American artist and world renowned expressionist, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a pioneer to the art community. His art work focused on "suggestive dichotomies," which includes integration versus segregation and wealth versus poverty. Abstract art would fill the streets giving message and meaning such as expressing a deeper meaning to the individual. His youth featured a great inpsiration of art through his mother, Matilde Basquiat, who brought her young son to art museums and enrolled him into the Brooklyn Museum of Art. By age eleven, young Basquiat was able to fluently write and speak, French, Spanish, and English. His capacity to learn has led to his knowledgeable forms of art. Affiliations with other artists includes legends such as the pop art genius, Andy Warhol. In 1988, the world lost a creative mind to the world of drugs. Jean-Michel Basquiat passed due to an overdose on heroin at the age of 27. Today, Basquiat's creations are remembered through film, exhibitions, and literature. Although a great artist has fallen, Jean-Michel Basquiat's legacy will live on forever.

- Francis Santos

[nggallery id=703]