Review: ‘Basquiat: A Graphic Novel’ — The Artist, the Art, the Scene

Jean-Michel Basquiat is a cultural icon. Along with Keith Harring, Andy Warhol, and many others, he defined a new way of understanding art. Popular, controversial, and raw, he was an artist with lightning-fast success and even an even faster demise; he died of an overdose at barely 28 years old, leaving an enormous trove of art behind him.

This fascinating bio translates various sources into one seamless narrative, drawn into vivid pop-art scenes-from his first appearances as a street artist legend known as SAMO until his last shows all over Europe, when a painting of his could reach sky-high prices, being as he was the first black painter to be treated as a pop star in every possible way.

Of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, Basquiat was born a New Yorker. He painted furiously and continuously, once even painting his girlfriend’s entire apartment from floor to ceiling. He also wrote thousands of notes. These are a primary source for this graphic novel.

The main message from this biography, I think, is that fame can be a lot like a drug. You become addicted to it, but it takes everything from you as well, and…