Graffiti Persuasive Essay

Graffiti is the light of the concrete jungle, too bright to be ignored, but is this unique form of art beautiful or an eyesore. Graffiti is an urban art form that rapidly grew in the 1980’s with a link to the Hip-Hop scene. Many Graffiti subcultures also grew, such as stencil art, which was popularized with help from Banksy. Graffiti is art, not vandalism, due to the fact that it is technically legal, graffiti gives artists a noticeable canvas, and it is a movement of expression in metropolitan areas.

Graffiti, if practiced in a self-owned space, can be legal. Graffiti is an art form, not a criminal offense. Legal Venues and Permission Walls are great examples of places where graffiti is able to be practiced legally. Along with this, museums have started displaying graffiti, such as the Brooklyn Museum which displays twenty large scale paintings. Finally, Merriam Webster dictionary states in one of their definitions that graffiti is “pictures or words painted or drawn on a wall, building, etc.”, denouncing it as a crime altogether. Furthermore, graffiti meets the Webster Merriam medium for art “ decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter”

Similar to Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, there are icons of this art form that started from nothing. One famous artist, Shepard Fairey started as a stencil artist, and went on to create a poster featuring Barack Obama and the word “hope,” as a part of the United States presidential campaign. The Smithsonian acquired the mixed media portrait shortly before Obama’s inauguration, and in 2009 Fairey had his first solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Banksy, another famous artist in the United Kingdom, started as a stencil artist, but quickly grew. Some of his pieces are being stolen because of their value, one being sold for £500,000. This draws an even closer connection between Graffiti and