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The Arts Intel Report

Writing the Future: Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation

Oct 18, 2020 – July 25, 2021
465 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115, USA

The exhibitions on Jean-Michel Basquiat just keep coming. Born in 1960, dead at 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988, this American artist powerfully captured the refracted, outsider energy of rap, punk, graffiti, and hip-hop, expressive forms moving in from the fringes. “Writing the Future” places Basquiat at the center of these movements, and is the first exhibition to look at his work in the context of hip-hop culture. —L.J.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, “Hollywood Africans.” Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.