Episode #172 | 04.25.24 | SOURCES

Jean-Michel Basquiat: New York City Squalor, Art-World Slumming, and the 27 Club

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In this episode

Jean-Michel Basquiat's graffiti in Lower Manhattan was mistaken for a CIA operation. He was the toast of the New York art world while sleeping on floors in squalid apartments. He sold his first painting to Blondie's Debbie Harry for $200. Less than a year later, his paintings were going for more than $20,000. And decades later, the debate over what is and what is not a real Basquiat rages on.

*illustration by Avi Spivak @avispivak

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