Graffiti As An Art Form, essay by Declan Cann

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Graffiti As An Art Form Essay - Critical and Contextual Studies Declan Cann Student Number: 19032904

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Reference Images - Graffiti As An Art Form

Whole car subway train carriage painted by ‘Dondi’ - Picture by Martha Cooper 1983

‘Seen’ Poses underneath one of his painted NYC subway trains

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‘Banksy’ painting raises over £16m for an NHS Charity after being sold at auction - 2021

Tags on Westminster Bridge Road London - Original Image

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Graffiti As An Art Form During the mid 70’s in a New York City that was suffering from a terrible financial crisis the birth of a culture was born, known as the Subway Graffiti era. Formed as a part of the Hip-Hop movement which was composed of four elements, Deejaying, B-Boying (Breakdancing) Rapping and Graffiti Painting (also known as writing). This era saw graffiti artists strive to ‘get up’ by painting their tags and pieces on as many subway trains over the city as they could and making them as bold and as stylish as possible. “Writers saw themselves as embodying an (illegal) urban beautification and education program for a fading city bent on denying its own magnificent cultural dynamics and destroying its own “local color,” both figuratively and literally. In taking the trains, writers created a new mass media, and in that media they “wrote back” to the city”1. Even though the process of spraying a subway train with paint is an illegal act of vandalism, there is no denying these pieces were beautiful and technical works of art that continue to inspire people to this day. The public view on this movement was divided, some saw the painted trains as a colourful addition to an otherwise dilapidated neighbourhood, a moving, free gallery that brightened up their day-to-day. Others saw the opposite, pure unsightly vandalism that carried negative connotations, territorial markings that encouraged a gang mentality, intimidating locals and costing the taxpayer money ultimately making the city a worse place to live. A pioneer of the culture, graffiti writer ‘Iz The Wiz’ encapsulates the movement with his quote “A lot of trains, a lot of fun, a lot of art. Art that's gonna be part of New York City's history forever.”2 One of the most famous graffiti artists from this era, Richard ‘Richie’ Mirando, also known by his tag name ‘Seen’ is often referred to as ‘The Godfather of Graffiti’. He captures the essence of what illegal subway painting was about for him in his quote “ I suppose the attraction [to writing] came from the actual act. The excitement from being able to get away.

Ultimately it came from the feeling of once seeing a piece you did go by like a moving billboard that says that’s me, I was here. Knowing that people all over the city see your name. Not to mention the fame that came with it”3 He started painting New York subway trains in 1973 when he was around 11 years old and continued until about 1989. Although Seen started off his artistic career very much as a vandal, in the early 80’s he and many other writers of the New York Subway Era realised they could make money from their art in galleries after the New York Police and Metropolitan Transportation Authority made it harder for the graffiti artists to paint the trains and the movement very slowly started to die down.

Not all graffiti writers agreed with the idea of gallery work, arguing that by the very definition of the name, graffiti should be illegal, others had the attitude of ‘If I can make money from this, why shouldn’t I?’ and this is an argument that continues in the graffiti world to this day.

One art critic in the documentary ‘Style Wars’ describes the appeal of the gallery work ‘’It's almost as though these pieces were peeled off the train and put onto canvas, so you have 1

Austin, J. (2002). Taking the Train. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press. https://0-doi-org.emu.londonmet.ac.uk/10.7312/aust11142 2 produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant ; directed by Tony Silver. (1983). Style wars. New York, N.Y. :Public Art Films, 3 Austin, J. (2002). Taking the Train. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press. https://0-doi-org.emu.londonmet.ac.uk/10.7312/aust11142

5 the same energy, you have the same coloring, you have the same intensity and the same big piece that you would see on a train.’’4 Richie Mirando went on to make a living from selling his art and exhibiting work in solo shows and alongside artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, and still does in 2021, with some of his paintings fetching up to $18,000 dollars a piece.

Whilst some graffiti writers will argue that getting money for your artwork is ‘selling out’, there have been many benefits from graffiti becoming a legitimate form of art. “While the reinvention of graffiti remains an uneven process, it has been quite successful in many respects. Graffiti and street art are found in almost every city, attracting a large number of participants. Many cities now provide walls throughout their urban environment that graffiti writers and street artists are permitted to paint. Much of the public appreciate the work, and some have become heavily invested in documenting graffiti and street art.”5 As graffiti art has continued to be accepted in society, legal spaces where artists can paint, the increase of murals and even tours of local graffiti and street art have attracted tourists therefore bringing money into communities and creating jobs. Banksy, an artist whose name is now known to most people world over, has helped raise money and awareness for many different causes.

Just this year a Banksy painting portraying a young boy playing with a superhero nurse doll raised more that £16m for an NHS charity after being sold at auction and even a die-hard graffiti vandal would find it hard to argue that this is a bad thing. Although, some people would never agree with graffiti being seen as true art, as Paul Korshin once wrote in a letter to the Times “[Writing is] not the cry of an anxious ego, eager to communicate joy or angst, but the defiant snarl of a nuisance. The uniqueness of art ought not to be confused with a phenomenon so pervasive as graffiti.”6 By definition, if you are deliberately damaging public or private property with spray paint or any other medium to make graffiti, you are committing vandalism, which is illegal. Arguably, this isn’t to say that what you are producing isn’t art. Art, by definition is ‘’The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”7 In my opinion the graffiti on the subway trains of New York in the 70’s and 80’s would fall under both of these definitions. Some people would look at a wall full of graffiti tags and see something beautiful and others wouldn’t, Mitzi Cunliffe writing for the New York Times in 1973 once wrote that “Compared to Jackson Pollock's painting they seem realer, much realer than art.”8 Ultimately art is subjective, it’s based on the viewer's personal tastes, feelings or opinions. Graffiti art could be defined as a Banksy piece illegally painted on the 4

produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant ; directed by Tony Silver. (1983). Style wars. New York, N.Y. :Public Art Films, 5 Kramer, R. (2019). Graffiti and Street Art: Creative Practices Amid “Corporatization” and “Corporate Appropriation”. In E. Bonadio (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti (Cambridge Law Handbooks, pp. 26-40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108563581.003 6 Paul Korshin quoted in Austin, J. (2002). Taking the Train. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press. https://0-doi-org.emu.londonmet.ac.uk/10.7312/aust11142 7 Oxford Languages and Google - English | Oxford Languages. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2021, from https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/ 8

Cunliffe, M. (1973, July 29). The Writing on the Wall. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/07/29/archives/the-writing-on-the-wall.html

6 side of someone's house, yet covered in perspex and guarded by security to stop it being vandalised and then sold for thousands of pounds. On the other hand it could be illegally painted on the side of a subway train, which is free for everyone to see but will eventually end up costing the taxpayer money to clean off and will see the artist left with a prison sentence or a hefty fine. Whatever your view on graffiti art or vandalism is, without wanting to get too political, Banksy sums up his with this quote “Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they're having a piss.”9

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Banksy, (2001). Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall. A + K Press Distribution

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Bibliography Austin, J. (2002). Taking the Train. New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press.

Retrieved May 19, 2021 from https://0-doi-org.emu.londonmet.ac.uk/10.7312/aust11142 Banksy, (2001). Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall. A + K Press Distribution Cunliffe, M. (1973, July 29). The Writing on the Wall. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1973/07/29/archives/the-writing-on-the-wall.html (Accessed May 19th 2021) Kramer, R. (2019). Graffiti and Street Art: Creative Practices Amid “Corporatization” and “Corporate Appropriation”. In E. Bonadio (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti (Cambridge Law Handbooks, pp. 26-40). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved May 19, 2021 from doi:10.1017/9781108563581.003 Oxford Languages and Google - English | Oxford Languages. (n.d.). Retrieved May 19, 2021, from https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/ Style wars. New York, N.Y. :Public Art Films, produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant ; directed by Tony Silver. (1983).