Jean-Michel Basquiat's life and career as a painter are nearly paradigmatic for the riddles of the art world in the 198os. His rise to prominence was without parallel. The graffiti sprayer, who left mysterious and witty statements on the walls of SoHo and the East Village using the pseudonym SAMO, became a cele brated star, holding court in the explosive art scenes of Zurich, New York, Tokyo and Los Angeles. He was courted and in the end worn down by an art market that saw prices shoot up to previously unimaginable heights as its mechanisms followed increasingly cutthroat and purely economic laws. v
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