Basquiat

The art world recently took notice when actress Angelina Jolie signed an eight-year lease on a studio in New York City. The studio, which Jolie is using to launch her brand Atelier Jolie, is where Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988) and Andy Warhol lived during their lifetimes. It's also where Basquiat died at the age of just 27.

Basquiat has been called many things. 'Black Picasso', 'genius graffiti artist', 'artist of freedom and resistance' .... Despite his short life, more than 30 years after his death, his art is still referred to as an 'icon of his time'.

Born in 1960 in Brooklyn, New York, Basquiat's interest in art began at an early age when he followed his mother to art museums. Warhol's role in Basquiat's rise to stardom cannot be overstated. The two met in 1982 through a gallerist and became instant friends. Their work together led to a joint exhibition at Tony Chafrazi Gallery in New York in 1985. The joy was short-lived. When Warhol died suddenly of a heart attack in 1987, Basquiat was deeply saddened. Eventually, Basquiat died of a heroin overdose in 1988. He left behind more than 3,000 works over the course of eight years.