Jean Michel Basquiat is one of my favourite artists. He is also one of the few celebrated black artists. Rising to fame in the late 1970’s as part of the graffiti writing duo know as Samo (same old shit.

After living on the streets in NYC he enjoyed enormous commercial success and even dated Madonna. He was a protege and collaborator of Andy Warhol (another of my favourite artists) and died of a heroin overdose in 1988, joining the 27 club. In 2017 one of his artworks sold for $110.5 million.