Basquiat White Cover Book

Emerging from New York's 1970s counterculture, Jean-Michel Basquiat conquered the mainstream art world in 1981, when an Artforum profile by René Ricard dubbed him the love child of Cy Twombly and Jean Dubuffet. Basquiat brought with him a visual lexicon of graffiti symbols and urban rage—an artistic style that many critics of the day deemed more eye-sore than art form. Chiappini's study of Basquiat's work, which spans the artist's career from his earliest SoHo shows to his premature death at 27, interweaves six essays, one interview and 162 images (80 in color) to provide a narrative (and argument) for Basquiat's placement in the art world pantheon. While some critics, like Italian art historian Achille Bonito Oliva, tend to overintellectualize Basquiat's intentions, the artist's interview with Henry Geldzahler reveals his unpretentious methods and practical concerns