Jean Michel Basquiat Art Artist Series

Radiant Child

Winner of the Randolph Caldecott Medal and the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award! Jean-Michel Basquiat and his unique, collage-style paintings rocketed to fame in the 1980s as a cultural phenomenon unlike anything the art world had ever seen. But before that, he was a little boy who saw art everywhere: in poetry books and museums, in games and in the words that we speak, and in the pulsing energy of New York City. Now, award-winning illustrator Javaka Steptoe's vivid text and bold artwork echoing Basquiat's own introduce young readers to the powerful message that art doesn't always have to be neat or clean—and definitely not inside the lines!—to be beautiful. A Spanish edition, El niño radiante, is also available for purchase.

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Jean-Michel Basquiat

Featuring foldouts, candid photographs, and full-page color installation shots, this beautiful new book celebrates the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat over his brief but meteoric career. Dozens of historical photographs, both black-and-white and color, connect the text with the close to sixty color plates, providing invaluable insight into the life and work of this seminal artist. Art historian Robert Farris Thompson delivers a detailed analysis of some of Basquiat’s most iconic paintings, situating them within the artist’s own oeuvre, as well as the larger landscape of twentieth-century art. Rounding out this stunning volume, the late Rene Ricard provides a rare but accurate glimpse into the private world of Basquiat, recounting their sometimes fraught friendship, from their first meeting in 1981 to Basquiat’s death in 1988.