Street art is visual art created in public locations. Common forms and media include spray paint graffiti, stencil graffiti, wheatpaste poster art, sticker art, street installations, and sculpture. Street art is displayed in a community on its surrounding buildings, streets, and other publicly viewed surfaces. Composed to make a public statement about the society artists live in. The work has moved from the beginnings of graffiti and vandalism to new modes where artists work to bring messages, to an audience. Smart vandalism is used by artists as a way to raise awareness of social and political issues. Modern street art has well-documented origins dating from New York City's graffiti boom, with its infancy in the 1960s, maturation in the 1970s, …show more content…
His father, Strait Fairey, is a doctor, and his mother, Charlotte, a realtor. He graduated from Wando High School. In 1984, Fairey became involved with art and placed his drawings on skateboards and T-shirts. In 1992 he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. He first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (OBEY) sticker campaign. In 2003 he founded the Studio Number One design agency with his wife Amanda Fairey. In 2004, Fairey joined artists Robbie Conal and Mear One to create a series of "anti-war, anti-Bush" posters for a street art campaign called "Be the Revolution" for the art collective "Post Gen". In 2005 he collaborated for a second time with Z-Trip on a limited edition 12-inch featuring Chuck D entitled "Shock and Awe". In 2006, Fairey joined NYC based Ad agency Project 2050 as founding Creative Director and was featured on the cover of Advertising Age magazine. Some quotes from Shepard Fairey “Creating is about sharing ideas, sharing aesthetics, sharing what you believe in with other people.” Another one "The way I make art, the way a lot of people make art, is as an extension of language and communication, where references are incredibly important." and “Why is non-commercial public expression considered
Graffiti or street art is considered an art form because it includes aesthetic criteria, incoherence and nonstandard presentation. Graffiti has been developing since the late 1960’s. The origins of graffiti go back to the beginnings of human social interaction. Graffiti has been found in uncovered, ancient Egyptian monuments and graffiti was preserved on walls in Pompeii. Also, graffiti art is colorful and complex. Graffiti artists need a considerable amount of skills to complete their artwork, they need to have creativity for using spray paint. The concerns of modern graffiti art originated in New York and it was known first as New York Style Graffiti. The novel Let the Great World Spin written by Colum McCann discusses graffiti art in New
Art has been around ever since the ancient city of Pompeii. The people of Pompeii used graffiti as a way to display their cleverness; from poetry contests to playful recombinations of the letters that form Roman Numerals. In the early ‘70s, graffiti was used as a way for young teens to mark their territory. During that time, many people – especially in New York City – saw graffiti as vandalism and prohibited it. Even though graffiti has been misused in some occasions, as long as the purpose is not to deliberately mischievous or malicious destruction, graffiti is art.
Graffiti is often understood to mean “any form of unofficial, unsanctioned application of a medium onto a surface” (Lewisohn 2008). There are many terms that are associated with graffiti, including Graffiti Writing and Street Art.
New York is considered the birthplace of artistic graffiti, even though the act was performed all over the world before 1960. The history of graffiti is recent and brief, but has a monumental place in the art world. It is the only art movement that is illegal. And it does not contain a series of welfare kids from torn and broken single-parent homes that are screaming for attention. The phenomenon differs from all other sorts of writing on the bathroom wall of a run-down bar.
Infused with the emergence of the hip hop culture, the graffiti revolution primarily took place in New York City in the 1970s to the 1980s. Graffiti art has historically been viewed as a form of vandalism, a curious enigma viewed by the governing class, and a general menace to society especially in large urban populations such as cities. Within the 1970s to the 1980s the urban youth began extensively spray-painting subway cars, trains, and walls, giving a voice to the disenfranchised, anti-authoritarian rebels who were seeking an identity to be seen and heard by the city that was now discrediting them. This type style of graffiti-inspired art is still present within the many art communities around the world, ever transforming and altering in
"Tracing the Roots of Modern Street-Art and Graffiti." Tracing the Roots of Modern Street-Art and Graffiti | WebUrbanist. WebUrbanist | From Urban Art & 3D Graffiti to Abandoned Cities. Webist Media Publishing, 22 Apr. 2009. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. .
Graffiti shows creativity and self expression in one of the best ways. Typically graffiti artists display their artistic talent on train cars, buildings, and public/private properties. The vibrancy of the colors used draws in people nearby to look at the astounding creativity. Although this is true for a shocking amount of people, the same can’t be said for the owners of the properties. This illicit art has a negative effect on the owners. This is also true for some people who just happen to walk by this art, even policemen or businessmen who think this beautiful self expression is an unacceptable eyesore. The artists who have been caught have been penalized and shamed for their creativity. Their mentality has been destroyed and they have been labeled as public nuisances. Meanwhile, the opposing side can sit at home and feel satisfied as ever for catching
The “vandalism” is displayed in museums all around the world, many people have recognized graffiti and become more interested, and lastly, many people appreciate it for the beauty and emotions tied into the artwork.
Graffiti has been around for a long time, far back to the prehistoric times, where cavemen would spend hours drawing on walls, reflecting their daily lives. However, these walls were not walls of their own homes; they drew on walls that might have been someone else’s home, yet no one sees their “works of art” as vandalism. Archaeologists have even used graffiti on the walls of many areas to better understand different ancient cultures. Graffiti is a type of art that is popularly used among many young and middle-aged males, although it is considered vandalism, it is still an important piece of popular culture because of it’s ability to act as an effective form of communication and expression of identity, which can be used to reveal problems in society.
The identity of a graffiti artist is hardly ever known unless they want to tag their art with their name or a nickname. Graffiti writers as a subculture are trying to express their political views through civil disobedience by painting pictures that speak out against the government. This subculture developed because they were tired of being oppressed by the government. Graffiti is one of the most enduring acts of protest. It is an important tool for the resistance movement as a way to publicize their protest. It is a visible and powerful form of protest that is going to promote change in the social justice by allowing oppressed groups of people express their viewpoints without being penalized by the
...essing ones opinion in the form of vandalism, was an interesting topic to cover because I had already had interests in studying some street artists. Overall, the three major street artists covered in this paper, Blek le Rat, Banksy, and Dolk, all have work that I enjoy researching and I can identify these artists at my top three favorite artists of all time, although they do have their own unique differences.
Graffiti has been around for centuries. It can be seen on buildings, cars, and anything that can be painted with a spray can. Since graffiti came to exist, there has been much debate on whether it is an art form or an illegal activity. While it has been banned and deemed illegal all over the world, it still persists in today’s society. Along with the controversy that comes with graffiti, many commonly known stereotypes are apparent within the act of graffiti. Stereotypically, graffiti is seen as an urban act done by younger people. Typically, since this act is considered illegal, it is mostly done in the middle of the night, and the people partaking are usually wearing dark or black clothes. The picture, “LATA 65 IS A CREATIVE
Within the last few years, graffiti has been deemed an acceptable and tasteful genre of art. Long gone are the days where the spray can belonged exclusively to the local delinquent. From the past to present, there has been a shift in how street art is recognized by the general public and the government. Laws and policies are being put into place that both defend and threaten the promulgation of this creative medium. By both protecting and prohibiting, the government displays an inconsistent and confusing relationship with street art. When art is so subjective, it can become challenging to delineate the fine line between vandalism and creativity. This essay will discuss the changing public perception of graffiti, the trademark and copyright battles between graffiti artists and property owners, the categorization of street art as an artform, and the beneficial aspects of commissioned street murals.
Graffiti started in the 1920s when gangs would tag train cars and walls to mark territory mainly in New York City. Graffiti took a different turn in the 1970s when young adults decided to use street art as an outlet to express their political and social outrage. This movement had soon gained the attention of the “adult” world. Graffiti was known as “creation through destruction” and to this day is still considered illegal in most parts of the world. In modern street art the mediums used have evolved past spray paint and now artists are using different methods with spray paint to progress their works past crude tags.
Although street art and graffiti art seem very similar, upon closer examination the differences in technique, function, culture, and intent are revealed (Weisburg.) ‘“Graffiti (sgraffiti), meaning drawings or scribblings on a flat surface and deriving from the Italian sgraffio (‘scratch’), with a nod to the Greek graphein (‘to write’), originally referred to those marks found on ancient Roman architecture”’(Weisburg). Though, it is unknown when or where graffiti first made an appearance; modern graffiti did not come around until the late 1960’s to early 1970’s in New York. The term “tagging” is the modern form of scratching (Weisburg). It also is considered the origin of all modern graffiti, including street art.