{"id":11147,"date":"2025-10-21T20:03:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11147\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T20:03:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T20:03:09","slug":"jean-michel-basquiat-way-unveiled-in-downtown-manhattan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/11147\/","title":{"rendered":"Jean-Michel Basquiat Way unveiled in downtown Manhattan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jean-Michel Basquiat<\/a>, the lauded artist whose legacy has endured decades after his passing, now has a small stretch of downtown Manhattan named in his honor.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, officials with the New York City Council<\/a> joined the Basquiat estate, members of the artist\u2019s family, cultural leaders and local community members to unveil Jean-Michel Basquiat Way, located on the stretch of Great Jones Street between Bowery and Lafayette.<\/p>\n

The block holds significance for the legacy of the late Brooklyn native, who lived and worked at 57 Great Jones Street from 1983 until his tragic death at 27 in 1988<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AA crowd gathers outside Jean-Michel Basquiat\u2019s studio on Great Jones St. before a street co-naming ceremony for the iconic artist in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

In recent years, works by Basquiat \u2014 known for his signature style of boundary-defying, graffiti-rooted art that set New York City\u2019s art scene ablaze during the 1980s \u2014 have broken sales records at auctions, been featured in landmark exhibitions, and adorned an array of merchandise from retailers like Tiffany & Co.<\/a>,\u00a0Coach<\/a>, Old Navy and Uniqlo, as well as uniforms for the Brooklyn Nets<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe co-naming recognizes Jean-Michel Basquiat\u2019s enduring legacy<\/a> as a visionary Black artist who helped redefine modern art through his bold, expressive and socially conscious work,\u201d the New York City Council said. \u201cThe space [at 57 Great Jones Street] served as his home and studio during some of the most prolific years of his career, anchoring him in a neighborhood that was at the heart of New York\u2019s creative energy in the 1980s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JeanineJeanine Heriveaux (left) and Lisane Basquiat (right), sisters of Jean-Michel Basquiat, receive a proclamation from City Councilman Eric Bottcher at a street co-naming ceremony for the late artist outside his former studio at 57 Great Jones St. in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The artist\u2019s sisters Jeanine Heriveaux and Lisane Basquiat<\/a> were also on hand at the Tuesday afternoon ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have New York honor Jean-Michel in this way is deeply meaningful to our family,\u201d the siblings said. \u201cJean-Michel\u2019s is a New York Story. We are thrilled to witness this epic moment of acknowledgment and honor from the city that helped shape him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA street sign is unveiled at a street co-naming ceremony for Jean-Michel Basquiat outside the late artist\u2019s studio at 57 Great Jones St. in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

The street naming is the latest tribute to one of the greatest contemporary artists of the 20th century, who has works on display at the Brooklyn Museum,<\/a> the Museum of Modern Art<\/a>\u00a0and The Whitney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, circa 1985. (Photo by Rose Hartman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Basquiat was posthumously bestowed the key to the city of Brooklyn in 2017 by then-Borough President Eric Adams. In 2022, he was the subject of the first-of-its-kind, immersive \u201cKing\u2019s Pleasure\u201d exhibit<\/a>, housed in a 15,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea.<\/p>\n

Later that year, Broadway welcomed the Kwame Kwei-Armah-helmed play \u201cThe Collaboration,\u201d<\/a> which explored the relationship between Andy Warhol and Basquiat. In 2023, WBGO\u2019s Lezlie Harrison hosted an evening of art, poetry and music at Brooklyn\u2019s Green-Wood Cemetery, the site of Basquiat\u2019s burial.<\/p>\n

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