Graffiti Art Research Paper

The history of the underground art movement known by many names, most commonly graffiti begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during the mid to late 60's, and started with bombing. The writers who are credited with the first effort are CORNBREAD and COOL EARL. They wrote their names all over the city gaining attention from the community and the local press. Then the movement made way to New York City where the teenagers would write graffiti on the subways. It is unclear whether this concept made way to New York City on purpose or if it was an accident.

Art. Art 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.” (google). That’s kind of a lot. Basically, art is anything created as a product of human creativity and imagination to portray a message, trigger an emotion, or just, look good. That being said, what isn’t art? Anything, from the mona lisa to the projects sitting around this room were made by human imagination and creativity to portray a message or just be beautiful. What if you were told, that all of the hard work that was put into those projects and paintings, was illegal? Not accepted by some people as art, and frowned upon.

Graffiti has been around for more than half a decade and practiced worldwide. However there is debate between whether it is a form of art or vandalism. Graffiti artists’ debate that many do not understand the reason most graffiti artist take the risk of incarceration, fines, injuries, and in some cases death to paint a wall. A graffiti artist can have the simple desire to become recognized, or to create a piece that speaks to their audience as a form of self expression. Because graffiti is associated with gangs and acts of destruction to some many cannot see the history and importance graffiti can have on a worldwide scale. Due to the fact that graffiti is usually produced illegally, meaning it is

Most people can argue that there is a fine distinction between what is recognized as art and vandalism. The individual is often faced with uncertainty when the topic of graffiti arises. The public often portray graffiti as a destructive act towards his or her surroundings however; graffiti can also be considered a form of self-expression. Many questions can be made pertaining to the graffiti movement, but the main question is graffiti a crime or an art? The answers lie in the complex phrase of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

If you were to go open a dictionary and look up the definition of art, you would see that it has art as “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination…” (“Art” 2017) and “Works produced by human creative skill and imagination.” (“Art” 2017). From these definitions, graffiti is art, yet in most cases, it’s considered vandalism because it is done without permission of the property. When graffiti is done in a designated place or with the permission of the property owner, then it can truly be considered art. But even if these circumstances are not met, if the graffiti goes beyond a simple tag, it is art.

Is it a work of art; or a piece of scrawl sprayed across some bare surface?

In the summer of 2013, a graffiti artist by the name of 'Lady Pink' had police barge into her house in Queens and arrest her husband for vandalism. They took her art supplies, photo archives, and many of her prized possessions. She had to sit there, helpless, watching police take away her things. In today's world right now, expressing yourself creatively is one of the most important things you can do to help figure out who you are. A part of creative expression is art. Art makes people happy. Graffiti falls into the art category. For some people, graffiti is what they do to express themselves. Graffiti is art and shouldn't be illegal. Expressing yourself creatively shouldn't be a crime.

Since the late 1980s, various public and private-sector actors in the United States who do not write graffiti have practiced anonymity and sought fame to suppress and promote graffiti. Most non-writing public-sector actors have cracked down on graffiti as a criminal act that blights urban surfaces, while, in response, many non-writing private-sector actors have promoted graffiti as a profitable consumer good and art form. In the public sector, police officers and politicians in New York and then Chicago and Denver have prosecuted graffiti as the illegal vandalism of property walls and other surfaces; over time, police officers have learned to adapt plainclothes dress to patrol environments, capture writers, and destroy graffiti. In the private

According to the History of Art, no one knew of the existence of prehistoric cave paintings until one day in 1879, when a young girl, exploring with her father in Altamira in Northern Spain, crawled through a small opening in the ground and found herself in chamber whose ceiling was covered with painted animals. Her father, a lawyer and amateur archeologist, searched the rest of the cave, and told authorities about the remarkable discovery, and published his findings the following. There is no specific meaning of why people painted such dramatic imaginary on the walls of caves, but many believe that people create art for the “sheer love of beauty”. However, scientist now believes that the effort that was put in to creating those beautiful paintings were more than just a “simple visual pleasure”.

In my digital Citizenship class, we have been tasked to follow 10 experts in the area we chose to get some informations about our Genius hour project. My Genius hour project is about "Graffiti" but mainly focused about it evolution over years. My first assignment was to follow 10 people who are either authors/professors or artist and to add them to a list. After that, we had to send a tweet to each expert. These experts are people who draw graffiti. Here are 10 of the experts that I followed.

All over the world, art is used to represent many things, especially the artist's imagination

Going by the traditional definition of graffiti, simple writings or illustrations on walls, the art can be traced back to ancient times with cave paintings and hieroglyphics and such. The need to communicate through visuals has always been ingrained in all types of human culture; evidence of graffiti can be found everywhere, from ancient Pompeii to early 20th century America. However, the modern form of the art, characterized by tagging and complex personal expression, emerged some time around the late 1960’s. At this time, kids in urban communities had no voice, no way to express themselves and their ideas to the world. They began writing on walls, subway cars, ice cream trucks, any surface they could reach with paint. Initially, most graffiti was made for rather simple purposes: to get the attention of a girl, or just to be able to write your name somewhere, but eventually escalated into full-blown murals and artworks used by artists to express themselves. This trend grew and spread, quickly

Art: the ultimate form of self expression. But, what constitutes an art? And, who decides? These very questions plague society as it tries to decide and define the official status of graffiti--art or vandalism? Because it has found its way into art galleries and because of the community of artists who challenge and inspire each other, graffiti should be considered art and as a way to express oneself.

Creating art is one of the single defining factors that set humans apart from animal species. Through art, humans are able to express their innermost ideas and feelings, without having the difficulty of trying to find the correct words to accurately describe their thought processes. Works of art can help us to understand the people who have come before us. This is evidenced by the knowledge humans have discovered of prehistoric men and their symbolic cave paintings. The expression, style, and meaning vary and archaeologists put in much effort to uncover these works.

Graffiti has put a major impact on the way people look at their everyday life. It was not used so much here in the United States but was used overseas. Overseas, graffiti, or street art, was used or played as a sport, just like baseball is Americas sport. There are different laws that are put over there than what there are here. They can get away with some of the things that they paint or make over there. If we tried some of that type of work over here, we would get in trouble and possibly serve time for vandalizing someone else’s property. There are many biased outlooks on graffiti, but it should be considered art in all places because of all the time, effort, and design the artist put into their work.