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Once in a while someone will come along and change what it means to be an artist. They redefine the way “artists” look, act, and how they make art. Jean-Michel Basquiat was one of these types of people. He changed the art world with his style of art and his style of life. He changed the way that the world thought about artists. Being black in a mainly white art community, Basquiat had to overcome more than any other artist of his time. Basquiat’s art career was short-lived, but the impact it had on the art world isn’t small by any means. Basquiat was born to Puerto Rican and Haitian parents in New York. Basquiat grew up in a middle class family in a fairly nice part of Brooklyn, even though he tried to hide this fact later in his life. The rest of Jean-Michel’s family consisted of two younger sisters. Even at an early age, Jean-Michel drawings and paintings drew attention from his parents. He attended private school until fourth grade in which most of the other children were white. When he was seven, Jean-Michel was hit by a car and had to have his spleen removed. While in the hospital, he received a book titled Gray’s Anatomy that his mother gave him . He was very interested in this book and i