Oil on cardboard 12 1/2" x 9 1/4" inchesJean-Michel Basquiat (French: [ʒɑ̃ miʃɛl baskija]; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist.[1] He first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s where the hip hop, post-punk, and street art movements had coalesced. By the 1980s, he was exhibiting his neo-expressionist paintings in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992.

All lots that do not carry established documented provenance nor any past record of auction history record are described in the catalog as attributed. All authorship of items in this catalog are described according to the following terms: Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given. By [Artist Name] : The work is by the artist. Attributed to [Artist Name] : The work may be ascribed to the artist on the basis of style, but there may be some question as to actual authorship. In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist. After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist. Circle of [Artist Name] : A work of the period of the artist showing his influence, closely associated with the artist but not necessarily his pupil. Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil). American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).