Need some good information fast on African American history? We've got what you're looking for with our selection of more than 300 reference articles. Jean-Michel Basquiat (Born 1960, Brooklyn, N.Y. —Died 1988, New York, N.Y.) Jean-Michel Basquiat is known throughout the art world for his paintings that commented on racism, capitalism, urban street life, and popular culture. Basquiat was born in Brooklyn in 1960. He began drawing cartoons at age 5 on scraps of paper that his father brought home from his job as an accountant. When he was 8, his mother gave him a copy of Gray's Anatomy, which prompted a lifelong interest in the human figure. At the age of 17, Basquiat left home. While living in abandoned houses or with friends, he then began to do graffiti work, collaborating with fellow artist and friend, Al Diaz In 1980, Basquiat first displayed his work in The Times Square Show, an exhibition of underground artists. He received positive reviews for his work, and began to sell his paintings. In 1981 he was invited to show his work in a group of artists that included Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. In 1985, at the age of 24, he appeared on the cover of New York Times Magazine. Basquiat worked with everything from oil to acrylic paint, to crayon, to color Xerox. He often created collages of words, figures, and symbols drawn from American history and culture. Some of his best known paintings are Self Portrait as a Heel #3, Hollywood Africans, and CPRKR. Basquiat was accepted by the academic art world, but his career was and still is considered controversial. Some critics felt that his tendency to scribble and paint outlines of faces and bodies made his work unsophisticated and overrated. Others think that it was those techniques that made his work original and aesthetically powerful. Basquiat's career was cut short when he died of a drug overdose in 1988. Since his death, Basquiat's popularity has continued to increase. In 1992 the Whitney Museum in New York City, put on a retrospective exhibit of his work. In 1997 a feature film about his life, Basquiat, was written and directed by his friend Julian Schnabel, also an artist. Copyright © 2002 Educational Broadcasting Corporation, Inc.