Final answer:
Jean-Michel Basquiat embraced his fame and used it to further his career but also battled with the consequent pressures, which exacerbated his drug addiction and ultimately led to his early death.
Step-by-step explanation:
Jean-Michel Basquiat dealt with fame at a young age by both embracing and struggling with it. While he used his fame as a platform to elevate his art and fought against the preconceptions of being a young, black, self-taught graffiti artist, he also faced the pressures and pitfalls of fame. Basquiat's accelerated rise in the art world saw him making millions by the age of 21, which led to lavish spending and a struggle with drug addiction. His encounters with fame were complex; he found success and validation in his joint shows with Andy Warhol but ultimately succumbed to heroin addiction, which ended his life prematurely. Despite this, his work continues to reflect social issues, particularly those relating to the Black experience, symbolized through powerful imagery such as crowns representing the poet, the musician, and the athlete, as in his painting Boxer.