How Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring Forged a Friendship While Protesting the Killing of Michael Stewart – VANITY FAIR
When Michael Stewart, a young Black artist, was brutally beaten by New York City transit police in 1983, the city’s downtown art scene was shaken. But no one felt it like Jean-Michel Basquiat. Stewart wasn’t just another victim of police violence—he was part of their circle. He was one of them.
The Vanity Fair excerpt reveals how the news deeply rattled Basquiat. He feared he could be next. “It could have been me,” he said. That grief and fury poured into his work, including his painting Defacement (The Death of Michael Stewart)—a haunting image originally painted on Keith Haring’s studio wall.
The Stewart case became a symbol of injustice. For Basquiat, it was personal, urgent, and unspeakably familiar. In that moment, his art wasn’t commentary. It was mourning—and a refusal to stay silent.