Resources
Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) was born in Brooklyn to a Haitian father and a Puerto Rican mother, and grew up speaking French, Spanish, and English. He first came to public attention as a graffiti artist tagging lower Manhattan under the name SAMO©, before rapidly ascending into the gallery world of 1980s New York. In a career that lasted less than a decade, he became one of the most celebrated artists of the 20th century––and one of the most frequently misread.
Basquiat: Figures, Signs, Symbols presents ten works made between 1982 and 1985. His compositions draw on an encyclopedic range of references: comics, anatomical textbooks, art history, corporate logos, world history, and his own Caribbean heritage. The symbols that recur across his canvases––from crowns, skulls, crossed-out words, to anatomical diagrams––carry layered meanings rooted in histories that are not always visible on the surface.
The resources below are offered as entry points into those histories. The film selections document the New York downtown scene that formed Basquiat, including footage of the artist himself before his work became a market phenomenon. The books range from firsthand accounts of Black and Caribbean political life to scholarship on Latinx art’s place in American cultural institutions––all texts that illuminate the world Basquiat was painting from and about.
Several of these titles were recommended by artist William Córdova, a Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) collection artist, based in Miami, whose own practice is deeply rooted in many of the same diasporic histories. Together, these resources reflect the breadth of context that Basquiat’s work demands and rewards.
Film
- Downtown 81 (dir. Edo Bertoglio, 1981)
Features Basquiat himself, documenting New York’s downtown art and music scene before his rise to fame. - Wild Style (dir. Charlie Ahearn, 1982)
Documents the NYC graffiti world Basquiat emerged from; features Rammellzee and Lee, who appear in his painting Hollywood Africans. - Style Wars (dir. Tony Silver, 1983)
Essential document of the New York graffiti scene of the early 1980s. - Basquiat: Rage to Riches (PBS American Masters, 2018)
Features exclusive interviews with Basquiat’s sisters and art world colleagues.
Books
- “Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley”
On Black liberation, identity, and political consciousness in America. - “Assata” by Assata Shakur
Memoir of Black radical activist Assata Shakur; essential context for the political landscape Basquiat painted within. - “Everybody’s Fly: A Life of Art, Music, and Changing the Culture” by Fab 5 Freddy
Memoir from the graffiti artist, filmmaker, and cultural connector who bridged Basquiat’s world with hip-hop, punk, and the downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and ’80s.Memoir of the graffiti artist and filmmaker at the center of the downtown New York scene Basquiat moved through — hip-hop, punk, and the art world converging in the 1970s and ’80s. - “Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy” by Robert Farris Thompson
Reveals how artistic and spiritual traditions from five African civilizations live on in the cultures of Black communities across the Americas. - “Flyboy in the buttermilk” by Greg Tate
Pioneering collection of culture criticism spanning hip-hop, jazz, and Black visual art. Essays on hip-hop, jazz, and Black visual art from Tate, a Village Voice critic and one of the foundational voices in writing about Black culture in America. - “A Small Place” by Jamaica Kincaid
A short, searing essay on colonialism and Caribbean identity. - “Latinx Art: Artists, Markets, and Politics” by Arléne Dávila
Scholarly examination of Latinx art’s place in the US art market and cultural institutions.
Online
- Jean-Michel Basquiat. National Museum of African American History and Culture.
- René Ricard, “The Radiant Child.” Artforum, December 1981
The essay that first brought Basquiat to wide critical attention. Available via Artforum archive. - Me Gritaron Negra by Victoria Santa Cruz
A landmark Afro-Peruvian spoken word performance on Blackness, identity, and pride in the diaspora. English subtitles available. - Greg Tate archive. Village Voice
Decades of essential criticism on Black music, art, and culture from one of the downtown New York scene’s most vital writers. villagevoice.com
