© Alexis Adler, 1980, Basquiat practicing clarinet in the bathroomAlexis Adler had just graduat

©Alexis Adler, 1980, Basquiat practicing clarinet in the bathroom

Alexis Adler had just graduated from Barnard College in New York City with a degree in biology when she fell for a charming artist four years her junior. His name was Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The two moved in together later that year, into a sixth-floor walk-up with about 400 square feet of living space located on East 12th Street in Manhattan’s East Village neighborhood. The rent, wildly, was $80 a month, affordable enough for Basquiat to support himself by selling sweatshirts on the street. The couple spent about a year in the apartment, a passionate and creatively fertile time that Adler chronicled meticulously with her camera. (read more)

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