Graffiti As Art And Graffiti Essay

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.

Graffiti has been used many times in history to preserve and show political and religious ideas of the past. Street artists are preserving the history that is deemed “illegal” at this time. Graffiti itself is history, and it tells stories as well as preserving cities and adding a creative aspect to everyday life. The “...first forms of scripture and storytelling … were through drawings on walls. Stories passed through generations… were preserved on rocks or walls.” (Lloyd, Alexis). Now street artists are simply doing the same, whether it’s murals, tags, or people just messing around; They are preserving the unique cultures that we have today, or trying to make a name for themselves through art, or portray a political message. 85% of graffiti is just tags. (Akbar, Airfa). People's names or words made to look interesting. People trying to preserve their name through art. And this is considered a crime. Splashing your political views on a building through a mural to some people is offensive and the fact that this is illegal is a violation of the 1st amendment. Making graffiti or street art illegal is limiting an expression of people's ideas and religion.

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”.

Graffiti is derived from the Greek word graphien which means drawing on a surface such as stone. It was originally created as a word to describe the illegal drawings that ancient

Since the birth of graffiti in the 1960’s many people were or are either thrown in jail, have to pay a high fine in graffiti damages or are either asked to do graffiti in many museums and art galleries because owners like the art they see and want others to see it too. Graffiti has been around for some time now, most people and the police just see it as a form of destruction and not art they should not just see it as something that is good or evil because these artists are expressing themselves through this art and trying to spread a message. The United States and the U.K need to accept the art and nature or meaning behind this graffiti because it is a way for people to do good things other than rob or go to jail it is also a way for people to get their message out and have others hear them or see them in an artistic way.

According to Boyd, through Graffiti is essential to understand as a form of art that crosses the boundaries of location, method, and motivation. He acknowledges that graffiti might include “racist remarks, empty slogans and illegal signatures.”(Boyd 251) Boyd’s piece is also very informative because according to the author, there are two methods for creating this form of art: murals and tagging. The most popular one is tagging because it can be found almost everywhere from fence posts to trains, street walls to buses. The main goal of graffiti writers is to put their signature tags in places to be recognized by their

There are many associations with graffiti writing, Hip-hop being the first. Though the emergence of graffiti can be attributed to street gangs; which, they used to mark their territories (Chronopoulos 2011, pg. 79), graffiti began to merge with hip-hop culture in the 70s (Chronopoulos 2011, pg. 82). Ultimately, this combination promoted the public domination over public spaces in New York City through the use

Graffiti or more commonly known in modern day as street art has a deep rooted history dating back to early civilizations. Historians have credited graffiti displaying crucial parts of early civilization and how people did things. Graffiti has been recorded all the way back to Pompeii in rock carvings that recorded the everyday life of many citizens and allowed a way to display actions. Graffiti has also displayed substantial importance in the medieval time period in allowing people against the church power to show self-reasoning and create public statements that were denoted by church officials (CConnel). Through the years graffiti has evolved into a more commonly practiced form of art in which people display emotions or beliefs. This has created great social movements throughout the world with such figures as Sheppard Fairey, Banksy, and many others. This shows some of the importance that graffiti has

The term graffiti art essentially describes the post-1960s for decorating the urban environment through the use of aerosol spray paint. The development structure links with the underground hip-hop culture and b-boying. The B-boys, the first examples of hip-hop used graffiti as a way to express frustration with life.

In the 70s graffiti was just tags or small pictures but it quickly turned into and “art movement” (Eickmier). This means that the young and the old artist had finally found a way to express themselves and were spreading it around cities like wildfire. In other countries the amount of graffiti shock american tourists, it is seen as a good thing. “Instead of walls being used to separate people from each other, graffiti brings people together and keeps conversations going.” (Wark) Graffiti has value as art and it tells a story worth reading. (Wark) Most teens resort to graffiti as their last option, and most people see that as wrong, but it lets them express themselves in a really different

Graffiti can be found everywhere and anywhere. It is a way for people to express themselves and be creative in a public manner. It shows how passionate and talented they can be when it comes to drawing or tagging and have it displayed as a piece of art for everyone to see. Graffiti goes way back to the ancient times and is now very well known in the modern days which makes more and more people interested and fascinated by them. It can be used in different types of ways. Many artists can either spray paint, carve, paste, or stencil them on a surface. From how we see them today they are usually images of random cartoons, big bubbly letters, vintage black and whites or inspirational quotes. Virtually anything colorful or not and big that can be easily spotted. Graffiti is more superior to be known as art than vandalism because it is a self expressing act. People need to be open minded about the images they see and look at the message behind it or else they will immediately criticize and say it is vandalizing property.

However, street art predecessor, graffiti, is less well-liked. With its history of being rooted in gang activity and vandalism, it is not hard to see why. As pointed out by student writer Matthew Powers, “Because graffiti is vandalism at its core, it quickly became popular with New York City’s gangs, and in turn became associated with crime…” (Powers). People often see the names scrawled on trains and park benches and only see the vandalism and gang activity, not the effort behind the writing and style. Despite this, there are still those who see graffiti and street art as a new form of art to capitalize upon. In the eighties documentary Style Wars, there were already investors in canvas graffiti. It seems that there is a sort of allure to the illegal nature street art and graffiti. Still, there are people who love the commissioned murals, but refuse to acknowledge that without graffiti, what is known as the legal “urban art” wouldn’t be the same. Artist Peter Ferrari put it into words the best, saying in an interview, “‘People hate the tags, but they want the murals,’…’I think there is a misunderstanding, and people don’t realize that it is all connected and all related. You can’t have the mural without the tag’” (Imam). On the opposite side,

The origin and history of graffiti is not what one might expect. Believed to have been created by a Philadelphia high school student named Cornbread in 1967, it was a bold effort to catch the attention of a girl (De Melker). In this same time period, graffiti sprung up in New York as well. It was “one among many forms of social protest” during

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.