Jean Michel Basquiat is an African American Artist, on December the 22nd Jean Michel Basquiat was born at Brooklyn Hospital, New York.

His father Gerard was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and his mother Matilda Andradas a Puerto Rican descent born in New York.

He was well known for his graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan, using the pseudonym 'SAMO' meaning same old shit. Basquiat continued to make cartoon-like drawings inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's movies, automobiles and comic strips; He had started drawing ever since he was 3.

Basquiat was born after the death of his brother Max; When he was 11 years of age, his mother was admitted to a mental institution and thereafter spent time in and out.

September 1968, Basquiat was hit by a car whilst playing on the street, he suffered severe internal injuries and eventually needed to undergo a splenectomy, the removal of his spleen.
His parents separated that year leaving him and his sister being raised up by their father Gerard.

At the age of 15 Basquiat ran away from home, staying at a local radio station for a few hours until the employee called his father and was returned to the care of his father within a hours. On December basquiat runs away from home again to the Washington Square Park where he and Diaz

spent a lot of time after two weeks o

f Gerard searching he brings him back home; Basquiat proclaims ‘Papa, I will be very, very famous one day’ which he

did

.