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MEGA ARTIST<br />
Issue no: 03<br />
Jean-Michel Basquiat<br />
ABSTRACT, FIGURATION<br />
22 DECEMBER 1960-<br />
12 AUGUST 1988<br />
Mega Artists Magazine takes time to<br />
remember revolutionary artists. Artists<br />
who by their work, a movement or style<br />
of thinking and acting has started. A<br />
synopsis of their background is<br />
compiled, to bring light to our readers,<br />
about this Mega Artist.<br />
On this month’s issue we remember a<br />
legend, a free spirited youth who let<br />
nothing pull him down. Jean-Michel<br />
Basquiat was a Black-American artist,<br />
born in Brooklyn, New York. Who by the<br />
age of 4 could read and write. After his<br />
mother’s mental health failures, he started<br />
running away from home, sleeping on park<br />
benches.He would get arrested and<br />
returned home to his father. Basquiat<br />
dropped out of school; his father banished<br />
him from the household and basquait<br />
stayed with friends.<br />
Scull<br />
The Trumpet<br />
Basquiat started a street movement called<br />
“SAMO”(meaning same old shit) during<br />
his teenage days, surviving by selling t-<br />
shirts and home made post cards. During<br />
the day he worked for the Unique Clothing<br />
Warehouse. At night Basquiat and friend Al<br />
Diaz became SAMO, painting his original<br />
art on neighbourhood buildings.<br />
Basquiat’s name is now heard on almost<br />
every rapper(hiphop artist) all over the<br />
globe. His artistry and hunger to survive<br />
using his art as form of expression made<br />
him a legend he is today. As a symbol of<br />
endurance and courage to the youth, JEAN-<br />
MICHEL BASQUIAT is truly a Mega Artist.<br />
COURTESY: www.wikipedia.org / Jean-Michel_Basquiat<br />
www.megaartists.co.za FEB-MAR 2015<br />
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