Jean-Michel Basquiat, the lauded artist whose legacy has endured decades after his passing, now has a small stretch of downtown Manhattan named in his honor.
On Tuesday, officials with the New York City Council joined the Basquiat estate, members of the artist’s family, cultural leaders and local community members to unveil Jean-Michel Basquiat Way, located on the stretch of Great Jones Street between Bowery and Lafayette.
The block holds significance for the legacy of the late Brooklyn native, who lived and worked at 57 Great Jones Street from 1983 until his tragic death at 27 in 1988.
In recent years, works by Basquiat — known for his signature style of boundary-defying, graffiti-rooted art that set New York City’s art scene ablaze during the 1980s — have broken sales records at auctions, been featured in landmark exhibitions, and adorned an array of merchandise from retailers like Tiffany & Co., Coach, Old Navy and Uniqlo, as well as uniforms for the Brooklyn Nets.
“The co-naming recognizes Jean-Michel Basquiat’s enduring legacy as a visionary Black artist who helped redefine modern art through his bold, expressive and socially conscious work,” the New York City Council said. “The space [at 57 Great Jones Street] served as his home and studio during some of the most prolific years of his career, anchoring him in a neighborhood that was at the heart of New York’s creative energy in the 1980s.”
The artist’s sisters Jeanine Heriveaux and Lisane Basquiat were also on hand at the Tuesday afternoon ceremony.
“To have New York honor Jean-Michel in this way is deeply meaningful to our family,” the siblings said. “Jean-Michel’s is a New York Story. We are thrilled to witness this epic moment of acknowledgment and honor from the city that helped shape him.”
The street naming is the latest tribute to one of the greatest contemporary artists of the 20th century, who has works on display at the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and The Whitney.
Basquiat was posthumously bestowed the key to the city of Brooklyn in 2017 by then-Borough President Eric Adams. In 2022, he was the subject of the first-of-its-kind, immersive “King’s Pleasure” exhibit, housed in a 15,000-square-foot space on the ground floor of Starrett-Lehigh building in Chelsea.
Later that year, Broadway welcomed the Kwame Kwei-Armah-helmed play “The Collaboration,” which explored the relationship between Andy Warhol and Basquiat. In 2023, WBGO’s Lezlie Harrison hosted an evening of art, poetry and music at Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery, the site of Basquiat’s burial.
