An exhibition asks if graffiti is art, or vandalism, or both? (10 images)

[stuny]

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The Museum of the City of New York, a marvelous museum, way uptown, almost due east of Ben's home, has a current exhibit on graffiti in the city in the 1970s, and how some of the graffiti writers have become respected artists. here are some samples fro the exhibit, which even included a number of sketchbooks by the graffiti writers showing the amount of planning that went into their work, not unlike studies performed by more mainstream artists for many centuries. Here's a small sampling:

 

Exhibit entrance

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Jackets & cans

 

Lee - Howard the Duck

 

Martin Wong - C76 Junior

 

Martin Wong - Sharp

 

Stan 153 notebook

 

Tracy notebook

 

Stan 153

 

Stash

 

Z study

[allamande]

Great set! I can't see how these could be called anything but art.

 

Ece

[tundraline]

Very nice set, Stuart. Thank you!

[HuntingSand]

Voluptuous stuff! The exhibition you portrait is probably a counter-event (or complementary show) to "Beyond the Paint" down at the PAFA in Philly. That particular exhibition is a walkthrough of 30 years of really amazing Philadelphia street art, and well worth a visit all by itself.

[pauledell]

Stuart,

 

These examples of graffiti are fine forms of artistic talent which cannot be denied.

As for whether they are acts of vandalism, the quality of the graffiti can hardly be weighed against the rights of the owner of the building.

 

Paul

[stuny]

GianLuca, Ece & thomas - Thank you.

 

Thomas (Hunting Sand) -Tthank you. One of the joys of Philadelphia in recent years is the huge wealth of public murals, which must be up to about 4,000 of them by now. I've captured some and have them in the Philadelphia - Continual Build photo gallery on our site.

 

Paul - Thank you and I agree with you regarding weighing it against the rights of the buildings' owners.

[Echo63]

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pretty sure that one of our local councils (Fremantle, WA) has chosen to no longer remove graffiti if it is found to be art.

 

nusiance graffiti like tagging is still removed, but proper pieces like these, will not be removed.

 

personally i think its a great idea, add some colour to the walls, and most vandals wont tag over someone elses piece.

[stuny]

Louis - Thank you.

 

Echo - thank you. I remember Fremantle fondly. A lovely town.

[HeinzX]

Stuart,

 

very nice series of photos. These are really art in my mind. Others are often none. It depends on the quality of the graffitis. And where they are painted on - if it is vandalism or not. It would be worthwhile to encourage some of this guys to paint their graffitis on canvas or something like that in a big format and to sign them. That could be an interesting thing for collectors too.

[stuny]

Heinz -

 

Thank you. The well-spring for this work came from youths in very poor neighborhoods and started with "tags," or unique signatures spray painted on walls, trucks and train cars. They'd seldom use their real names, usually using their street names. Those tags often included where they were from, such as Stan 153 came from 153rd Street. Many of the tags were artistic, but many were not much more than brightly colored dirt. Many of the talented ones went on to becoming recognized artists painting on canvas. Many of the talented and untalented ones died too young due to disease and violence. Wong and Haring died of AIDS, Haring only in his 20s. The70s and early 80s were dangerous times in New York.

 

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[Echo63]

Stuart,

 

very nice series of photos. These are really art in my mind. Others are often none. It depends on the quality of the graffitis. And where they are painted on - if it is vandalism or not. It would be worthwhile to encourage some of this guys to paint their graffitis on canvas or something like that in a big format and to sign them. That could be an interesting thing for collectors too.

 

there is a young guy here in Perth (funnily enough, i met him in Fremantle at a graffiti competition at an art gallery) who does exactly that, he has been arrested many times for spraying on walls and has since switched from "street art" to legitimate work, taking commissions for pieces on walls, cars, interior walls, skateboard decks and canvas

 

his facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/artbyd3stroy if you are interested.

 

 

 

also, i forgot to comment on the pictures earlier.

 

lovely set, showing the colours off well.

 

i like 1,3 and the last piece the best

[Dopaco]

Quite lovely.

I like the 1ª. much

[earleygallery]

There's graffiti and there's graffiti. Some of it is quite amazing. Then we have Banksy - who would object to finding one of his works their wall (when it can be removed and sold for £000,000's).

 

I tried a brief 'graffiti workshop' last year. It was extremely difficult, but also very enjoyable (we painted on sheets of ply, nothing criminal!).

[Berth]

Very thought provoking set. I like #5 and #6 particularly.

[stuny]

Ben - Thank you. An interesting link. BTW: We are great fans of Perth, and for that matter, the entire West Coast.

 

Dopaco - thank you. that one is my favorite too, which is why I led with it.

 

James - Thank you. Banksy did a few in NYC last summer, but we could only find two of them.

 

Berth - thank you. We thought it interesting to see the artists' notes and studies, showing their planning, much like any "legitimate" artist often does.

[Hank Taylor]

Just saw your exhibit shots Stuart amazing work and I know the time you also spent on recording them in such fine detail.

Thanks for showing these fine examples.

Hank

[robert_parker]

Lovely colours and record of the art

[stuny]

Hank & robert -

 

Thank you.

[wilfredo]

Great series. The art looks great in a museum. I do remember the oppressive gloom of riding a NYC subway totally covered by graffiti in the interior. Glad those days are behind us. It felt like a desperate cry for attention in a world that passes you by...

 

http://www.rsvlts.com/2013/10/23/nyc-subways-in-the-1980s-were-no-joke-47-photos/#6

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[newnew]

There are many definitions of art but my criteria has always been "requires an emotive response to beauty", and not "museum accepted " or "people pay a high price" for it.

Graffiti is the popular response to inhuman cities , to bulk grey concrete and self promoting architecture. As people express themselves that way , there may be definitely more talent in the bunch than one might have expected, like any medium.

This said, there may be some art in graffiti but most of it is just poor cry.