Jean-Michel Basquiat's Death: Heroin Overdose at 27

Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Neo-Expressionist artist, died of a heroin and cocaine overdose on August 12, 1988, in his New York loft at age 27. Born in 1960 to a Haitian-Puerto Rican family, he rose to fame at 21 with a style blending graffiti, art history, and social commentary. His relationship with Andy Warhol, who died in February 1987, was pivotal; Warhol's death devastated Basquiat. Basquiat struggled with drug addiction from at least 1980, exacerbated by sudden wealth and art-world pressures. His last show ran from April to June 1988 at the Vrej Baghoomian Gallery in New York, featuring the ominous painting 'Riding with Death.' After a failed rehabilitation attempt in Hawaii, he returned to New York but became a recluse. On the night of his death, he was brought to a nightclub by girlfriend Kelly Inman; friend Kevin Bray left a note saying 'I DON’T WANT TO SIT AROUND HERE AND WATCH YOU DIE.' Basquiat was found unresponsive at 5:30 PM. His lowered heroin tolerance due to a quitting attempt made his usual dose lethal. Posthumously, a former drug dealer claimed Basquiat painted a door for him in 1988, but the Basquiat estate deemed it a fake; Shepard Fairey later attributed it to artist Phil Frost.