Madonna and Basquiat on the brink of fame

Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat met in New York in late 1982 and were a couple for a time. In December, Madonna visited Basquiat in Los Angeles; later, he invited her to stay at art dealer Larry Gagosian’s house. This was before her major breakthrough in music, while Basquiat was already a rising artist and had become an art-world star by early 1983. They were approaching wider fame, but they were not both unknown.