MIAMI – A new exhibit at The Perez Art Museum Miami gets into the mind of the teen who ran the streets of New York City as graffiti writer SAMO -- for Same Old S###.
Jean-Michel Basquiat thought a lot about racial identity and police brutality. And when success hit him as an artist who collaborated with Andy Warhol, he wrote and drew about his struggles with "the ego."
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The artist's Puerto Rican and Haitian heritage was a clear influence in his work, which still sells for millions around the world. But that is not the highlight of the "Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks" exhibit.
There are some 160 pages of poetry fragments, wordplay and sketches of tepees, crowns, skeletons and grimacing faces. Some pieces hint to the influence that comics, advertising and hip-hop had in his life.
His irreverence and rebellious spirit helped turn him into a pop icon. But a heroine addiction kept his career short. He died at 27.
The Brooklyn Museum's notebooks featured at the exhibit give a unique insight on Basquiat's genius thanks to curators Maria Elena Ortiz, Dieter Buchhart and Tricia Laughlin Bloom.
The exhibit, which also includes two collaborations with Andy Warhol and an excerpt from "The Radiant Child" documentary, opened on Thursday and it will be on view at the museum until Oct. 16.
PHOTOS | View highlights of exhibit
