Hardcover Book 15.6x21.7cm 512 Pages Jean-Michel Basquiat. 40th Ed. - Taschen

The bestselling XXL monograph, now available in a condensed edition. Outstanding reproductions of Basquiat's most important paintings, drawings and sketches, together with texts by editor Hans Werner Holzwarth and curator and art historian Eleanor Nairne, bring us closer than ever to a legend synonymous with 1980s New York.

An unprecedented exploration of Basquiat's art and work

The legend of Jean-Michel Basquiat is very much alive. Synonymous with 1980s New York, the artist first appeared in the guise of the tag SAMO, the signature on the caustic comments and fragments of poems he inscribed on the city's walls. He emerged as part of a rapidly expanding underground scene of visual art and graffiti, hip-hop, post-punk and independent film, destined to join the thriving art world. Gifted with great power and an utterly personal voice, Basquiat broke with the established milieu and exhibited through the gallery circuit worldwide.

Basquiat found his own mode of expression in a style combining raw forms, words and phrases. His work draws inspiration from the great names of jazz, boxing and basketball, and alludes to the secrets of history and to urban political subjects. Indeed, when asked about his subject matter, he replied: "royalty, heroism and the street". In 1983 he began working with one of art's most famous stars, Andy Warhol, and in 1985 he created a cover for the New York Times Magazine. When he died at the age of 27, he was recognised as one of the most talented artists of his time.

Originally published in an XXL format edition, this unprecedented insight into Basquiat's art is now available in a more accessible, compact volume in honour of TASCHEN's 40th anniversary. Through outstanding reproductions of his most important paintings, drawings and sketches, it offers striking closeness to Basquiat through his mysterious signs and scrawled words, illuminated by an introduction to the artist by editor Hans Werner Holzwarth and an essay on his favourite themes and his artistic development by art historian and curator Eleanor Nairne. The artist's life is traced year by year through richly illustrated chapters enriched with quotations from Basquiat and critical texts published at the time, giving a better understanding of his personal experience and the historical context of his work.