Arts & Culture

INDEPENDENT LENS: Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child

Published April 8, 2011 at 1:00 PM PDT

Jean-Michel Basquiat, a young artist who revolutionized the New York art scene almost overnight.

Airs Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 11 p.m. on KPBS TV

Centered on a rare interview that director and friend Tamra Davis shot with Jean-Michel Basquiat more than 20 years ago, this film chronicles the meteoric rise and fall of the young artist.

In the crime-ridden New York City of the 1970s, he covers the city with the graffiti tag 'SAMO.' In 1981 he puts paint on canvas for the first time, and by 1983 he is an artist with "rock star status." He achieves critical and commercial success, though he is constantly confronted by racism from his peers.

In 1985, he and Andy Warhol become close friends and painting collaborators, but they part ways and Warhol dies suddenly in 1987. Basquiat's heroin addiction worsens, and he dies of an overdose in 1988 at the age of 27. The artist was 25 years old at the height of his career, and today his canvases sell for more than a million dollars.

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