view of the evolution of the women’s game, chart-
ing the progress of women’s participation in
basketball from its onset in the late nineteenth
century, through the struggle to gain equal status
with the men’s game in 1970’s and 1980’s, to the
success of the Women’s National Basketball Asso-
ciation (WNBA) in the late 1990’s and the early
twenty-first century.
Hareas, John.NBA’s Greatest. New York: Dorling
Kindersley, 2003. Full of colorful photographs
and written analysis of the league’s top players,
coaches, teams, and games. Of particular interest
are descriptions of defining moments of the
1980’s individual superstars.
___.Ultimate Basketball. New York: Dorling
Kindersley, 2004. A decade-by-decade look at the
evolution of the modern game. The book high-
lights standout players and teams and discusses
the pervasive nature of the modern game as it
spread its influence globally.
Neft, David, and Richard M. Cohen.The Sports En-
cyclopedia: Pro Basketball. 2d ed. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1990. Looking at each individual
season, the encyclopedia notes league leaders,
outstanding moments, and trends within the
game. A good overview of the NBA.
Packer, Billy, and Roland Lazenby.College Basketball’s
Twenty-five Greatest Teams. St. Louis: Sporting
News, 1989. Chosen by computer rankings, me-
dia opinion, and performance on the court, the
teams included in this book are representative of
some of the finest seasons in college basketball.
Several teams from the 1980’s are featured:
Georgetown, Houston, Louisville, North Caro-
lina, and Oklahoma.
Shouler, Kenneth.Total Basketball: The Ultimate Bas-
ketball Encyclopedia. Wilmington, Del.: Sport Clas-
sics, 2003. This massive text is a comprehensive
study of basketball and a reliable source for any
conceivable facet of the game’s history. Includes
essays, statistical analysis, explanations on equip-
ment and rules, and analysis of trends on the
court. A primary source for any basketball re-
search.
Christopher Rager
See also Bird, Larry; Johnson, Magic; Olympic
Games of 1988; Sports.
Basquiat, Jean-Michel
Identification American neoexpressionist artist
Born December 22, 1960; Brooklyn, New York
Died August 12, 1988; New York, New YorkJean-Michel Basquiat, who started his career as a graffiti
spray painter in New York City, became one of the most in-
fluential neoexpressionist artists of the 1980’s. His African
American and Hispanic background was incorporated into
his raw imager y of urban life.After dropping out of high school and leaving his
middle-class Brooklyn neighborhood, Jean-Michel
Basquiat took to the streets, spraying graffiti on
buildings in lower Manhattan. He combined his im-
ages with cryptic phrases and signed his work with
the pseudonym “SAMO.” Career oriented and ambi-
tious, Basquiat transferred his work to canvas. His
paintings were well received in several exhibitions in
the early 1980’s, but it was the review of his work in
the December, 1981, issue ofArtforumthat cata-
pulted the young artist to fame.
Basquiat’s unfiltered street energy was retained
in his roughly scribbled paintings. He combined
abstract and figurative styles. He continued to acti-
vate his images with crudely printed words, phrases,
and ambiguous social comments. Basquiat combined
paint, crayon, and collage on large, unprimed can-
vases. With his bold colors and compositions, he also
incorporated gestural slashes and abstract symbols
such as grids, crowns, arrows, and rockets.
As an outsider trying to work within the predomi-
nantly white commercial-gallery system, Basquiat
must be examined in the context of his multicultural
heritage. His work was filled with references to Afri-
can, African American, and Latino culture. The hu-
man figure, especially the black male, was a major
subject of his painting, whose prominent themes in-
cluded alienation, discrimination, intolerance, and
violence.
Basquiat took his sources from the disparate so-
cial worlds in which he lived. With his success, he be-
friended Andy Warhol and shared celebrity status in
the New York City club scene. His work incorporated
images from popular culture—such as sports fig-
ures, cartoon characters, and symbols of wealth and
money—as well as references to Western art history.
His subjects also included New York City street life,
drugs, and AIDS. He incorporated skulls, skeletal98 Basquiat, Jean-Michel The Eighties in America