Jean Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon

Shortly after his untimely death in 1988, Jean-Michel Basquiat¿s meteoric art-world ascent was in retreat. Nearly four decades later, the artist¿s paintings are amongst the world¿s most recognizable and valuable. Based on over 100 interviews, Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Making of an Icon finally fills in long-missing chapters from the life and work of an artist who helped reframe contemporary art. When Jean-Michel Basquiat died in 1988 at the age of twenty-seven, major critics called his work a flash in the pan and the meteoric rise in the prices of his paintings started to fall back. Almost thirty years later Basquiat joined Picasso, Modigliani and Munch when one of his paintings sold for over $100 million. Nearly four decades after his untimely death, he remains one of the most recognizable artists in the world ¿ his work not only headlines major museum exhibitions and private collections but also appears on T-shirts, sneakers, tattoos and accessories from Rio to Singapore. What happen