Students were inspired by Basquiat’s loose, free- style improvisational paintings to paint with repetition of lines and shapes as well as using words and symbols. A friend of Andy Warhol, Basquiat was different from graffiti artists because his words had a higher meaning than just a name on the side of a building. He described his work, “I cross out words so you will see them more; the fact that they are obscured makes you want to read them.”
