Is Graffiti An Urban Art Form?
Tool....of the trade!
You can travel almost anywhere in the world, and you will probably see graffiti. Although graffiti art is usually more common in big cities, the reality is that it can occur in almost any community, big or small.
The problem with graffiti art is the question of whether it ’s really art, or just plain vandalism. This isn’t always an easy question to answer, simply because there are so many different types of graffiti. Some is simply a monochrome collection of letters, known as a tag, with little artistic merit. Because it ’s quick to produce and small, it is one of the most widespread and prevalent forms of graffiti.
Although tagging is the most common type of graffiti, there are bigger, more accomplished examples that appear on larger spaces, such as walls. These are often multicolored and complex in design, and so start to push the boundary of whether they should really be defined as graffiti art.
If it wasn’t for the fact that most graffiti is placed on private property without the owner ’s permission, then it might be more recognized as a legitimate form of art. Most graffiti art, however, is only an annoyance to the property owner, who is more likely to paint over it or remove it than applaud its artistic merit.
Many solutions have been put into practice around the world, with varying degrees of success. Paints have been developed that basically cause graffiti paint to dissolve when applied, or else make it quick and easy to remove. Community groups and government departments coordinate graffiti removal teams.
In some places you can’t buy spray paint unless you’re over 18. Cans of spray paint are locked away in display cases. In a nearby area the local council employs someone to go around and repaint any fences defaced by graffiti. A friend of mine has had his fence repainted 7 times at least, and it took him a while to find out why it was happening! Certainly the amount of graffiti in my local area has dropped substantially in the last year or two, so it appears these methods are working to a great extent.
But is removing the graffiti doing a disservice to the artistic community? Maybe if some of the people behind the graffiti art were taken in hand and trained, they could use their artistic skills in more productive ways. It hardly makes sense to encourage these artists to deface public property, and so commit a crime. But perhaps there are other ways to cooperate with the graffiti artists rather than just opposing them. Graffiti artists can create sanctioned murals for private property owners and get paid for it.
Maybe we need to start at a very basic level, and find a way to encourage the creation of graffiti art on paper or canvas, rather than walls. After all, who would remember Monet or Picasso if they’d created their masterpieces on walls, only to have them painted over the next day? Finding a solution to such a complex situation is never going to be easy, but as more graffiti art is being recognized in galleries around the world, we do need to try.
Author: Steve Dolan loves art in various forms and mediums. Find out more about graffiti as an art form at Graffiti and Urban Art and if you have art that needs framing visit Picture Frames.
Article Source: Content for Reprint
Filed under Graffiti Art Movement · Tagged with graffiti, graffiti art, Graffiti Artists, tag, tagging, urban art
Writing On The Wall – A Look Into The World Of Graffiti Art
Highly decorative graffiti from Brazil
Graffiti has always been given a negative connotation as it is seen as a defacement of a piece of property with the used of paint and other items. It has also been inextricably linked with the hip hop culture and has become one of the main elements of the movement. Despite the negativity that some people feel towards graffiti, it has slowly become one of the foremost art forms in modern society.
Graffiti Art History
Despite seeming to be an all too modern art form, graffiti has always been around even in ancient times. Remains and relics from the ancient Roman city Pompeii reveal a world where people expressed their thoughts emotions by writing on walls and on other public and private items. Everything from poems to various drawings were found preserved in the ancient walls. This kind of society in ancient Rome is beautifully depicted in the introductory scenes of the HBO series Rome. The animators of the two season TV series depicted Roman streets and walls covered with graffiti that ranged from the obscene and sexually explicit to depictions that were political in nature.
Rome wasn’t the only place where ancient graffiti was found. The Egyptians were also known to write on the walls aside from their highly celebrated hieroglyphics. In Saudi Arabia, it is widely recognized that a form of ancient Arabic language called Safaitic was only found scratched into boulders and rocks in the Syrian and Jordanian deserts.
During war eras and choppy political periods in the United States, people have also seen various forms of graffiti from World War Two’s “Kilroy Was Here” to Dick Nixon “Before He Dicks You” during the 1970s. Another famous graffiti are the immortal words “Clapton is God” found in the London Underground. Read more
Filed under Featured, Graffiti Art Movement · Tagged with ancient graffiti, graffiti, graffiti art, graffiti artwork, graffiti's history
Jean-Michel Basquiat
- Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1984.
Jean-Michel Basquiat (December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist. He gained popularity first as a graffiti artist in New York City, and then as a successful 1980s-era Neo-expressionist artist. Basquiat’s paintings continue to influence modern day artists and command high prices.
Biography
Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York City in 1960. His mother, Matilde, was Puerto Rican and his father, Gerard Jean-Baptiste, is of Haitian origin and a former Haitian Minister of the Interior. Because of his parents’ nationalities, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish, and English and often read Symbolist poetry, mythology, history and medical texts, particularly Gray’s Anatomy in those languages. At an early age, Basquiat displayed an aptitude for art and was encouraged by his mother to draw, paint, and to participate in other art-related activities. In 1977, when he was 17, Basquiat and his friend Al Diaz started spray-painting graffiti art on slum buildings in lower Manhattan, adding the infamous signature of “SAMO” or “SAMO shit” (i.e., “same ol’ shit”). The graphics were pithy messages such as “Plush safe he think; SAMO” and “SAMO is an escape clause”. In December 1978, the Village Voice published an article about the writings. The SAMO project ended with the epitaph SAMO IS DEAD written on the walls of SoHo buildings.
In 1978, Basquiat dropped out of high school and left home, a year before graduating. He moved into the city and lived with friends, surviving by selling T-shirts and postcards on the street, and working in the Unique Clothing Warehouse on Broadway. By 1979, however, Basquiat had gained a certain celebrity status amidst the thriving art scene of Manhattan’s East Village through his regular appearances on Glenn O’Brien’s live public-access cable show, TV Party. In the late 1970s, Basquiat formed a band called Gray, with the then-unknown musician and actor Vincent Gallo. Gray played at clubs such as Max’s Kansas City, CBGB, Hurrahs, and the Mudd Club. Basquiat worked with Gallo again in a film Downtown 81 (a.k.a New York Beat Movie) which featured some of Gray’s rare recordings on its soundtrack. He also appeared in Blondie’s video “Rapture” as a replacement for DJ Grandmaster Flash when he was a no-show.
Basquiat first started to gain recognition as an artist in June 1980, when he participated in The Times Square Show, a multi-artist exhibition, sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated (Colab). In 1981, poet, art critic and cultural provocateur Rene Ricard published “The Radiant Child” in Artforum magazine, helping to launch Basquiat’s career to an international stage. During the next few years, he continued exhibiting his works around New York alongside artists such as Keith Haring, Barbara Kruger, as well as internationally, promoted by such gallery owners and patrons as Annina Nosei, Vrej Baghoomian, Larry Gagosian, Mary Boone and Bruno Bischofberger. Read more
Filed under Artists and Groups · Tagged with al diaz, graffiti, graffiti art, Jean-Michel Basquiat, neo-expressionist, SAMO
Radical And Political Graffiti Use
Ancient graffito from Pompeii.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages around the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names as ‘De Zoot’, ‘Vendex’ and ‘Dr Rat’. To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there already was a vibrant graffiti culture.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as “on the street” or “underground”, contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints for a variety of reasons — but primarily because is it difficult for the police to apprehend and for the courts to sentence or even convict a person for a protest that is as fleeting and less intrusive than marching in the streets. In some communities, such impermanent works survive longer than works created with permanent paints because the community views the work in the same vein as that of the civil protestor who marches in the street — such protest are impermanent but effective nevertheless.
In some areas where a number of artist share the impermance ideal, there grows an informal competition. That is, the length of time that a work escapes destruction is related to the amount of respect the work garners in the community. A crude work that deserves little respect would invariably be removed immediately. The most talented artist might have works last for days. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Art Movement · Tagged with banksy, graffiti, graffiti art, graffiti culture
Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network
The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) was founded in January 1984 by former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode. The original goal of the program was to combat the spread of graffiti in the Philadelphia area and was led by Tim Spencer. In 1986 another program began within PAGN, named The Mural Arts Project (MAP), and headed by artist Jane Golden. Through the success of both programs in 1991 the city of Philadelphia was awarded the Innovations in American Government Award due to the progress PAGN and MAP had made in the surrounding communities. In 1996 the success of MAP was noted and split off into a separate program and placed under the umbrella of the Philadelphia Recreation Department. From the founding of these programs over 2,500 murals have been created across the city and over 40,000 walls cleaned of graffiti. The Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network currently consists of three programs; Mural Arts Program, Paint Voucher Program, and the Graffiti Abatement Team.
Anti Graffiti Art History
A precursor is the The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s urban outreach project in the seventies. The program helped to create murals around Philadelphia to cover up the graffiti-covered buildings. The museum’s program ended in 1983, a year prior to the beginning (COAST) of the PAGN, which like its predecessor attempted to use murals to curb the rising graffiti problem.
While closely related to the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s urban outreach project, the PAGN encompassed a larger goal with similar priorities. The program was originally created during a citywide crackdown on graffiti and accompanied other antigraffiti regulations and increases in penalties. Selling of spray paints to minors was prohibited as well as displaying unlocked cans of paint in stores, the latter to curb the common practice of shoplifting paints. Included with the increased penalties also came alternative forms of punishment such as forcing graffiti writers to clean graffiti as a form of community service and an amnesty program for identified “taggers” who signed pledges promising not to vandalize property anymore. The amnesty program accumulated over a thousand signatures between 1984 and 1991. Those found guilty of vandalism also had another option: apprenticeship in the PAGN program. The apprenticeship focused on taking the creative energy of the graffiti artists (BERN) and helping them gain guidance from already established professional artists. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Law · Tagged with anti-graffiti network, graffiti, Mural Arts Project
Characteristics Of Common Graffiti
An example of stencil graffiti
Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A “tag” is the most basic writing of an artist’s name in either spray paint or marker. A graffiti writer’s tag is his or her personalized signature. “Tagging” is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to vandalism, as they use it to label all acts of graffiti writing (it is by far the most common form of graffiti). Tags can contain subtle and sometimes cryptic messages, and might incorporate the artist’s initials or other letters. As well as the graffiti name, some artists include the year that they completed that tag next to the name, so that Tox, an artist from London, becomes Tox03, Tox04, etc. John Tsombikos claimed subsequent to his arrest that his “Borf” tag campaign, which gained recognition for its prevalence in Washington, D.C., was in memory of a deceased friend.
Another form is the “throw-up,” also known as a “fill-in,” which is normally painted very quickly with two or three colors, sacrificing aesthetics for speed. Throw-ups can also be outlined on a surface with one color. A “piece” is a more elaborate representation of the artist’s name, incorporating more stylized “block” or “bubble” letters, using three or more colors. This of course is done at the expense of timeliness and increases the likelihood of the artist getting caught. A “blockbuster” is a large piece done simply to cover a large area solidly with two contrasting colours, sometimes with the whole purpose of blocking other “writers” from painting on the same wall. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Art Movement · Tagged with graffiti, graffiti artist, graffiti writer, spray paint, tag, tagging, tags, throw-up
Commercialization Into Mainstream Pop Culture
Crossover of video game and graffit culture.
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent “Peace, Love, and Linux.” However due to illegalities some of the “street artists” were arrested and charged with vandalism, and IBM was fined more than $120,000 for punitive and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami in order to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings “a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle or a rocking horse.”
Along with the commercial growth has come the rise of video games also depicting graffiti, usually in a positive aspect – for example, the Jet Set Radio series (2000-2003) tells the story of a group of teens fighting the oppression of a totalitarian police force that attempts to limit the graffiti artists’ freedom of speech. In plotlines mirroring the negative reaction of non-commercial artists to the commercialization of the artform by companies like IBM (and, later, Sony itself) the Rakugaki ?koku series (2003-2005) for Sony’s PlayStation 2 revolves around an anonymous hero and his magically imbued-with-life graffiti creations as they struggle against an evil king who only allows art to be produced which can benefit him. Following the original roots of modern graffiti as a political force came another game title, Marc Eck?’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (2006), featuring a story line involving fighting against a corrupt city and its oppression of free speech, as in the Jet Set Radio series.
Other games which feature graffiti include Bomb the World (2004), an online graffiti simulation created by graffiti artist Klark Kent where users can virtually paint trains at 20 locations worldwide, and Super Mario Sunshine (2002), in which the hero, Mario must clean the city of graffiti left by the villain, Bowser Jr. in a plotline which evokes the successes of the Anti-Graffiti Task Force of New York’s Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (a manifestation of “broken window theory”) or those of the “Graffiti Blasters” of Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley. Read more
Filed under Commercial Graffiti · Tagged with graffiti, graffiti artist, modern graffiti
Government Responses To Graffiti
Graffiti Art In North America
Graffiti advocates perceive graffiti as a method of reclaiming public space or to display one’s art form, their opponents regard it as an unwanted nuisance, or as expensive vandalism requiring repair of the vandalized property. Graffiti can be viewed as a “quality of life” issue, and its detractors suggest that the presence of graffiti contributes to a general sense of squalor and a heightened fear of crime.
In 1984, the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network (PAGN) was created to combat the city’s growing concerns about gang-related graffiti. PAGN led to the creation of the Mural Arts Program, which replaced often hit spots with elaborate, commissioned murals that were protected by a city ordinance, increasing fines and penalties for anyone caught defacing a mural. The Philadelphia Subway line also features a long standing example of the art form by way of the broad and spring garden stop, along the broad & ridge (to 8th and market) line. Which while still existing, has long been quarantined, and has featured tags and murals that have existed for upwards of 15years.
Advocates of the “broken window theory” believe that this sense of decay encourages further vandalism and promotes an environment leading to offenses that are more serious. Former New York City mayor Ed Koch’s vigorous subscription to the broken window theory promoted an aggressive anti-graffiti campaign in New York in the early eighties, resulting in “the buff”; a chemical wash for trains that dissolved the paint off. New York City has adopted a strenuous zero tolerance policy ever since. However, throughout the world, authorities often, though not always, treat graffiti as a minor nuisance crime, though with widely varying penalties. Roof tops became the mainstream after the trains died out.
In 1995 Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York set up the Anti-Graffiti Task Force, a multi-agency initiative to combat the perceived problem of graffiti vandals in New York City. This began a crackdown on “quality of life crimes” throughout the city, and one of the largest anti-graffiti campaigns in U.S. history. That same year Title 10-117 of the New York Administrative Code banned the sale of aerosol spray-paint cans to children under 18. The law also requires that merchants who sell spray-paint must lock it in a case or display cans behind a counter, out of reach of potential shoplifters. Violations of the city’s anti-graffiti law carry fines of $350 per count. Famous NYC graffiti artist Zephyr wrote an opposing viewpoint to this law. Read more
Filed under Graffiti Law · Tagged with anti-graffiti law, anti-graffiti legislation, anti-graffiti network, graffiti, Graffiti Artists, graffiti blasters, graffiti vandalism, tags
Modern Graffiti
Modern graffiti on European train.
Graffiti is often seen as having become intertwined with hip hop culture as one of the four main elements of the culture (along with rapping, DJing, and break dancing). However, there are many other instances of notable graffiti this century. Graffiti has long appeared on railroad boxcars. The one with the longest history, dating back to the 1920s and continuing into the present day, is Bozo Texino. During World War II and for decades after, the phrase “Kilroy was here” with accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and its filtering into American popular culture. In the sixties, its popularity was eclipsed by American graffiti proclaiming that “Yossarian lives!”, a reference to the protagonist of Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22. The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire (”Boredom is counterrevolutionary”). A famous graffito of the 20th century was the inscription in the London subway reading “Clapton is God”. The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. The graffiti was captured in a now-famous photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall. A popular graffito of the 1970s was the legend “Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You,” reflecting the hostility of the youth culture to that U.S. president. Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers) widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats and hangouts are famous for their graffiti.
In America around the late 1960s, graffiti was used as a form of expression by political activists, and also by gangs such as the Savage Skulls, La Familia, and Savage Nomads to mark territory. Towards the end of the 1960s, the signatures-tags-of Philadelphia graffiti writers Top Cat, Cool Earl and Cornbread started to appear. Around 1970-71, the center of graffiti innovation moved to New York City where writers following in the wake of TAKI 183 and Tracy 168 would add their street number to their nickname, “bomb” a train with their work, and let the subway take it-and their fame, if it was impressive, or simply pervasive, enough-”all city”. Bubble lettering held sway initially among writers from the Bronx, though the elaborate writing Tracy 168 dubbed “wildstyle” would come to define the art. The early trendsetters were joined in the 70s by artists like Dondi, Futura 2000, Daze, Blade, Lee, Zephyr, Rammellzee, Crash, Kel, NOC 167 and Lady Pink.
'Kilroy was here' inscription on the World War II Memorial.
The relationship between graffiti and hip hop culture arises both from early graffiti artists practicing other aspects of hip hop, and its being practiced in areas where other elements of hip hop were evolving as art forms. By the mid-eighties, the form would move from the street to the art world. Jean-Michel Basquiat would abandon his SAMO tag for art galleries, and even street art’s connections to hip hop would loosen. Occasional hip hop paeans to graffiti could still be heard throughout the nineties, however, in tracks like the Artifacts’ “Wrong Side of Da Tracks” (Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Big Beat, 1994) and Company Flow’s “Lune TNS” (Funcrusher Plus, Rawkus, 1997). Read more
Filed under Featured, Graffiti Art Movement · Tagged with american graffiti, bombing, graffiti, Graffiti Artists, graffito, street art, tagging, tags, throw-up
Banksy Posters – Snapshots of Vanishing Art
Banksy wall art 'Maid'
Fans of Banksy graffiti are in a strange position. If you don’t live in London or any of the various international cities where he paints his works, you’re not likely to see them. Even if you do happen to live in the city, you have to be quick or by the time you reach a new piece of Banksy art it is more often than not covered in Plexiglas or has been chipped away and flogged on eBay.
While it’s understandable, if not mercenary, for people to be removing Banksy art, I take more exception with those who chase their fifteen seconds of fame by defacing his stencils. A recent example of this was a piece of Banksy graffiti that the he painted in New Orleans to commemorate the devastation of Hurricane Katrina (and perhaps a timely reminder of the lack of response from the government just before the national election!). One of the stencils was of a boy swinging on a lifesaver and this has now been blotted out with red paint. You could perhaps understand a kid doing this, but given the placement and height of the graffiti, it would seem to be someone more ‘mature’. I suppose by defacing a piece of art, they know it will be reported and ergo they have their little piece of infamy. The same thing happened in London earlier this year when two of the more prominent pieces were destroyed within days; part roller-painted out, with the words “All the best” painted over them. There is speculation by Banksy posters on forums that this was actually done by the artist himself, in answer to the wholesale removal of his public works that were placed on eBay at extortionate prices. Read more
Filed under Artists and Groups, Featured · Tagged with banksy, graffiti
