Jean-Michel Basquiat

Near the end of Basquiat, Julian Schnabel’s 1996 biopic dedicated to his peer and rival in the 1980s art world, the painter, played by Jeffrey Wright, is literally out to lunch for an awkward reunion with his longtime on-again/off-again girlfriend Gina, played by Claire Forlani. Jean-Michel Basquiat is not doing well. He is strung out,…

Before his assorted canvases were collected for status, Jean-Michel Basquiat was an archetypal artist’s artist, hustling by day, painting and tagging up walls and trains by night. It’s an era of his career not documented quite as thoroughly as others. Many of the late painter’s works that have broken records at auction—going for seven, eight,…