Jean-Michel Basquiat first achieved notoriety as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo working in NYC during the late 1970s. Basquiat's art focused on "suggestive dichotomies" such as wealth vs poverty, integration vs segregation, inner vs outer experience. Using poetry, drawing, and painting, he married text with images, abstraction with figuration, and historical information with contemporary critique. Before dying of an overdose at age 27, Basquiat said ''Guernica'' had a great impact on him since he first saw it as a teenager.

The powerful 1937 anti-war mural by Pablo Picasso, Guernica, shows the suffering of people, animals, and buildings wrenched by the violence and chaos of war. Guernica was Picasso’s response to German and Italian warplanes bombing the northern Spanish village of Guernica. Upon completion, Guernica was exhibited in Paris at the 1937 World's Fair, and then around the globe, to raise funds for Spanish war relief and to raise awareness of the Spanish Civil War.