Madonna Says Basquiat Ruined the Paintings He Gave Her

Madonna opens up about dating the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and the bitter breakup between them.

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Complex Original

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Everyone knows that Madonna dated Jean-Michel Basquiat in the early '80s, but now the singer is opening up about her relationship with the artist during a recent interview with Howard Stern. 

Madonna tells Stern that she loved Basquiat and he was "an amazing man and deeply talented," but the relationship ended because "he wouldn't stop doing heroin." However, Madonna still remembers interesting details from her relationship with the artist. "I remember getting up in the middle of the night and he wouldn't be in bed lying next to me; he'd be standing, painting, at four in the morning, this close to the canvas, in a trance. I was blown away by that, that he worked when he felt moved." 

It also sheds more light on what it was like to date Basquiat, or at least what it was like to break up with him. "When I broke up with him he made me give [the paintings he gave me] back to him. And then he painted over them black."

Considering how valuable works by Basquiat have become, it's a huge bummer that we will never know what the artist conceived for Madonna.

[via ArtNet]

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