History of Graffiti

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

Graffiti portrays contemporary sub-cultured art through its versatility and bold attractiveness on the communal grounds. In the 1970s, graffiti was blatantly acknowledged as territorial graffiti where

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

In the early 70’s the common style of graffiti was tagging just a single lined tag, later on as the 70’s progressed a graffiti artist known as T-Bone who was the leader of the graffiti club, KCD (Klub City Decorators) drove up to New York City to check out the graffiti scene up there. When he arrived, he saw double wide lettering (like Bubble words) all over the subway and he was amazed. The lettering was filled in and not only had the name of the artist but also had objects drawn next to the name like a parrot on a tree. Something like that had never been seen before in Philly during that time. Upon seeing New York style and loving it, T-Bone and his friends brought the style back to Philadelphia with them. They were arguably known to start New York style in Philly. Later on this “New York style” would be called Throw-up, double wide lettering

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

The roots of graffiti started about 1971 by a Greek American who tagged “TAKI-183” in all New York subway system, he declared that he “used graffiti to create an identity in which he is certain about” (Fortuna 3), then it emerged all around America and the world. (David 72)

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

This aspect of hip hop culture became so engrained within “codes of behavior, secret gathering places, slang, and aesthetic standards,” and thus had the most racially ethnic artists, which is why these people were mostly targeted by police for these actions. Taki 183’s graffiti was an act of political resistance against the “cleaning up” of New York City streets, which was a euphemism for whitening these neighborhoods economically and physically, with the displacement of poor, people of color. Specifically, his work is called tagging because the artist is “making his or her presence known and proclaiming his or her identity through a unique mark” (Orejuela, 2015, pg. 17). The artist of this graffiti artwork, and others like it were also a blatant display by people of color peacefully fighting back the state for its intended demise and who at the time, spent thousands of dollars to rid the streets of these pieces of artwork because of its direct connection to people of color. This work of resistance was so successful because other graffiti artists would try to compete with Taki 183’s work and thus, they too would create their own piece of work. This then made it almost impossible for the city to paint over every piece of work, but this also made it more dangerous for the artists themselves, as the penalties for graffiti became even more severe as people of color became even more policed. This artist specifically, made this artwork most popular as he performed it during such a tense time and received major exposure by the New York media. Phase 2 was infamous for creating bubble writing, also known as softies, but was also a b-boy. He also rapped and graffitied during the 1970s when the state of New York was in a war with the residents of color and the lower class. Phase 2 art is referred to

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.

While his identity remains unknown, it is believed that he was born in Bristol, England in the mid-1970s. In the beginning of his career, he started doing graffiti in the early 90s and collaborated with other street artists. His artwork at the time consisted mostly of freehand, but starting in the late 90s, he predominantly used stencils as it was deemed more efficient. With this technique, his work became more well known around Bristol and London. In the late 2000’s, his work surfaced all over, even being on buildings in different parts of America, predominantly New York City. While some of his work seems to be humorous and satirical, they mostly relate to war and capitalism. His work often times are parodies of historical images, such as the piece being focused on in this analysis (“Banksy

As far as her art pieces, they have a very particular detail that make them stand out. When she first started in her career, Graffiti played a major role in her inspiration as well, which caused her to be arrested at the age of 15 for possessing a can of paint. She even joined a graffiti group (Pollack, P. 78), even though she had gone through a rough patch with graffiti in the beginning of her career she still finds it to be an influence for her and she still remains a believer of it. Smith says in an interview “not sick of [her] connection to graffiti ... just sick of how the conversation on graffiti gets framed. People want to simplify it all and say it is just about ‘the streets.’ [Her] experience with graffiti is genuine, but [she] also

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

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

“According to Kim Dovey, Simon Wollan, and Ian Woodblock, graffiti is a type of art as well. She claims that there is different type of graffiti. They first talks about the different types of graffiti. Some of the types listed are stencil tags, throw up, and slogans. There are free handed drawings that are called stencil drawings. Stencil graffiti combines elements from spray-paint graffiti and from street art. Stencil artists carefully prepare stencil blueprints on hand-made sheets, which they then place on a surface and cover with spray paint. Stencil graffiti works are the easiest and quickest pieces to replicate” (Lerman 299). “Throw up are just free handed paintings. Slogans are when they