Getting a Read On: Basquiat and Black Lives Matter

Jean-Michel Basquiat’s painting "Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart)" becomes the focal point of WCMA’s Reading Room, and the centerpiece of a series of conversations about police brutality, Black identity, and the Black Lives Matter movement. Basquiat painted "Defacement" after his friend and fellow artist Michael Stewart was beaten to death by New York City police in September 1983. Today when the reality of extrajudicial violence against Black Americans is at the forefront of national conversations, "Defacement" forces us to recognize the historical reality of these events.