Graffiti and Street Art (Wall and Street) helen.clarke@leeds-art.ac.uk
Caves at Lascaux, France Drawings and paintings on cave walls from the Paleolithic period (17, 300 years old) ●Discovered in 1940 by four teenagers ●Depicting scenes of everyday life, hunting etc. ●
scratched with animal bones, natural pigments
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Ancient Roman Graffiti-
From Pompeii (Italy)– graffiti on wall ●Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in the year AD 79. ●
Caricature of a politician
Kilroy/Chad- WWII Engraving of Kilroy on the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C..
UK-slogan “wot no ….”
Paris May ‘68 We are the power
Civil unrest inspiring cultural/creative material
Urban graffiti
1970’s New York
Spay can graffitti
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Evolves alongside hip hop culture ●Making the language of the streets visible ●Announcing a presence, and saying ‘we will not be ignored’ ●
Jon Naar, photographer, 1973
From on Becoming a Graffiti photographer, John Naar ●
“you will see that the vast majority of these writers came from the most run-down and neglected sections of New York….predominantly Hispanic and African American. The graffiti they sprayed on the fronts of their homes and on the trains… were a cry for change from the ghetto to clean up the filthy streets, to improve the quality of the schools, and to reduce the glaring inequality between rich and poor.” p20
Jean -Michel Basquiat (1960-88)
SAMO –Same-OH
Originally a comic character created by Basquiat ●
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The City As School 1977-8 Yearbook includes a photo of the SAMO graffiti: SAMO@ AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO PLASTIC FOOD STANDS… “It started…as a private joke and then grew” Diaz and Basquiat would later tell the Village Voice in an interview. They took the joke out of the school, giving out small stickers with SAMO aphorisms or the SAMO pamphlet on paper on the subway, and writing down the phrases with marker pens as graffiti, often with an ironic copyright symbol attached. In 1977, while they were still students, Basquiat and Diaz started to put up the first SAMO© Graffiti in Manhattan.
Death of SAMO ●
1979
Neo expressionist painting Untitled 1982 1983
Warhol and Basquiat General Electric with waiter, 1984
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One of Americas largest corporations
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Collaborated towards the end of his life, Basquiat died of a heroin overdose 18 months after Warhol
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Keith Haring, radiant baby, 1990
In 1981 he sketched his first chalk drawings on black paper and painted plastic, metal and found objects.
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In 1984, Haring visited Australia and painted wall murals in Melbourne
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Other commissions- Rio, Paris, Berlin
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Haring, subway art
PopShop –closed 2005 Selling t-shirts, toys, posters bearing his signature images
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Celebrity hang out
John Feckner, Broken Promises, 1980
Jenny Holzer Times Square Show , 1980.
Video game culture From the Berlin Wall â—?
Comment on the lack of availability of brands and technology in the Eastern bloc
TATS CRU , 1997 for Coca-Cola
Bomb the world (2004) PS2
Jet Set Radio (2000-2003)
Graffiti in video games Sideways New York PS3 2011
Grand Theft Auto-tagging
Invader ●French ●First
artist, born 1969
mosaic in mid 1990’s
Paris ●Mosaic
tile which has permanency as it is weatherproof and more difficult to remove than paper/paint
●Tiles ●The
are pixel like
‘invasion’ spreads first across French cities and then 22 countries worldwide
Conceptual element :points on a map form a space invader
Re-emergence of Street Art Banksy Kate Moss
Shepard Fairey 2008
Parisian Photographer JR, Favela Morro Da Provienda- Rio, 2008
Blu (Italy) and Os Gemeos (Brazil) Lisbon, 2010
Blu- animated graffiti (2008) â—?
http://vimeo.com/993998
Corsa Ad 2011
123 KLAN (France) â—?
founded as a graffiti crew in 1989 by Scien and Klor, have gradually turned their hands to illustration and design while still maintaining their graffiti practice and style. In doing so they have designed and produced, logos and illustrations, shoes, and fashion for the likes of Nike, Adidas, Lamborghini, Coca Cola, Stussy, Sony, Nasdaq and more.
123 klan website Stussy released a special "Artist Series" collection to celebrate their 20th anniversary. For the occasion they invited us, along with artists such as Futura2000, Kaws and Todd "Reas" James, to each create a special edition shirt. The concept was to redesign the names of each of the cities where Stussy has a flagship store on the front, and on the back, the names of the ghettos of these same towns plus two more (chosen by the artist). The shirts were then made available in 3 different colors (black, white and green), in a pack containing the artist's biography.
Paul Curtis (Moose) reverse graffiti
The global picture
Free Art Friday ●
Free Art Friday is an art movement in which artists place free art out in public for people to enjoy and take home.
Here is how it works: Create a piece of art.
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write on an attached tag "free art friday, to take home and enjoy". Adding artist name, email,or web address is optional.
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Hide somewhere in public indoors or out. Some make a game out of it and leave clues on Twitter
● While artists have been leaving art out for many years My Dog Sighs can be credited with starting Free Art Friday and started his Flickr group in 2006. He has never wavered in his comittment, and his encouragement of others participating has made him a leader in the movement. Here is his Free Art Friday Facebook Page and his own FAF set on flickr.
Sam 3 (Spain) Murcia 2010
VHILS aka Alexandre Farto (Portugal) London 2008
Faith 71 ● ● ●
Amsterdam Red stickers round a natural hole in plaster Bridges the gap between hyperealist art and hyperabstract art effortlessly
Diva(Brooklyn)
Fafi (France)
Miss Van
Herakut
Swoon
Art of Resistance
Banksy, 2005 â—?
“The Israeli government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories. It stands three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700km- the distance from London to Zurich. The wall is illegal under international law and essentially turns Palestine into the worlds largest open prison. It also makes it the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers.�
Further reading ●
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Parry, William(2010) Against The Wall: The Art of Resistance in Palestine, Pluto Press Ganz. Nicholas (2006) Graffiti Woman, Thames and Hudson Manco, T (2011) The 10 best Street Art Works, Observer 07/08/11 Naar, J (2007) The birth of Graffiti, Prestel http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/artnews/9592962/Rothko-painting-vandalised-in-TateModern.html http://www.guardian.co. uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/20/palestinians-have-
Graffiti in film ●
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80 Blocks from Tiffany's (1979) – A rare glimpse into late '70s New York towards the end of the infamous South Bronx gangs. The documentary shows many sides of the mainly Puerto Rican community of the South Bronx, including reformed gang members, current gang members, the police, and the community leaders who try to reach out to them. Style Wars (1983), an early documentary on hip hop culture, made in New York City "Exit Through The Gift Shop" (2010) is a documentary produced by the notorious artist Banksy tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art. Shepard Fairey and Invader (artist), who Guetta discovers is his cousin, are also in the film. Bomb it (2007) Tells the story of contemporary graffiti, tracing its roots in ancient rock paintings through Picasso to its place in hip-hop culture in 1970's New York City. Director Jon Reiss