Jean-Michel Basquiat was born on December 22nd, 1960, giving life to what would embody the American dream. Basquiat was born to Gérard Basquiat, an immigrant from Port-au-Prince, Haiti and Mathilde Basquiat, a Brooklyn native of Puerto Rican descent. Basquiat’s tumultuous yet art-filled childhood saw moves between Puerto Rico and the US, stints of drug addiction and homeless, and, ultimately, a high-profile position in the global art world.

 

While Basquiat’s early work consisted overwhelmingly of graffiti in public spaces, culminating in the birth of the SAMO art movement, his work accrued philosophical value and increasingly focused on suggestive dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience.

​

While art has long been a formidable global market, the international trade of creative goods has significantly expanded throughout the past decade. Exports of creative goods rose 47% to $473,791 million in 2012, and imports value rose by 56% (see UNCTAD graph). In 2012, the global market for traded creative goods and services totaled a record $5.4 billion (UNCTAD, 2016). While Europe ranked the largest exporter of creative goods in 2012, exporting $1.43 billion that year, LDCs combined exported only $227 million. Yet, developing countries’ share of creative goods exports is increasing vis-à-vis developed countries.

 

In 2015, Ernst and Young published fin- dings in “Cultural Times: The first global map of cultural and creative industries” that shows the substantial economic contributions of the creative industries to the global economy. It found, for example, that CCI accounted for 29.5 million jobs, surpassing combined automotive industry jobs in Europe, Japan, and the US. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the creative industry generated $125 billion in revenues in 2013 and accounted for 1.9 million jobs. This study also found that CCI employed more youth than any other sector (EY, 2015. p. 16). Also, in terms of earnings, the “starving artist” is merely a myth. Over a lifetime, earnings are less than 2.9% greater for non-artists (Benhamou, 2003).

​

Basquiat’s experience teaches us about the creative economy, network accessibility, and long-term job sustainability.