Jennifer Clement's 'En compagnie de Basquiat' Reveals Intimate Portrait

Poet and novelist Jennifer Clement has published 'En compagnie de Basquiat', a book based on the confidences of Suzanne, the companion and muse of Jean-Michel Basquiat. The narrative traces Basquiat's rise from an unknown graffiti artist to a mythic figure in the 1980s New York art scene, alongside names like Warhol, Madonna, Schnabel, Keith Haring, and others. Suzanne, a waitress when she met Basquiat, housed him and witnessed his ascent to fame and subsequent decline due to heroin addiction. The book details Basquiat's extravagant lifestyle, including painting over Armani suits, spending thousands on caviar, and his paranoid episodes. After Basquiat's death from a heroin overdose in 1988, Suzanne overcame addiction and pursued medical studies. Clement's writing is described as tight, sober, and dense, devoid of pathos.