Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat Fab Five Freddy T-Shirt, White
Details
This is a lightweight cotton t-shirt featuring Basquiat's artwork, Fab 5 Freddy. The back of our t-shirt is emblazoned with Jean-Michel Basquiat's "World Famous," teasing out the complete portrait Jean-Michel Basquiat made of artist and downtown legend Fab 5 Freddy (from Brooklyn) that is printed on the front.
About the artwork: Basquiat drew this portrait on a white plate with a black Sharpie and it would become part of a larger series that included portraits of friends and fellow artists including Futura, Lady Pink, and Keith Haring.
Image: Fab 5 Freddy, 1983/1984
© Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Licensed by Artestar, New York
Jean-Michel Basquiat
A poet, musician, and graffiti prodigy in late-1970s New York, Jean-Michel Basquiat had honed his signature painting style of obsessive scribbling, elusive symbols and diagrams, and mask-and-skull imagery by the time he was 20. “I don’t think about art while I work,” he once said. “I think about life.” Basquiat drew his subjects from his own Caribbean heritage—his father was Haitian and his mother of Puerto Rican descent—and a convergence of African-American, African, and Aztec cultural histories with Classical themes and contemporary heroes like athletes and musicians. Often associated with Neo-expressionism, Basquiat received massive acclaim in only a few short years, showing alongside artists like Julian Schnabel, David Salle, and Francesco Clemente. In 1983, he met Andy Warhol, who would come to be a mentor and idol. The two collaborated on a series of paintings before Warhol’s death in 1987, followed by Basquiat’s own untimely passing a year later.
