style of obsessive scribbling, elusive symbols and diamgrams, and mask and skull imagery by the time he was 20. Basquiat drew his subjects from his own Caribean heritage-his father was Haitian and his mother was of Puerto Rican decent- and a convergence of African American, African, and Aztec cultural histories and Classical themes and contemporary heroes like atheletes and musicians.
Often associated with Neo-expressionism, Basquiat recieved massive acclaim in only a few short years showing alongside artists like David Salle, Julian Schnabel, and Francesco Clemente. In 1983, het met Andy Warhol, who would come to be a mentor. The two collaborated on a series of paintings before Warhol's death in 1987, followed by Basquiat's own untimely passing a year later.