About Graffiti
From ancient cave walls to the sides of abandoned warehouses, city corners to subway tunnels, graffiti has been around since ancient times and shows up in the most improbable locales. Some graffiti is as simple as a tag for a local gang, while other graffiti can be complex and beautiful murals. Public opinion diverges on whether graffiti is a scourge or a work of art, but galleries, museums and publications have devoted an increased amount of space to the form. Take a brief tour of graffiti art from around the world.
History of
On the walls of the ancient ruin of Pompeii, a graffiti tag reads, "I wonder, O wall, that you have not fallen in ruins from supporting the stupidities of so many scribblers." Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece aside, many point to the pictographs of Paleolithic rock art as the birth of graffiti. Caves, Greek vases, coins, Mayan temples and Roman catacombs are among the other early canvasses favored by public artists.
Features
"Kilroy was here" is probably the most famous bit of graffiti, showing up everywhere from sidewalks and walls to the top of Mount Everest. Short phrases, names and cartoon-style pictures dominate the form. Artists employed tools for scratching or etching onto surfaces, or utilized paint. Contemporary graffiti is typically done in spray paint, markers or stencils. Hip hop-influenced graffiti typically contains bubble-style letters, while punk graffiti often employs stencils, which allows for rapid reproduction of the image.
Risk Factors
Graffiti may be considered art by some, but it is definitely considered a crime by authorities. Those who consider graffiti vandalism point to the fact that clean-up absorbs a major chunk of municipal budgets and that about 80 percent of graffiti is done by gang members or taggers. Artists typically tag at night, when the chance of being caught is slimmer. The question is why they persist when there is such risk involved. For some, the risk is the point of graffiti. Others do it for fame, self-expression or power.
Type
Banksy is the modern maestro of graffiti. The London-based street celebrity calls himself an "art terrorist." Rather than merely paint tags, he devises ruses, such as disguising himself as a city worker and closing a tunnel in London so he could redecorate its interior. He has also managed to sneak his artworks inside New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum. Such cheek has gained him notoriety and celebrity collectors. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have snapped up his works, spending around $400,000 for three pieces.
Evolution
The popularity of Banksy marks a change in attitude, if not from the masses, at least from the art establishment. Pioneered by street-inspired artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, crossover graffiti can mean big money. Doze Green's urban style used to cover subway cars and now fetches stellar prices at galleries. Likewise, the Date Farmers churn up a vivid mix of tattoo imagery, street corner tags, prison art and Mexican advertising iconography for hipster galleries specializing in low brow art. Sometimes, the curators of this new breed of art gallery hire artists to come in and tag the space for a show.
