LOWER MANHATTAN (WABC) — A legendary name in the art world has been etched into the streets of New York City.
A stretch of Great Jones Street in Lower Manhattan was officially renamed ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat Way’, honoring the iconic artist who lived and worked there during the height of his career.
His influence is still splattered on the facade of 57 Great Jones Street in NoHo, the home and studio of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of the most consequential artists of the 20th century.
To honor that legacy, on the street where he transformed art culture around the globe, the city co-named the street ‘Jean-Michel Basquiat Way.’
The groundbreaking visionary artist redefined modern art and even collaborated with Andy Warhol.
A canvas of his sold for more than $110 million in 1982, still the highest price ever paid for a painting by any American artist.
“I think he’d feel so acknowledged and honored and I think he would be thrilled,” his sister Lisane Basquiat said.
“I feel like he changed the culture. I think art had a certain way of look before and now it has a different culture. And it looks good. It looks good,” his nephew Raymond Joseph Basquiat said.
Basquiat got his start on the street, spray painting graffiti art on the walls of his native Brooklyn.
He used his art and his voice to confront social issues.
He was bold, expressive, and fearless.
His father was from Haiti and his mother was a New York native of Puerto Rican descent.
“I’m Haitian so I moved to New York City when I was 27. But when I first started painting, Jean was like the first artist that kind of like inspired me to continue painting,” artist Naderson Saint Pierre said.
“As Jean-Michel Basquiat once said, ‘I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.’ Today we honor a man whose art reflected life and all its complexity, the beauty, the struggle, the truth,” City Councilmember Erik Bottcher said.
Basquiat died of an accidental drug overdose at his studio in 1988 at 27 years old.
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