Jean-Michel Basquiat: Of Symbols and Signs

Editors: Dieter Buchhart, Antonia Hoerschelmann and Klaus Albrecht Schröder

This exciting, color-filled retrospective monograph offers new insights into Basquiat’s unique visual language and helps illuminate messages about political and social issues that feel as urgent today as they did a half-century ago.

This exciting book shows how Basquiat used an intricate network of signs and symbols to challenge the very system that made him a darling of the art world. It traces his inspiration from cartoons, children’s drawings, and advertising as well as his own Haitian and Puerto Rican heritage; discusses the influence of African-American, African, and Aztec cultural histories; and shows how Basquiat incorporated into his work classical themes and contemporary icons—from athletes to musicians.

Hardcover / 216 pages, 10" x 12" / 85 color illustrations / 12 bw illustrations.