Basquiat as the artist himself was like tofu, able to soak up and take on so many different flavors. Middle class child, homeless teen, bankable star of the art world. He was a graffiti artist selling postcards on the street, celebrated painter wearing armani suits to work in his studio. Basquiat inhabited so many different worlds, people can pick the story that resonates with them because as Basquiat famously said, “I am not a real person. I am a legend.”

It seems an impossible task, but I always like to look for stories that will help to understand the real person behind the legend. With Basquiat, I first learned of him as a graffiti artist turned studio artist. The graffiti work that helped him rise to prominence was a team effort. Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz made humorous, thoughtful and critical text based pieces on the walls of Manhatten. In Diaz’s telling when he got to know Basquiat as a teen, it was immediately obvious to him, that Jean Michel was not a graffiti artist. Diaz laughed as he said Basuiat “drew the sliding doors in a subway car and put his name in it: ‘Jean the Bohemian.’ That was his tag.”

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