1960   
Jean Michel Basquiat born December 22, in Brooklyn Hospital. His mother, Matilde, is an artistic woman born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. His father, Gerard, is a Haitian born accountant.

1967   
By age six, Jean-Michel is fascinated by drawing, and want's to be a cartoonist. His childhood drawing is encouraged by his mother, who takes him to New York art museums.  

1968   
Jean-Michel is hit by a car while playing in the street, resulting in a broken arm, internal injuries and removal of his spleen. During a month-long recuperation in hospital his mother gives him a copy of the book Grey’s Anatomy, which greatly influences his later work.  

His parents divorce. Jean and his two sisters stay with his father.

1970   
Matilde is committed to a mental institution when Jean is 10 or 11, and subsequently spends time in and out of institutions.   

1971-81
In 1971 the tag “Taki 183” becomes ubiquitous throughout New York City, especially in the subway, jump starting the modern graffiti movement. By the mid 1970s whole car pieces turned many trains into moving graffiti murals. Jean noticed these works and they influenced his later use of graffiti to gain fame.

1974-5
Gerard Basquiat takes a posting to Mira Mar, Puerto Rico, and moves with his three children. Jean-Michel runs away for the first time, but is brought back. The family moves back to Brooklyn at the end of 1975.

1977   
Jean-Michel Basquiat first develops “SAMO” comic character with friends at City As School high school.   

1978   
After throwing a cream pie in his principal’s face at a high school assembly, Jean-Michel runs out of school and never graduates.

In June he runs away from home for good, and spends time homeless and staying with friends in Manhattan.

With friend Al Diaz, Basquiat paints many graffiti phrases in downtown Manhattan signed “SAMO.”

December 1978 Village Voice article on the SAMO graffiti interviews Basquiat and Diaz.

1979   

First interviewed on Glenn O'Brien's New York City cable TV talkshow "TV Party." See the interview. 

In May Basquiat helps found a short-lived noise band called ‘Gray.’ He is now well known on downtown scene. (Basquiat in 1979, Photograph by Nicholas Talyor)

Still without his own home, he befriends future artist Keith Haring, and other School of Visual Arts students.

1980   
In June an abstract graffiti-like work in the alternative “Time Square Show” gives Basquiat his first one-line mention in the art press.

Basquiat is picked for the lead role of a down and out painter in New York Beat, a film showcasing New York’s downtown music scene. Filming starts in December 1980 and finishes January 1981 (released in 2001 as Downtown 81)

Basquiat moves in with Suzanne Mallouk, with whom he continues and on again off again affair for several years. (Photo of Basquiat and Mallouk)

1981   
In January Republican Ronald Reagan becomes president of the United States. His presidency (1981-89), a period of mostly economic growth, increasing inequality, and the rise of the “Yuppie” culture, coincides with Basquiat’s career as a painter. 

In February his sophisticated use of child-like images in “New York / New Wave” exhibition at the alternative P.S.1 (in Queens, NY) brings Basquiat to the attention of more adventuresome figures in the art world. (Video clip of "New York / New Wave" including Basquiat works at 0:36 and 2:40)

Invited in September to join Annina Nosei’s SoHo gallery, and set up a studio in the gallery basement. In November Nosei’s Public Address group exhibition includes several large figurative paintings by Basquiat.   

1982   
In March Basquiat’s 1^st US solo exhibition, at Annina Nosei Gallery, gets rave reviews. From this point on he supports himself from the sale of his paintings. 

In the Fall of 1982 he is working at his new Crosby Street loft.  Develops a busy style mixing many words and images, often done on intentionally primitive handmade stretchers created by his new studio assistant Stephen Torton.

Basquiat is invited to Andy Warhol's loft "the Factory" for the first time, and they do each others portraits. (Warhol portrait "Jean-Michel Basquiat," 1982)

Basquiat’s November Fun Gallery exhibition in the East Village is a popular and critical success.
(See the November 1982 interview with Basquiat by Marc H. Miller for Paul Tschinkel's 1983 Art New York video.)

December Artforum publishes Rene Ricard’s “The Radiant Child” article, which brings Basquiat to international attention.  (Article)

1982-3
Basquiat has a brief relationship with Madonna, from fall of 1982 to early 1983.

Stays in Los Angeles for the winter, where he has show at Gagosian gallery and produces Beat Bop album with Rammellzee.

1983   

Basquiat is included in 1983 Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum.

In August rents a loft at Great Jones Street from Andy Warhol, where he lives and works.

September 15^th death after police arrest and beating of graffiti writer Michael Stewart. Basquiat commemorates the event in the painting “Defacement.”

1984   
Joins the Mary Boone Gallery in March, and has his first show there in May. The crowded show of smaller paintings gets mixed reviews, but is a commercial success. 

In May his paintings are included in the Museum of Modern Art's re-opening exhibition, "International Survey of Painting and Sculpture." In August he has his first solo museum show in Edinburgh, and two works are included in “Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art” in Pennsylvania.

In the Fall Basquiat begins a love affair with Jennifer Goode, an employee of the Area nightclub

The September exhibition “Collaborations: Basquiat ,Clemente, Warhol” shows 15 collaborative works at the Bruno Bischofberger gallery in Zurich.

1984-5 From Fall of 1984 to Summer of 1985 Basquiat spends several days a week working on collaborative works with Andy Warhol in Warhol’s “factory” studio. The two often go out at night together as well.

1985   
February 10^th Basquiat appears on the cover of The New York Times Magazine.  The article introduces him to a new audience, but also becomes a often cited example of hype in the art world. (Photograph, copyright Lizzie Himmel, 1985) (Article, by Cathleen McGuigan)

Second exhibition at Mary Boone gallery in March. The varied work includes the striking Gold Griot painted on wood boards. The catalogue essay by Robert Farris Thompson’s mentions ‘black vision’ ‘blues typography’ and ‘kreyol’ aspects to his work.

Henry Geldzahler arranges for Basquiat to paint a mural in newly opened Palladium nightclub. 

The September Warhol-Basquiat collaborative show at Tony Shafrazi gallery is panned by critics. (Basquiat and Warhol at gallery, photo Tseng Kwong Chi)

Basquiat breaks off his close relationship with Warhol. Friends worry about his drug use.

1986   
Trip to Ivory Coast, Africa, for an October exhibition in Abidjan. 

Final break with Mary Boone gallery on return from Africa.

Joins drug rehab program, but leaves after few weeks. End of relationship with Jennifer Goode. (Basquiat, 1986, Photograph by William Coupon)

1987 
On February 22, Andy Warhol dies unexpectedly after undergoing a routine gallbladder operation. Basquiat is devastated and depressed. His drug use increases, and he spends more time alone in the studio. (Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1987 photograph by Ari Marcopoulos)

Photo of Basquiat at Whitney Museum opening of Julian Schnabel retrospective, with friend Keith Haring, 1987.

1988   
April  29 – June 11 Exhibition at Baghoomian Gallery (his first New York show of paintings in over two years) is a success, and seen as a comeback.

June, Travels to Hawaii in an attempt to kick his drug habit on his own.

August 12th, Jean-Michel Basquiat dies from “acute mixed drug intoxication” in his Great Jones Street loft. 

1992   
Posthumous Basquiat retrospective exhibition at Whitney Museum, New York. Reviews of the exhibition, and especially the museum catalog, further the serious study of the artist.   

1996   
Julian Schnabel feature film Basquiat is released, staring Jeffrey Wright as Basquiat, with David Bowie as Andy Warhol. Brings the painter new fans, but criticized by those who knew Basquiat as distorting his life.

2001   
Independent film Downtown 81 released, starring Jean-Michel Basquiat in footage taken in 1980-81 for the unfinished "New York Beat" movie.

2002   
At Christies’ Contemporary Art Auction in May 2002, Basquiat’s Profit I (1982) sold by Lars Ulrich, drummer for rock band Metallica for a then record five and a half million dollars. (auction details and picture)

2005   
The Brooklyn Museum organizes a large Basquiat retrospective exhibition, which travels through the US in 2005-2006. The catalog for the exhibition becomes the most popular produced by the museum.  Reviews of the show are overwhelmingly positive, and place Basquiat among the important contemporary painters.

2007    
On May 16, 2007, Basquiat's painting Untitled (fallen angel) from 1981 was bought at auction for a record $11.2 million, plus commission.

2010    
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a feature-length documentary directed by Basquiat acquaintance and filmmaker Tamra Davis, based on images of the artist painting and an extended intimate interview, released at Sundance Film Festival in January, given theatrical release later that year.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: A Biography, the first book on the artist for young adults, published by Greenwood Press in March. (more).

Major Basquiat retrospective exhibition on view in Fondation Beyeler, Basel, Switzerland, from May to September 2010, and Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 15 October 2010 to 30 January 2011. (Foundation Beyler)