JEAN-­MICHEL BASQUIAT

How an artist became a superstar.

Woodham, an advisor to art collectors and institutions, draws on more than 100 interviews for a perceptive examination of the life, art, and legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). Of Puerto Rican and Haitian heritage, Basquiat had a troubled childhood, marked by a near-fatal accident when he was 7, requiring a long hospitalization; the breakdown of his parents’ marriage; and his mother’s mental fragility, which led to his being raised by his strict father. A wild, defiant teenager, he dropped out of high school and left home at 18, spending his days “idle and stoned” and his nights at New York City clubs. In 1981, when a friend included some of his drawings in an exhibition at the future MoMA PS1, he attracted the attention of gallerists. Soon, his “raw, frenetic” paintings found buyers. In the roaring art market of the 1980s, Basquiat became famous. Black, pansexual, flamboyant, he fit the image of a tormented, brilliant artist. “Celebrity happens,” Woodham observes, “when who you are and what the world wants converge.” Woodham portrays Basquiat as a man with a “ravenous appetite for new experiences”; intensely competitive, he “wanted to be known as one of the great artists of his generation.” Drugs undid him, though: He died of a heroin overdose at 27, leaving 1,000 paintings and 2,000 drawings. Woodham offers an insider’s look at the business of art, revealing the aesthetics and motivations of Basquiat’s early and posthumous collectors; the gallery owners who represented him; and the economic, cultural, and social forces that shape taste and monetary value. Basquiat’s legacy, including sales, exhibitions, and licensing, has been tightly controlled by his father, who refused permission to reproduce Basquiat’s work for this book.

An insider’s look at an artist’s world.