City as Canvas: New York City Graffiti From the Martin Wong Collection by Rizzoli International Publications

CITY AS CANVAS \ TRANSITIONS

Top: Henry Chalfant, Trap/ Dez/ Daze, 1983 Middle: Henry Chalfant, Stop the Bomb by Lee, 1979 Bottom: Henry Chalfant, Style Wars by Noc 167, 1981

CITY AS CANVAS \ TRANSITIONS

Henry Chalfant & Jim Prigoff, Howard the Duck, 1982

LEE QUIÑONES

CITY AS CANVAS \ WONG COLLECTION

SHARP

Abstract Techno-Symbolism, 1991, Acrylic paint on mixed media, 28x32”

VISION & EXPRESSION

CITY AS CANVAS \ TRANSITIONS

MARTIN WONG & THE NEW YORK CITY WRITING MOVEMENT

Sean Corcoran

In 1994, Martin Wong, a Lower East Side painter, devout enthusiast and collector of graffiti, and friend to many graffiti writers, donated his vast personal collection of graffiti art to the Museum of the City of New York. Comprised of 55 artist sketch books, commonly referred to as “black books,” and more than 300 works on canvas and other media, the collection is an invaluable document of a movement that is so closely associated with New York City. In many ways Wong was a visionary. He adamantly believed in the value of what a group of restless young people were communicating through their creative, albeit often illegal, activities. The collection, while not encyclopedic, includes many rare and important examples of work by historically significant and artistically admired writers spanning the 1970s, 80s and early 90s. It provides a unique prism through which to examine what is arguably one of the most influential youth subcultures of the late 20th and early 21st centuries that has infiltrated the art world, music industry, fashion, and even commercial advertising. A Word on the Movement and the Collection Writing on walls dates back to the earliest days of Western civilization. Communications of love, commerce, and political outbursts are still visible today in the ancient ruins of Italy, Greece, and Egypt. Over the last two thousand years the urge to communicate by writing on walls in public spaces has persisted, although motivations and methods have evolved. Commonly considered vandalism, the act acquired the popularly accepted term “graffiti,” a word derived from the Italian word graffiato, or “scratched,” which in turn is derived from the Greek graphein “to write.” In the late 1960s, a confluence of a social and economic upheaval, combined with a vibrant youth culture and the development of the Magic Marker and aerosol spray paint, gave rise to a cultural phenomenon that has become deeply embedded in popular culture. Today the work of graffiti writers is commonly seen as murals on walls, billboards, and transit systems around the world (both legally and illegally produced),

on apparel, advertising, and countless graphic design applications. It is also a commonly accepted genre in the art world, collected by museums and sold in prestigious galleries around the globe. This transformation was a long, contentious, and complicated journey with New York City as its epicenter. Although New York City is commonly referred to as the birthplace of the modern graffiti area, there is overwhelming evidence that it actually began in Philadelphia and was brought to New York in the late 1960s. Regardless of the movements origins, teenagers from Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs, particularly the Bronx and Brooklyn, embraced graffiti writing by spreading their names, or “tags,” throughout the city. The first significant writing explosion came in 1971 after The New York Times profiled the Washington Heights writer TAKI 183 in an attempt to examine the developing trend. The article explained, “the problem had mushroomed during the last two years. It is also harder to deal with. The Magic Marker and other felt-tip markers are considered indelible on concrete and other rough surfaces in subway stations.” When describing the perpetrators the article cites Floyd Holoway, a Transit Authority patrolman who said, “most graffiti appeared just before and just after school hours.” He went on to claim he had, “caught teen-agers from all parts of the city, all races and religions and all economic classes.” Unintentionally, the article encouraged writers by suggesting the possibility of becoming known outside of their community for writing, of gaining notoriety by tagging their names all over the city, on buses, in subway stations, and in subway cars. That same year, a group of teenagers from Erasmus High School in Brooklyn met one day after school and formed the first gang devoted specifically to writing graffiti, the Experienced Vandals (or Ex-Vandals). With an edict that members (DINO NOD, WICKED GARY, WICKED WESLEY, KING OF KOOLS, CONRAD IS BAD, FLIN and BIG TIME GLASS TOP) write their gang name first and their own tag second, the group became known and respected citywide and a chapter of the group quickly

CITY AS CANVAS \ TRANSITIONS

KEITH HARING

Mickey Mouse, 1982, Acrylic paint and ink on wood, 18x24”

CITY AS CANVAS \ WONG COLLECTION

RAMMELLZEE

Opposite: Untitled, ca. 1985, ink on chromogenic development print, 10x8”

36x30”

an open paint spray can in a public building or facility. Violators will be subject to a $100 fine or six months in jail.” A version of the bill, eventually signed into law, also created the first graffiti task force. Meanwhile the writers became more adventurous and sophisticated in their activities, developing new styles and techniques with the increasing use of spray paints. As trains lay idle in lay-ups and yards, the teenagers ventured, under cover of darkness, to create new, larger designs on the exteriors of trains that became known as “pieces,” short for “masterpieces.” This new work generally involved two or more colors of spray paint, and was much larger in size than previous tags, eventually encompassing the entire side of a train – from top to bottom, side to side. Competition amongst the writers flourished and the style and writing on the trains quickly progressed from simple two-dimensional, two color designs to intricate bubble letters, threedimensional pieces, and more elaborate color combinations as writers like CLIFF 159, SUPER KOOL 223, HONDO, PHASE 2, and TRACEY 168 played the game of one-upmanship.

CITY AS CANVAS \ VISION & EXPRESSION

formed in the Bronx. The majority of material from this early period in Martin Wong’s collection was acquired from WICKED GARY, including a page from the writer’s school notebook with tags from all the original members of the Ex-Vandals (Plate XX) and a collection of 76 tags on small pieces of square cardboard gathered between 1971 and 1973 (Plate XX). This tag collection is a who’s who of writers from all over the five boroughs and provides a broad spectrum of hand styles. A little more than six months later a follow up article in The New York Times described graffiti as an epidemic that was costing the MTA more than a half million dollars per year in clean up. It went on to explain that there was little legal recourse against the youthful offenders. It also contains an early negative characterization of the perpetrators, “Psychologists say graffiti are an attempt by insignificant people to impose their identity on others, if only until the wall is cleaned.” By June of 1972 Mayor Lindsay was so disturbed by the sudden prominence of graffiti in the subway system he was ready to become involved. He submitted a bill to the City Council that would enact fines and jail time for, “anyone caught with

Jack Stewart, Super Kool 223, 1972

By the close of 1972, dozens of writers were painting large-scale pieces and the majority of the trains in the system were now “pieced.” The graffiti explosion was out of control in the view of the Transit Authority, city officials, and much of the public. As the crackdown on the vandals continued, a newly formed association named United Graffiti Artists (UGA) held an exhibition of work at City College’s Eisner Hall. Organized by a City College junior, Hugo Martinez, the goal was to re-channel the creative energies of the writers through legal and artistic pursuits, while changing the public discussion regarding why writers do what they do, and how to positively deal with the vandalism. Martinez suggested the use of public funds for materials and a location that would allow writers to be both creative and productive. “Most of these kids live in an ugly neighborhood,” Mr. Martinez said. “They’re poor and maybe their parents are split up. But they have egos too. They want people to know who they are, like everyone else in New York. Some of us get known by writing on subways. Others write books and for newspapers. Maybe some of these kids are more creative than many of those people.” Members of UGA held another exhibition at the Razor Gallery in SoHo and were invited to paint on stage as part of dancer Twyla Tharp’s ballet, Deuce Coupe, at the City Center. The Wong collection features a small book from the UGA era, which belonged to WICKED GARY and includes extraordinary drawings by PHASE 2, RIFF 170, SNAKE 1, MICO, and BAMA (Plates XX, XX, and XX). In March of 1973 New York magazine published its first cover story on the graffiti craze. The article was controversial because the author, Richard Goldstein, did not outright dismiss the work as worthless vandalism. Instead, Goldstein thoughtfully dissected the origins of the movement, considering the social and economic shifts in New York and exploring the reasons why the writers were unwittingly encouraged by the legal system, the media, and city officials. Ultimately, he decides:

Martha Cooper, Painting in the Yards, 1980

It just might be that the kids who write graffiti are the healthiest and most assertive people in their neighborhoods. Each of these people has to “invent” his life – his language, his culture are lifted, remodeled and transformed…Style involves conflict, the strain of races, classes, ages, and sexes pitted against each other in the arenas of clothing, music and slang. For a long time I wondered how lower-class kids in this city were going to enter the fray. And then I began to look closer at the subway writers, and their use of color and design, at the way they dressed, putting chunks of other people’s fashion together in a way that clashed, but coherently… And I began to feel that the most significant thing about graffiti was not their destructiveness but their cohesion, bringing together a whole generation of lower-class kids in an experience which is affirmative and delinquent at the same time…To me, it announces they first genuine street culture since the fifties.

CITY AS CANVAS \ BLACK BOOKS