Jean-Michel Basquiat Quotes about Art

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-expressionist painter who brought the street into the art gallery. He first started being noticed with his SAMO graffiti tags that he and fellow graffiti artist Al Diaz placed around the streets of downtown Manhattan. Basquiat was an art star for a brief moment while he was alive but unfortunately his life ended prematurely. His works have sold for more than one hundred million dollars at auction in recent years. He produced paintings, drawings, and assemblages. Famous Jean Michel Basquiat paintings include “Horn Players”, “The Dingoes That Park Their Brains with their Gum”, “Per Capita”, and “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump”.

Mini biography: Born Jean-Michel Basquiat on the 22nd of December, 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, United States of America. His mother was Matilde Basquiat and his father was Gérard Basquiat. Jean-Michel Basquiat died on the 12th of August, 1988 in New York City, New York, U.S.A. Basquiat was 27 years old when he passed away. He died from a heroin overdose.

Jean Michel Basquiat Art Quotes

I wanted to be a star, not a gallery mascot. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I never know how really to describe it except maybe, I don’t know, I don’t know how to describe my work, because it’s not always the same thing. Jean-Michel Basquiat

Believe it or not, I can actually draw. Jean-Michel Basquiat

Since I was 17 I thought I might be a star. I’d think about all my heroes, Charlie Parker, Jimi Hendrix. I had a romantic feeling about how these people became famous. Jean-Michel Basquiat

The art was mostly minimal when I came up and it sort of confused me a little bit. I thought it divided people a little bit. I thought it alienated most people from art. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I’ve discovered that I think I rather work alone, more than anything. I used to have assistants, a lot, around me. And then on days when they wouldn’t come, I would be a lot more productive. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I start a picture and I finish it. I don’t think about art while I work. I try to think about life. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I had some money, I made the best paintings ever. I was completely reclusive, worked a lot, took a lot of drugs. I was awful to people. Jean-Michel Basquiat

Probably seeing the Guernica (Pablo Picasso painting) was my favorite thing when I was a kid. I liked Rauschenberg a lot when I used to live on the Lower East Side. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I was a really lousy artist as a kid. Too abstract expressionist, or I’d draw a ram’s head, really messy. I’d never win painting contests. I remember losing to a guy who did a perfect spiderman. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I thought I was going to be a bum the rest of my life. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I don’t think it’s good to be honest in interviews, I think it’s better to lie. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I am not a black artist, I am an artist. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I thought I wanted to be a cartoonist when I was younger and then I changed to painting when I was about fifteen or so. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I don’t listen to what art critics say. I don’t know anybody who needs a critic to find out what art is. Jean-Michel Basquiat

I was more interested in attacking the gallery circuit at that time. I didn’t think about doing painting. I was thinking about making fun of the paintings that were in there, more than making paintings. The art was mostly minimal when I came up and it sort of confused me a little bit. I thought it divided people a little bit. I thought it alienated most people from art. Jean-Michel Basquiat

Quotes About Jean Michel Basquiat

With Jean-Michel or Picasso, the fact that they could do it so easily is what makes the work, in the end, so great. They had absolute fearlessness. If you’re not fearless about changes, then you won’t progress. Christopher Wool

More on American Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

How has Jean Michel Basquiat influenced your art making? Does his work fetch such large sums at auction because of the quality of the art or the marketing? It’s obviously a bit of both. I love his work. I just wish he had another 10 or 20 years of drug-free art production in him. Let us know what you think about Basquiat in the comments below.

Related or similar artists and celebrities include: Keith Haring ||| Andy Warhol ||| Banksy ||| Ron English ||| James Rosenquist and Famous American Artists.