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1974-19801974-5
Gerard Basquiat takes a posting to Mira Mar, Puerto Rico, and moves with his three children. Jean-Michel runs away for the first time, but is brought back. The family moves back to Brooklyn at the end of 1975. 1977 Jean-Michel Basquiat first develops “SAMO” comic character with friends at City As School high school. 1978 After throwing a cream pie in his principal’s face at a high school assembly, Jean-Michel runs out of school and never graduates. In June he runs away from home for good, and spends time homeless and staying with friends in Manhattan. With friend Al Diaz, Basquiat paints many graffiti phrases in downtown Manhattan signed “SAMO.” December 1978 Village Voice article on the SAMO graffiti interviews Basquiat and Diaz. 1979 First interviewed on Glenn O’Brien’s New York City cable TV talkshow “TV Party.” See the interview. In May Basquiat helps found a short-lived noise band called ‘Gray.’ He is now well known on downtown scene. (Basquiat in 1979, Photograph by Nicholas Talyor) Still without his own home, he befriends future artist Keith Haring, and other School of Visual Arts students. 1980 In June an abstract graffiti-like work in the alternative “Time Square Show” gives Basquiat his first one-line mention in the art press. Basquiat is picked for the lead role of a down and out painter in New York Beat, a film showcasing New York’s downtown music scene. Filming starts in December 1980 and finishes January 1981 (released in 2001 as Downtown 81) Basquiat moves in with Suzanne Mallouk, with whom he continues and on again off again affair for several years. |
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1986-1992
1986-19921986
Trip to Ivory Coast, Africa, with Jennifer Goode and Bischofberger for an exhibition (10/10/86 – 11/07/86) in Abidjan (Basquiat at Exhibition). Final break with Mary Boone gallery on return from Africa. Joins drug rehab program, but leaves after few weeks. End of relationship with Jennifer Goode. (Basquiat, 1986, Photograph by William Coupon) 1987 On February 22, Andy Warhol dies unexpectedly after undergoing a routine gallbladder operation. Basquiat is devastated and depressed. His drug use increases, and he spends more time alone in the studio. (Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1987 photograph by Ari Marcopoulos) Paints the obsessively detailed black and white Pegasus while morning for Warhol, and the Warhol memorial construction Gravestone. Photo of Basquiat at Whitney Museum opening of Julian Schnabel retrospective, with friend Keith Haring, 1987. 1988 April 29 – June 11 Exhibition at Baghoomian Gallery (his first New York show of paintings in over two years) is a success, and seen as a comeback. June, Travels to Hawaii in an attempt to kick his drug habit on his own. August 12th, Jean-Michel Basquiat dies from “acute mixed drug intoxication” in his Great Jones Street loft. 1992 Posthumous Basquiat retrospective exhibition at Whitney Museum, New York. Reviews of the exhibition, and especially the museum catalog, further the serious study of the artist. |