The word graffiti in graffiti writing

Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view.^[1][2] Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).^[3]

Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities.^[4] Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban «problem» for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions.^[5]

Etymology

«Graffiti» (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form «graffito» are from the Italian word graffiato («scratched»).^[6][1][2] The term «graffiti» is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is «sgraffito»,^[7] which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into it. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning «to write».^[8]

History

The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Use of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism.^[9]

The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.^[10][11]

Modern-style graffiti

The first known example of «modern style»^{[clarification needed]} graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey). Local guides say it is an advertisement for prostitution. Located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti shows a handprint that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint, a number, and a carved image of a woman’s head.

The ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt. Graffiti in the classical world had different connotations than they carry in today’s society concerning content. Ancient graffiti displayed phrases of love declarations, political rhetoric, and simple words of thought, compared to today’s popular messages of social and political ideals.^[12]
The eruption of Vesuvius preserved graffiti in Pompeii, which includes Latin curses, magic spells, declarations of love, insults, alphabets, political slogans, and famous literary quotes, providing insight into ancient Roman street life. One inscription gives the address of a woman named Novellia Primigenia of Nuceria, a prostitute, apparently of great beauty, whose services were much in demand. Another shows a phallus accompanied by the text, mansueta tene («handle with care»).

Disappointed love also found its way onto walls in antiquity:

Quisquis amat. veniat. Veneri volo frangere costas
fustibus et lumbos debilitare deae.
Si potest illa mihi tenerum pertundere pectus
quit ego non possim caput illae frangere fuste?

Whoever loves, go to hell. I want to break Venus’s ribs
with a club and deform her hips.
If she can break my tender heart
why can’t I hit her over the head?

— CIL IV, 1824.^[13]

Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka scribbled over 1800 individual graffiti there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Etched on the surface of the Mirror Wall, they contain pieces of prose, poetry, and commentary. The majority of these visitors appear to have been from the elite of society: royalty, officials, professions, and clergy. There were also soldiers, archers, and even some metalworkers. The topics range from love to satire, curses, wit, and lament. Many demonstrate a very high level of literacy and a deep appreciation of art and poetry.^[14] Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:

Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.^[15]

Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.^{[16][clarification needed]}

Level of literacy often evident in graffiti

Historic forms of graffiti have helped gain understanding into the lifestyles and languages of past cultures. Errors in spelling and grammar in these graffiti offer insight into the degree of literacy in Roman times and provide clues on the pronunciation of spoken Latin. Examples are CIL IV, 7838: Vettium Firmum / aed[ilem] quactiliar[ii] [sic] rog[ant]. Here, «qu» is pronounced «co». The 83 pieces of graffiti found at CIL IV, 4706-85 are evidence of the ability to read and write at levels of society where literacy might not be expected. The graffiti appear on a peristyle which was being remodeled at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius by the architect Crescens. The graffiti were left by both the foreman and his workers. The brothel at CIL VII, 12, 18–20 contains more than 120 pieces of graffiti, some of which were the work of the prostitutes and their clients. The gladiatorial academy at CIL IV, 4397 was scrawled with graffiti left by the gladiator Celadus Crescens (Suspirium puellarum Celadus thraex: «Celadus the Thracian makes the girls sigh.»)

Another piece from Pompeii, written on a tavern wall about the owner of the establishment and his questionable wine:

Landlord, may your lies malign
Bring destruction on your head!
You yourself drink unmixed wine,
Water [do you] sell [to] your guests instead.^[17]

It was not only the Greeks and Romans who produced graffiti: the Maya site of Tikal in Guatemala contains examples of ancient Maya graffiti. Viking graffiti survive in Rome and at Newgrange Mound in Ireland, and a Varangian scratched his name (Halvdan) in runes on a banister in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople. These early forms of graffiti have contributed to the understanding of lifestyles and languages of past cultures.

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls.^[18]
When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero’s Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.^[19][20]

There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.^[21]

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s.^[22] Lord Byron’s survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.^[23]

• Ancient graffiti

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  Ironic wall inscription commenting on boring graffiti

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  Crusader graffiti in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

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Contemporary graffiti

Contemporary graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1970s New York. They would use spray paint and other kind of materials to create an image on the sides of buildings and subway trains. ^[24] While the art was a form of masterpiece, it was also causing problems on subways due to the fact that people could not look out of the widows because they were covered in tags.^[25] To the people doing the tags it was to them a form of writing it was not until a novelist named Norman Mailer called it «Graffiti» in The New York Times.^[25] During this time period (the late 70s), a war against graffiti broke out, making it so graffitist cannot tag subway trains without getting in trouble anymore, so they moved on to tagging rooftops and canvases.^[25] However, today graffitist are paid thousands of dollars to put there artwork on buildings and on canvases to display the amazing works that the artist has done.^[26]

Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture^[27] and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti, however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.

The oldest known example of modern graffiti are the «monikers» found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.^[28][29]

Some graffiti have their own poignancy. In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:^[30][31]

Austin White – Chicago, Ill – 1918
Austin White – Chicago, Ill – 1945
This is the last time I want to write my name here.

During World War II and for decades after, the phrase «Kilroy was here» with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed «Yardbird» or «Bird»), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words «Bird Lives».^[32] The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire («Boredom is counterrevolutionary») expressed in painted graffiti, poster art, and stencil art. At the time in the US, other political phrases (such as «Free Huey» about Black Panther Huey Newton) became briefly popular as graffiti in limited areas, only to be forgotten. A popular graffito of the early 1970s was «Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You», reflecting the hostility of the youth culture to that US president.

• World War II graffiti

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  Soldier with tropical fantasy graffiti (1943–1944)

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Advent of aerosol paint

Rock and roll graffiti is a significant subgenre. A famous graffito of the twentieth century was the inscription in London reading «Clapton is God» in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967.^[33] The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.^[34]

Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers) widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats, and hangouts are famous for their graffiti.

• Early spray-painted graffiti

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  Graffiti in Chicago (1973)

Spread of hip hop culture

Style Wars depicted not only famous graffitists such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR, but also reinforced graffiti’s role within New York’s emerging hip-hop culture by incorporating famous early break-dancing groups such as Rock Steady Crew into the film and featuring rap in the soundtrack. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s.^[35] Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983.^[36]

Stencil graffiti emerges

This period also saw the emergence of the new stencil graffiti genre. Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by graffitists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France);^{[citation needed]} by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.^[37]

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent «Peace, Love, and Linux.» IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.^[38][39]

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings «a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse».^[39]

Advocates

Marc Ecko, an urban clothing designer, has been an advocate of graffiti as an art form during this period, stating that «Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration throughout my career.»^[40]

Graffiti have become a common stepping stone for many members of both the art and design communities in North America and abroad. Within the United States graffitists such as Mike Giant, Pursue, Rime, Noah, and countless others have made careers in skateboard, apparel, and shoe design for companies such as DC Shoes, Adidas, Rebel8, Osiris, or Circa^[41] Meanwhile, there are many others such as DZINE, Daze, Blade, and The Mac who have made the switch to being gallery artists, often not even using their initial medium, spray paint.^[41]

Global developments

South America

Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil «boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene … [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration.» Graffiti «flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil’s cities.» Artistic parallels «are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York.» The «sprawling metropolis,» of São Paulo has «become the new shrine to graffiti;» Manco alludes to «poverty and unemployment … [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country’s marginalised peoples,» and to «Brazil’s chronic poverty,» as the main engines that «have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture.» In world terms, Brazil has «one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently.» Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the «folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised,» that is South American graffiti art.^[42]

Prominent Brazilian graffitists include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak.^[43] Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures^[44] has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.^[45]

Middle East

Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrein or the United Arab Emirates,^[46] Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one’s works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work.^[47] The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many graffitists in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference «נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן» («Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman») is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.

Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19.^[48] Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.^[49]

Southeast Asia

There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.^[50]

• Graffiti around the world

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Characteristics of common graffiti

Methods and production

The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece.^[51] This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.

Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the «canvas» gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.

• Graffiti making

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  The first graffiti shop in Russia was opened in 1992 in Tver

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  Graffiti application at Eurofestival in Turku, Finland

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  Graffiti application in India using natural pigments (mostly charcoal, plant saps, and dirt)

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  A graffiti artist at work in London

Modern experimentation

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. Yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.

Tagging

Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting «their name, initial or logo onto a public surface».^[52]

A number of recent examples of graffiti make use of hashtags.^[53][54]

Uses

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture «the avant-garde won’t give up».^[55]

Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal.^[56]

In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles «Galang» and «Bucky Done Gun», and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.

Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. ^[57]Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that can’t be owned or bought. It doesn’t last forever, it’s temporary, yet one of a kind. It’s a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, and etc. ^[57] Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.

Personal expression

Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism.^[58] And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted «graffiti» art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered «performance art» despite the image of the «singing and dancing star» that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

Banksy is one of the world’s most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today’s society.^[59] He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy’s artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy’s art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public.^[60] Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy’s anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. «One of the pieces was left up above Steve’s Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome»- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.^[61]

Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.^[62]

• Personal graffiti

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  Inscription in Pompeii lamenting a frustrated love, «Whoever loves, let him flourish, let him perish who knows not love, let him perish twice over whoever forbids love.»

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Territorial

Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.^[63]

As advertising

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden’s Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.

Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.

• Advertising graffiti

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  Graffiti as advertising in Haikou, Hainan Province, China, which is an extremely common form of graffiti seen throughout the country

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  Graffiti as legal advertising on a grocer’s shop window in Warsaw, Poland

Radical and political

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[64] In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as «De Zoot», «Vendex», and «Dr Rat».^[65] To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire («Boredom is counterrevolutionary») and Lisez moins, vivez plus («Read less, live more»). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the ‘millenarian’ and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as «on the street» or «underground», contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.^[67][68]

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest.^[69]
The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other’s practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.^[70][71]

Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.^[72][73]

• Political graffiti around the world

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  Graffiti with orthodox cross at the Catholic Church in Ystad 2021.

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  Anti Iraqi war graffiti by street artist Sony Montana in Cancun, Mexico (2007)

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  WWII bunker near Anhalter Bahnhof (Berlin) with a graffiti inscription Wer Bunker baut, wirft Bomben (those who build bunkers, throw bombs)

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  Graffiti on the train line leading to Central Station in Amsterdam

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  Stencil in Pieksämäki representing former president of Finland, Urho Kekkonen, well known in Finnish popular culture

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  Berlin Wall: «Anyone who wants to keep the world as it is, does not want it to remain»

Genocide denial

In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words, «General, thank to your mother».^[74]
Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how «veneration of historical and wartime figures» through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that «in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past».^[75] Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region’s future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations’ «cultural heritage», in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their «formal education» and «inheritance».^[76]

There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave.^[75][77] Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of «tacit endorsement».^[74][78] Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters,^[76] blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way,^[74] and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.^[78]

Offensive graffiti

Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly).^[79] Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as «racist». It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant «local code» (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a ‘unique set of conditions’ in a cultural context.^[80]

A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come.^[81] A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints),^[82] these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.^[83]

Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads.^[84] In Manchester, England a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.^[85]

Decorative and high art

In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.^{[86][87][88][89]}

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York’s outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.

From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Dogancay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as «Walls of the World» grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled «Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent …» (The walls whisper, shout and sing …) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press’s art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti’s key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.^[90]

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.^[91][92]

• Street art graffiti

Environmental effects

Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.^[93]

Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs.^[94] A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.^[94][95]

Government responses

Asia

In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanise the country’s communist revolution.^[96]

Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China’s attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.^[97]

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated «Graffiti Zones».^[98] From 2007, Taipei’s department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, «We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It’s our goal to beautify the city with graffiti». The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation.^[99] However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, «Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won’t get involved. We don’t go after it proactively.»^[100]

In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay’s caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.^[101]

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in «G-20» sounds like the Korean word for «rat», but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, «an ominous creature like a rat» amounts to «an organized criminal activity» and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution’s request for imprisonment for Park.^[102]

• Graffiti in Asia

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  The Graffiti Piece «Tante» (by Chen Dongfan) on the surface wall of an old residential building in Hangzhou, Zhejiang

Europe

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.^[103]

In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.^[104]

In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.^[105]

United Kingdom

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain’s latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing «on the spot» fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16.^[106] The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed «cool» or «edgy'» image.

To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: «Graffiti is not art, it’s crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem.»^[107]

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.^{[citation needed]}

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation,^[108] nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.^[109]

Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the «spray and run».^[110]

• Graffiti in Europe

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  Integration of graffiti into its environment, Zumaia 2016

Australia

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the «Graffiti Tunnel» located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and create «art». Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.^[111][112] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere.^[113] Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced «anti-graffiti squads», who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can’t Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne’s street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.^[114]

New Zealand

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

United States

Tracker databases

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender’s moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.^[115]

Gang injunctions

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.^[116]

Hotlines and reward programs

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego’s hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.^[117]

Search warrants

When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to «(tagger’s name)»; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers’ names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.^[118]

• Graffiti in the United States

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  Rampant graffiti hampers visibility into and out of subway cars (1973)

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Documentaries

• 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s (1979): A rare glimpse into late 1970s New York toward the end of the infamous South Bronx gangs, the documentary shows many sides of the mainly Puerto Rican community of the South Bronx, including reformed gang members, current gang members, the police, and the community leaders who try to reach out to them.
• Stations of the Elevated (1980), the earliest documentary about subway graffiti in New York City, with music by Charles Mingus
• Style Wars (1983), an early documentary on hip hop culture, made in New York City
• Piece by Piece (2005), a feature-length documentary on the history of San Francisco graffiti from the early 1980s
• Infamy (2005), a feature-length documentary about graffiti culture as told through the experiences of six well-known graffiti writers and a graffiti buffer
• NEXT: A Primer on Urban Painting (2005), a documentary about global graffiti culture
• RASH (2005), a feature documentary about Melbourne, Australia and the artists who make it a living host for street art
• Jisoe (2007): A glimpse into the life of a Melbourne, Australia, graffiti writer shows the audience an example of graffiti in struggling Melbourne Areas.
• Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (2009), about Montréal artist Peter Gibson and his controversial stencil art on public roads
• Exit Through The Gift Shop (2010) was produced by the notorious artist Banksy. It tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art; Shepard Fairey and Invader, whom Guetta discovers is his cousin, are also in the film.
• Still on and non the wiser (2011) is a ninety-minute-long documentation that accompanies the exhibition with the same name in the Kunsthalle Barmen of the Von der Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal (Germany). It draws vivid portrayals of the artists by means of very personal interviews and also catches the creation process of the works before the exhibition was opened.^[119]
• Graffiti Wars (2011), a documentary detailing King Robbo’s feud with Banksy as well as the authorities’ differing attitude towards graffiti and street art^[120]

Dramas

• Wild Style (1983), about hip hop and graffiti culture in New York City
• Turk 182 (1985), about graffiti as political activism
• Bomb the System (2002), about a crew of graffitists in modern-day New York City
• Quality of Life (2004) was shot in the Mission District of San Francisco, co-written by and starring a retired graffiti writer.
• Wholetrain (2006), a German film

See also

References

Further reading

• Champion, Matthew (2017), «The Priest, the Prostitute, and the Slander on the Walls: Shifting Perceptions Towards Historic Graffiti», Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture, 6 (1): 5–37
• Baird, J. A.; C. Taylor (eds.), 2011, Ancient Graffiti in Context. New York: Routledge.

External links

• «Graffiti» . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

Abstract[]

“The word graffiti comes from the Italian graffare meaning to scratch, as in on a surface. Yet, today the term graffiti means any sort of unsanctioned application of a substance, whether it is spray paint, pencil markings, or even stickers.” This page will address the different uses and meanings that graffiti entails. We will also explore the different evolutions that appeared, such as the hip-hop movement as well as the connection with street art. We will conclude with descriptions of a couple of different documentaries that pertain to graffiti and go over the use of public space, audience and genre.

Important Information[]

Before graffiti was classified as graffiti, it existed all throughout history. Today’s style of graffiti however, originated in the late 1970’s in New York City. It also has connections to pop artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, and draws from popular culture and advertising. Graffiti can be seen in many different cities throughout the world but one can expect to find it on public spaces available for pretty much everyone to see. The point for many graffiti artists to “tag” and post around the city is to illustrate their views on society as a whole. This is the artist’s signature that is commonly known in the community and personally marks the current artwork displayed. Many distinct graffiti work have radical and political meaning to them and by analyzing the work, one can see today’s problems appear throughout the city. A large amount of graffiti work does show rebellion against authority, not only with its context, but also because of its symbolism by having it on public space. Most graffiti art can be considered as an act of vandalism and thus differentiates it from street art. Graffiti is typically considered a sub-genre of street art.

Graffiti was, is, and will always be a way for the average person to express sentiments as simple as «I exist, and I was here” to critiques of governments, social issues, ideologies, and the like. Graffiti has existed since ancient times and remains as a strong reminder of our collective need to leave our mark on our world. As a form of self-expression graffiti is an extension of the artist and his/her experiences in the community and throughout life. Something as simple as a can of spray paint gives people the power and freedom to create and communicate what they want, whether that be their love for a signifiant other, a political message, or life in the neighborhood.

Real Life Examples[]

The subway system of New York City can be considered the birth of graffiti and therefore continues to be prominent in the city. Joe Austin’s book, Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City, illustrates the issues that arise from graffiti in their daily lives. Also brought up was the culture and reasoning behind the different artworks, anti-graffiti organizations were formed as well as those who promote it.

Another New York City documentary, Bomb it, also talks about the emergence of Hip-Hop culture as well as contemporary graffiti.

The emergence of Hip-Hop culture in the late 1970s was another contributor to the graffiti movement.  A documentary from 1983, Style Wars, depicted famous graffiti artists in the city of New York as the young hip hop culture started to emerge.

The streets of Barcelona are also tagged with many different graffiti artists. There, the subculture and feelings of these artists are displayed on public walls around the city. The documentary, Las Calles Hablan, show the different opinions on graffiti such as love, hate, and indifference.

Banksy is also an infamous graffiti artist who started his work in London and began to expand his mark on many different cities worldwide. Exit Through the Giftshop, this documentary displays the emergence of Mr. Brainwash who experienced filming with many other commonly known graffiti artists and how they completed their work.

One of the most well-preserved cities in Belgium, Ghent also claims one of the most famous «legal» graffiti walls, extending like a maze full of spray painted cartoons, messages and art that is constantly changing. This wall is so special because it is such a contrast to the medieval town that surrounds the graffiti, with its cobblestones and canals. However, it is a strong testament to the vibrant Ghent culture, primarily due to its large student population, which brings in a largely dynamic music scene and walls such as this one. The wall was provided strictly for graffiti in the 1990’s as a direct response to keeping the rest of Ghent spray paint free. (http://matadornetwork.com) This is a further example of what it means to label something as a public space and both its cultural and legal affordances.

Keywords []

Public Space

Audience

Genre

Resources and Further Reading []

1. The Business of «Getting Up»: Street Art and Marketing in Los Angeles by Damien Droney (PDF)
   • This article specifically addresses Street Art and its subculture and history. It dives into the many sides of Street Art such as seeint it «as resistant or subersivee toward a perceived mainstream» (100). The article is especially helpful because it provides different artists and examples, such as Branded, Shepard Fairey’s Obey street art campaign, and Kof. Although it is a bit lengthly, it provides in depth examples and helps one to understand street art and its origination and creation.
2. Graffiti or Street Art? Negotiating the Moral Geographies of the Creative City by Cameron McAuliffe (PDF)
   • McAuliffe discusses the placement and geographics of graffiti, as stated by its title. This article elaborates on the subcultures of graffiti and street art, defines moral geographies, gives a detailed history of the origination of graffiti as a practice and how it made its way into different cultures, differentiates graffiti and street art, and describes examples of organizations and cities that manage graffiti (Parramatta Graffiti Management Plan, City of Sydney, Marrickville Council, and KAC). Use this article as a reference when understanding the history, purpose, and how different areas respond to graffiti and street art.
3. Placing Graffiti: Creating and Contesting Character in Inner-city Melbourne by Kim Dovey, Simon Wollan and Ian Woodcock (PDF)
   • This article specifically dives into the graffiti present in Melbourne’s inner city and how it attracts tourism. It debates whether graffiti is vandalism or art and the links it to different stigmas and groups of persons. Dovey, Wollan, and Woodcock specifically address the relationship between graffiti to urban culture (which it defines in depth) and gives photograph examples of different graffiti maps, stencils, and building faces. This article is good to read if someone wants to better understand and visualize the different placements of graffiti and how it interacts with space.
4. Tagging as a Social Literacy Practice by Laurie MacGillivray and Margaret Sauceda Curwen (PDF)
   • MacGillivray and Curwen define tagging within this article, especially how it relates to vandalism and if it can be considered graffiti. «Tagging as a Social Literacy Practice» is great to read to juxtapose alongside street art, understand exactly why people tag, and its history in relation to hip hop and the youth culture.
5. Graffiti Art: An Essay Concerning The Recognition of Some Forms of Graffiti As Art by George C. Stowers
   • In contrast to the other resources listed above, this resource is an essay presented by a student who wrote this for an aesthetics class in 1997. It presents a detailed history of graffiti and states that the objective is to prove that graffiti is an art form. This essay is helpful because it poses questions as to who creates graffiti and why those persons use spray paint; in a way it destigmatizes the practice as vandalism and praises it for its culture and its use as self expression.

Citations[]

DeNotto, Michael. «Street Art and Graffiti.» College & Research Libraries News75.4 (2014): n. pag. Web.

Austin, Joe. «2. Taking the Trains.» Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. 38-74. Print.

Austin, Joe. «3. Writing «graffiti» in the Public Sphere.» Taking the Train: How Graffiti Art Became an Urban Crisis in New York City. New York: Columbia UP, 2001. 75-107. Print.

«Style Wars(1983).» YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EW22LzSaJA>.

«Las Calles Hablan.» Top Documentary Films RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/las-calles-hablan/>.

Banksy., D’Cruz, Jaimie., Cushing, Holly., Baring, Zam., Gay-Rees, James., Ifans, Rhys,, Fuzzface,, Size, Roni., Mister Brainwash.Fairey, Shepard. (Eds.) (2010) Exit through the gift shop[New York] : Oscilloscope Laboratories

«Bomb It.» IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2014. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1002535/>.

Conrad, Kristen. «Street art alley in Ghent, Belgium.» 2011. Accessed April 6 2015. <http://matadornetwork.com/nights/street-art-alley-in-ghent-belgium/>.

Post Views: 33,418

A passer-by in an urban city landscape would have observed the colourful, illegal and often provocative graffiti spray-painted in many areas. While many consider this street art to be nothing but a nuisance, graffiti is now gaining recognition from the world of art as a legitimate art form.

Most people think of graffiti as tags or stylized writing of one’s name. Yes, tags are probably the most popular form, but graffiti is much more than that. It could be a black and white stencil piece sprayed as a protest against police brutality. Or it could be a colourful and vibrant mural with a message of diversity. In every case, graffiti makes a statement. Once considered as pure vandalism, it is becoming more widely accepted as art. This blog explores the history of graffiti from ancient times to the modern day.

What is graffiti?

What exactly is graffiti? They are drawings or writings made on a surface, mostly walls, and they are made so usually without permission. And they are always within public view. The designs range from simple written words to decorative wall paintings. While the vibrant colours and designs delude us into thinking that graffiti has its roots in modern times, it is not. It has existed since ancient times, as examples from ancient Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire indicate.

Graffiti is one of the most controversial subjects. Most countries view the act of marking or painting on a property without permission as vandalism or defacement. It is a punishable crime in many countries, for the reason that street gangs use graffiti to mark territory or to indicate gang-related activities.

Originally, the term graffiti referred to figure drawings, inscriptions and such, made on the walls of ancient ruins or sepulchres. Examples include the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Over the years, the term has evolved to include any graphics made on surfaces in a way that constitutes vandalism.

Graffiti has also served as clues or indicators of languages that have existed in the past. For example, the only known source of the Safaitic language (an ancient form of Arabic) is from graffiti. The surface of boulders and rocks in the basalt desert of southern Syria, northern Saudi Arabia and eastern Jordan had inscriptions scratched on them. The language of Safaitic dates back to the first century BC to the fourth century AD.

Modern-style graffiti

The first ‘modern style’ graffiti is considered to be the one that survives in Ephesus, the ancient Greek city (in modern-day Turkey). The graffiti is located near a stone walkway and mosaic. It depicts a handprint that vaguely looks like a heart, along with a footprint, a carved image of a woman’s face and a number. According to local guides, it was an advertisement for prostitution.

Other examples of ancient graffiti are those carved by the Romans on walls and monuments, which now survive in Egypt. Back then, graffiti held different connotations from what it means in today’s society. There were phrases that were declarations of love, simple words of thought, and political rhetoric, compared to the present day messages of political and social ideals. These ancient graffiti were preserved by the eruption of Vesuvius in Pompeii. They included magic spells, Latin curses, insults, love declarations, political slogans, alphabets, and famous literary quotes. They provided an insight into the street life of ancient Rome.

In Sri Lanka, ancient tourists who visited the 5th-century citadel at Sigirya scrawled more than 1800 individual graffiti at the place, between the 6^th and 18^th centuries. Scribbled on the surface of the Mirror Wall, they were pieces of poetry, prose and commentary. Most of these visitors seem to hail from elite society. They were officials, royals, professionals and the clergy.

Archers, soldiers and some metalworkers visited too. The scribbles ranged from love to lament, satire, curses and wit. A lot of them denote a great level of literacy, with a deep appreciation of poetry and art. Many of them referred to the murals of semi-nude women found there.

Level of literacy displayed in graffiti

Older forms of graffiti have helped us understand the languages and lifestyles of cultures long gone. Errors in grammar and spelling in them offer an insight into the level of literacy during Roman times. They also provide hints into the pronunciation of spoken Latin. Graffiti was found on the walls of brothels, taverns and the gladiatorial academy. And it wasn’t just the Romans and Greeks who used graffiti. The Mayan site of Tikal, Guatemala, displays examples of ancient Mayan graffiti. Viking graffiti has survived at Newgrange Mound in Ireland and in Rome.

The Romanesque Scandinavian church walls were often scrawled with graffiti known as Tacherons. Renaissance artists like Michelangelo, Pinturicchio, Ghirlandaio, Raphael, and Filippino Lippi descended into Nero’s Domus Aurea ruins and painted or carved their names there.  Examples of graffiti from American history include those at Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

Later, during the 1790s, French soldiers carved their names on many monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt. Lord Byron’s carvings on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon, Cape Sounion, Attica, survives today in Greece.

Contemporary graffiti

The style of contemporary graffiti has been greatly influenced by hip-hop culture and the various international styles derived from New York City Subway and Philadelphia graffiti. Excluding this, there are a lot of other traditions of noteworthy graffiti in the twentieth century. They have long appeared on the walls of buildings, latrines, subways, bridges and railroad boxcars.

The oldest considered example of modern graffiti is the monikers on train cars, made by rail workers and hobos since the late 1800s. The filmmaker Bill Daniel documented the Bozo Texino monikers in his film, Who is Bozo Texino? (2005).

Some graffiti is poignant. During World War II, the wall at the fortress of Verdun was inscribed with words that showed the US response to the wrongs of the Old World. Another phrase that came to be during the war and for decades after, was ‘Kilroy was here,’ accompanied with an illustration. The phrase soon spread throughout the world owing to its use by American troops. It ultimately became integrated into American popular culture.

Soon after Charlie Parker’s death, who was nicknamed ‘Bird’ or ‘Yardbird,’ New York was flooded with the words ‘Bird Lives’ written in graffiti. In May 1968, student protests and general strikes led to Paris being covered in anarchist, revolutionary and situationist slogans, written in stencil art, graffiti and poster art. In the US at the time, political phrases, like ‘Free Huey’ about Black Panther Huey Newton, made the rounds in limited areas. Another popular graffiti slogan during the early 1970s was ‘Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You,’ which reflected the youth’s hostility towards the US president.

The advent of aerosol paint

A significant subgenre of graffiti is rock and roll. One of the famous graffiti of the twentieth century was ‘Clapton is God,’ an inscription made in the London Tube in connection with the guitarist Eric Clapton. In the autumn of 1967, an admirer spray-painted the phrase on a wall in an Islington station on the Underground.

Graffiti became connected to the anti-establishment punk rock movement starting in the 1970s. Bands such as Crass and Black Flag, along with their followers, widely stencilled their names and logos. Other places like squats, punk night clubs and hangouts are famous for their graffiti. In the late 1980s, the most ubiquitous graffiti in lower Manhattan was the upside-down Martini glass, the tag for the punk band Missing Foundation.

The emergence of hip hop culture

In 1983, Tony Silver directed Style Wars, an American documentary film that focused on the rich growing culture of hip hop culture growing in New York. Depicting the late 70s and 80s, the movie specifically concentrated on graffiti art and breakdancing. Famous graffiti artists such as Dondi, Skeme, MinOne and ZEPHYR were depicted in the movie. Through the incorporation of famous break-dancing groups such as Rock Steady Crew into the movie, the role of graffiti was reinforced within New York’s growing hip-hop culture. While many officers of the New York Police Department found the movie to be controversial, it is still considered as the most prolific representation of what was trending within the young hip-hop culture of the early 1980s.

Stencil graffiti

It was during the same period that stencil graffiti emerged. Some of the first examples of stencil graffiti were made by Blek le Rat, in 1981 in Paris and by Jef Aerosol in Tours in 1982. By 1985, other cities had adopted stencils, including New York, Sydney and Melbourne. The use of stencils in these cities were documented by Charles Gatewood, an American photographer, and Rennie Ellis, an Australian photographer.

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

When graffiti became popular and legitimate, it also meant it got commercialised, to a certain degree. In 2001, an advertising campaign was launched by IBM in Chicago and San Francisco. It involved people spray painting on sidewalks the symbol for peace, a heart and a penguin (Linux mascot), to denote ‘Peace, Love and Linux.’ However, IBM did have to pay Chicago and San Francisco collectively 120,000 USD for punitive damages and clean-up costs.

Four years later, Sony launched a similar ad campaign which was executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami. It was done to market its handheld PSP gaming system. The legal problems faced by IBM did not go unnoticed by Sony. The company paid building owners for the right to paint on their buildings. The paintings were those of a group of urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a rocking horse, a paddle or a skateboard.

Uses

Many of the current analysts and art critics have begun to view some graffiti as having artistic value. Many art researchers are of the opinion that graffiti is a type of public art that is an effective tool for achieving a political goal or social emancipation. During times of conflict and unrest, murals have served as a means of self-expression and communication for members of socially, racially and ethnically divided communities.

Personal expression

Many graffiti artists who use it as a form of self-expression choose to remain anonymous, to protect their identities. This is for various reasons. Graffiti is still one of the four hip-hop elements that still isn’t considered performance art. Since it is a graphic form of art, it may be said that many graffiti artists could be grouped under the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

Banksy is one of the world’s most popular and also notorious street artists, who, to this day, remains anonymous. He is famous for his anti-war, political stencil art, chiefly in Bristol, England. But he has painted his work all over the world, from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the Middle East, Banksy painted on the controversial West Bank barrier of Israel. The paintings consist of satirical images of life on the other side. Banksy’s art is a topic of controversy-whether it’s vandalism or art. Art supporters have endorsed his work and art councils, such as Islington and Bristol, have officially protected them. Officials of other areas have deemed his work as vandalism and removed it.

Another artist who remains anonymous is Pixnit. Pixnit’s works focus on beauty and the design aspects of graffiti. Her works are often flower designs above stores and shops in her urban locality of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some shop owners endorse her work.

Radical and political

Graffiti is often seen as part of a subculture that rebels against authority. It is one of the tools, among others, to express political opinions and protests. One example is the punk band Crass, who conducted a stencilling campaign of anti-war, anti-consumerist, feminist and anarchist messages throughout the London Underground system.

Urban neighbourhoods are often marked with territorial graffiti such as tags and logos, to differentiate certain gangs from others. These images serve as a stern reminder to outsiders as to which turf is whose. The graffiti is mostly initials and cryptic symbols fashioned with unique calligraphy.

As advertising

Graffiti has served as a means of advertising, both legally and legally. The bronze-based TATS CRU carries out legal advertising campaigns for companies like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, MTV, and Toyota. Smirnoff hired graffiti artists to use reverse graffiti to increase awareness of their product. Reverse graffiti is where high-pressure hoses are used to clean dirty surfaces, leaving a clean image in the midst of the surrounding dirt.

Conclusion

While graffiti may be accepted as a legitimate form of art and self-expression, whether it is art or vandalism is still being debated. According to many, graffiti created with permission is art, but if it is on someone else’s property, it is a crime. When put that way, the artist’s freedom of expression ends where private property begins. For many, graffiti stands for freedom and makes cities more colourful and vibrant.

The purpose of graffiti

Graffiti as a form of artistic expression, often associated with subcultures as the rebel against authority. Graffiti in its origins was used to publicly display the artistic expressions in response to the lack of access to museums and art institutions, and the continuous strife, discrimination, and struggle of living in the city.

Because graffiti is illegal in most cases, this form of art has flourished in the underground, requiring little money and providing an opportunity to voice what is often excluded from dominant histories and media. From here, although graffiti remains the major form of street art with other mediums have evolved — including stenciling, stickers, and wheatpasting.

On the other hand, artists also used graffiti as a tool, to express their political opinions, (indigenous) heritage, cultural and religious imagery, and counter-narratives to dominant portrayals of life in the barrios. Similar to other forms of art within, graffiti has become another tool of resistance, reclamation, and empowerment to make the artist own space for expression and popular education.

Nowadays, graffiti is commonly recognized as a form of public art, embraced by museums, art critics, and art institutions. But its significance for many people remains in the barrios (neighborhoods), reiterating the importance of accessibility and inclusion in relation to their identity and community in their artwork.

For historical graffiti, see Graffito (disambiguation).

Graffiti (singular: graffito; the plural is used as a mass noun) is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property. Graffiti is any type of public markings that may appear in the forms of simple written words to elaborate wall paintings. Graffiti has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.^[1]

In modern times, paint, particularly spray paint, and marker pens have become the most commonly used graffiti materials. In most countries, marking or painting property without the property owner’s consent is considered defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime. Graffiti may also express underlying social and political messages and a whole genre of artistic expression is based upon spray paint graffiti styles. Within hip hop culture, graffiti has evolved alongside hip hop music, b-boying, and other elements.^[2] Unrelated to hip-hop graffiti, gangs use their own form of graffiti to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities.

Controversies that surround graffiti continue to create disagreement amongst city officials/law enforcement and writers who wish to display and appreciate work in public locations. There are many different types and styles of graffiti and it is a rapidly developing art form whose value is highly contested, reviled by many authorities while also subject to protection, sometimes within the same jurisdiction.

Street art

Street art formats

Graffiti • Stencils • Sticker art Wheatpasting • Poster art

Street artists

List of street artists List of stencil artists List of wheatpaste artists List of poster artists Graffiti artists category

Graffiti culture

Activism Culture jamming Direct action Graffiti terminology Graffiti uses Hip hop culture Installation art Murals Propaganda Screen-printing Spray paint art Stencil

Artist ideologies

Art intervention Anarchism Communism Anti-consumerism Community ownership Contemporary art Property is theft! Punk ideologies Reclaim the Streets Situationism Subversion Subvertising

Street art-related

Built environment MTA Private property Public art Public space Psychogeography Rapid transit Street party Urban planning Vandalism

Street art by country

Australia • Spain • Germany United States • Italy • Greece

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Etymology

Graffiti and graffito are from the Italian word graffiato («scratched»). «Graffiti» is applied in art history to works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is «graffito», or «sgrafitto,»^[3] which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into it. In ancient times graffiti was carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν — graphein — meaning «to write.»

History

The term graffiti referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, etc., found on the walls of ancient sepulchers or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Usage of the word has evolved to include any graphics applied to surfaces in a manner that constitutes vandalism.

The earliest forms of graffiti date back to 30,000 BCE in the form of prehistoric cave paintings and pictographs using tools such as Animal bones and pigments.^[4] These illustrations were often placed in ceremonial and sacred locations inside of the caves. The images drawn on the walls showed scenes of animal wildlife and hunting expeditions in most circumstances. This form of graffiti is subject to disagreement^{[clarification needed Disagreement between whom and concerning what?]} considering it is likely that members of prehistoric society endorsed the creation of these illustrations.

The only known source of the Safaitic language, a form of proto-Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE.

Modern-style graffiti

The first known example of «modern style» graffiti survives in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey). Local guides say it is an advertisement for prostitution. Located near a mosaic and stone walkway, the graffiti shows a handprint that vaguely resembles a heart, along with a footprint and a number. This is believed to indicate that a brothel was nearby, with the handprint symbolizing payment.^[5]

The ancient Romans carved graffiti on walls and monuments, examples of which also survive in Egypt. Graffiti in the classical world had different connotations than it carries in today’s society concerning content. Ancient graffiti displayed phrases of love declarations, political rhetoric, and simple words of thought compared to today’s popular messages of social and political ideals^[6] The eruption of Vesuvius preserved graffiti in Pompeii, including Latin curses, magic spells, declarations of love, alphabets, political slogans and famous literary quotes, providing insight into ancient Roman street life. One inscription gives the address of a woman named Novellia Primigenia of Nuceria, a prostitute, apparently of great beauty, whose services were much in demand. Another shows a phallus accompanied by the text, ‘mansueta tene’: «Handle with care».

Disappointed love also found its way onto walls in antiquity:

Quisquis amat. veniat. Veneri volo frangere costas

fustibus et lumbos debilitare deae.

Si potest illa mihi tenerum pertundere pectus

quit ego non possim caput illae frangere fuste?

Whoever loves, go to hell. I want to break Venus’s ribs

with a club and deform her hips.

If she can break my tender heart

why can’t I hit her over the head?

—CIL IV, 1284.

Historic forms of graffiti have helped gain understanding into the lifestyles and languages of past cultures. Errors in spelling and grammar in this graffiti offer insight into the degree of literacy in Roman times and provide clues on the pronunciation of spoken Latin. Examples are CIL IV, 7838: Vettium Firmum / aed[ilem] quactiliar[ii] [sic] rog[ant]. Here, «qu» is pronounced «co.» The 83 pieces of graffiti found at CIL IV, 4706-85 are evidence of the ability to read and write at levels of society where literacy might not be expected. The graffiti appear on a peristyle which was being remodeled at the time of the eruption of Vesuvius by the architect Crescens. The graffiti was left by both the foreman and his workers. The brothel at CIL VII, 12, 18-20 contains over 120 pieces of graffiti, some of which were the work of the prostitutes and their clients. The gladiatorial academy at CIL IV, 4397 was scrawled with graffiti left by the gladiator Celadus Crescens (Suspirium puellarum Celadus thraex: «Celadus the Thracian makes the girls sigh.»)

Another piece from Pompeii, written on a tavern wall about the owner of the establishment and his questionable wine:

Landlord, may your lies malign

Bring destruction on your head!

You yourself drink unmixed wine,

Water sell your guests instead.^[7]

It was not only the Greeks and Romans that produced graffiti: the Mayan site of Tikal in Guatemala also contains ancient examples. Viking graffiti survive in Rome and at Newgrange Mound in Ireland, and a Varangian scratched his name (Halvdan) in runes on a banister in the Hagia Sophia at Constantinople. These early forms of graffiti have contributed to the understanding of lifestyles and languages of past cultures.

Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls.^[8]

When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero’s Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names^[9][10] and returned with the grottesche style of decoration. There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Signature Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.

Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s.^[11] Lord Byron’s survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.^[12]

Modern graffiti

Graffiti is often seen as having become intertwined with hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from New York City Subway graffiti. However, there are many other instances of notable graffiti this century. Graffiti has long appeared on railroad boxcars and subways. The one with the longest history, dating back to the 1920s and continuing into the present day, is Texino.^[13] During World War II and for decades after, the phrase «Kilroy was here» with accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and its filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed «Yardbird» or «Bird»), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words «Bird Lives».^[14] The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire («Boredom is counterrevolutionary») expressed in painted graffiti, poster art, and stencil art. In the U.S. at the time other political phrases (such as «Free Huey» about Black Panther Huey Newton) became briefly popular as graffiti in limited areas, only to be forgotten. A popular graffito of the 1970s was the legend «Dick Nixon Before He Dicks You», reflecting the hostility of the youth culture to that U.S. president.

Rock and roll graffiti is a significant sub genre. A famous graffito of the 20th century was the inscription in the London subway reading «Clapton is God». The phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington Underground station in the autumn of 1967. The graffiti was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall. Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment punk rock movement beginning in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass (and their followers) widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats and hangouts are famous for their graffiti. In the late 1980s the upside down Martini glass that was the tag for punk band Missing Foundation was the most ubiquitous graffito in lower Manhattan, and copied by hard core punk fans throughout the U.S. and West Germany.^[15]

Along similar lines was the legend «Frodo Lives», referring to the protagonist of The Lord of the Rings.

Spread of graffiti culture

In 1979, graffiti artist Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy were given a gallery opening in Rome by art dealer Claudio Bruni. For many outside of New York, it was their first encounter with the art form. Fab 5 Freddy’s friendship with Debbie Harry influenced Blondie’s single «Rapture» (Chrysalis, 1981), the video of which featured Jean-Michel Basquiat of the SAMO© Graffiti, and offered many their first glimpse of a depiction of elements of graffiti in hip hop culture. With the release of «»Graffiti Artists International» on JaJaJa’s self-titled LP album (1982, Ata Tak — WR16), Julie Jigsaw became the first rapper to record a song about graffiti in Europe. JaJaJa toured Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, and Holland with her a large graffiti canvas as a backdrop.^[16] Charlie Ahearn’s independently released fiction film Wild Style (Wild Style, 1983), the early PBS documentary Style Wars (1983), hit songs such as «The Message» and «Planet Rock» and their accompanying music videos (both 1982) contributed to a growing interest outside New York in all aspects of hip hop. Style Wars depicted not only famous graffiti artists such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne and Zephyr, but also reinforced graffiti’s role within New York’s emerging hip hop culture by incorporating famous early break dancing groups such as Rock Steady Crew into the film and featuring rap in the soundtrack. Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s.^[17] Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983.^[18] Hollywood also paid attention, consulting writers like PHASE 2 as it depicted the culture and gave it international exposure in movies like Beat Street (Orion, 1984).

This period also saw the emergence of the new stencil graffiti genre. Some of the first examples were created ca 1981 by graffiti artist Blek le Rat in Paris; by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis.^[19]

Graffiti as a memorial

People often leave their traces in wet cement or concrete. This type of graffiti often commemorates the mutual commitment of a couple, or simply records a person’s presence at a particular moment. Often this type of graffiti is dated and is left untouched for decades, offering a look into local historical minutiae.

Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture

With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent «Peace, Love, and Linux.» However due to illegalities some of the «street artists» were arrested and charged with vandalism, and IBM was fined more than US$120,000 for punitive and clean-up costs.^[20][21]

In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by TATS CRU in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings «a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle or a rocking horse.»^[21]

Along with the commercial growth has come the rise of video games also depicting graffiti, usually in a positive aspect – for example, the Jet Set Radio series (2000–2003) tells the story of a group of teens fighting the oppression of a totalitarian police force that attempts to limit the graffiti artists’ freedom of speech. In plotlines mirroring the negative reaction of non-commercial artists to the commercialization of the art form by companies like IBM (and, later, Sony itself) the Rakugaki Ōkoku series (2003–2005) for Sony’s PlayStation 2 revolves around an anonymous hero and his magically imbued-with-life graffiti creations as they struggle against an evil king who only allows art to be produced which can benefit him. Following the original roots of modern graffiti as a political force came another game title, Marc Eckō’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure (2006), featuring a story line involving fighting against a corrupt city and its oppression of free speech, as in the Jet Set Radio series.

Other games which feature graffiti include Bomb the World (2004), an online graffiti simulation created by graffiti artist Klark Kent where users can virtually paint trains at 20 locations worldwide, and Super Mario Sunshine (2002), in which the hero, Mario must clean the city of graffiti left by the villain, Bowser Jr. in a plotline which evokes the successes of the Anti-Graffiti Task Force of New York’s Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (a manifestation of «broken window theory») or those of the «Graffiti Blasters» of Chicago’s Mayor Richard M. Daley.

Numerous other non-graffiti-centric video games allow the player to produce graffiti (such as the Half-Life series, the Tony Hawk’s series, The Urbz: Sims in the City, Rolling and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). Counter-Strike which is a Half-Life mod allows user to create their own and tag in game. Many other titles contain in-game depictions of graffiti (such as The Darkness, Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone, NetHack, Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked, The World Ends With You, The Warriors, Just Cause, Portal, various examples of Virtual Graffiti, etc.). There also exist a host of games where the term «graffiti» is used as a synonym for «drawing» (such as Yahoo! Graffiti, Graffiti, etc.).

Marc Ecko, an urban clothing designer, has been an advocate of graffiti as an art form during this period, stating that «Graffiti is without question the most powerful art movement in recent history and has been a driving inspiration throughout my career.»^[22]

Keith Haring was another well-known graffiti artist who brought Pop Art and graffiti to the commercial mainstream. In the 1980s, Haring opened his first Pop Shop: a store that offered everyone access to his works—which until then could only be found spray-painted on city walls. Pop Shop offered commodities like bags and t-shirts. Haring explained that, «The Pop Shop makes my work accessible. It’s about participation on a big level, the point was that we didn’t want to produce things that would cheapen the art. In other words, this was still art as statement».

Graffiti has become a common stepping stone for many members of both the art and design community in North America and abroad. Within the United States Graffiti Artists such as Mike Giant, Pursue, Rime, Noah and countless others have made careers in skateboard, apparel and shoe design for companies such as DC Shoes, Adidas, Rebel8 Osiris or Circa^[23] Meanwhile there are many others such as DZINE, Daze, Blade, The Mac that have made the switch to gallery artists often times not even using their initial medium, spray paint.^[23]

But perhaps the greatest example of graffiti artists infiltrating mainstream pop culture is by the French crew, 123Klan. 123Klan founded as a graffiti crew in 1989 by Scien and Klor, have gradually turned their hands to illustration and design while still maintaining their graffiti practice and style. In doing so they have designed and produced, logos and illustrations, shoes, and fashion for the likes of Nike, Adidas, Lamborghini, Coca Cola, Stussy, Sony, Nasdaq and more.^[24]

Global developments

South America

There is a significant graffiti tradition in South America, especially in Brazil. Within Brazil, São Paulo is generally considered to be the current centre of inspiration for many graffiti artists worldwide.^[25]

Brazil «boasts a unique and particularly rich graffiti scene … [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration.»^[26] Graffiti «flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil’s cities.»^[26] Artistic parallels «are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York.»^[27] The «sprawling metropolis,»^[27] of São Paulo has «become the new shrine to graffiti;»^[27] Manco alludes to «poverty and unemployment … [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country’s marginalised peoples,»^[28] and to «Brazil’s chronic poverty,»^[29] as the main engines that «have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture.»^[29] In world terms, Brazil has «one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently.»^[28] Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the «folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised,»^[29] that is South American graffiti art.

Prominent Brazilian graffiti artists include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka and T.Freak.^[30] Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures^[31] has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.^[32]

Middle East

Graffiti in the Middle East is slowly emerging, with pockets of taggers operating in the various ‘Emirates’ of the United Arab Emirates, in Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photo coverage of Iranian artist A1one’s works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine PingMag has interviewed A1one and featured photos of his work.^[33] The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many graffiti artists in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF, from Los Angeles, and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference «נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן» («Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman») is commonly seen graffitied around Israel.

Methods and production

The modern day graffiti artist can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece.^[34] This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one necessity for graffiti. From this commodity come different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of visual graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and come in virtually every color.

Stencil graffiti, originating in the early 1980s, is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image.^[35] The stencil is then placed on the canvas gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface. This method of graffiti is popular amongst artists because of its swift technique that requires very little time. Time is always a factor with graffiti due to the constant threat of getting caught by law enforcement.

Modern experimentation

Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes as new media for graffiti writers. The Italian artist Kaso is pursuing regenerative graffiti through experimentation with abstract shapes and deliberate modification of previous graffiti artworks. Yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification.

Characteristics of common graffiti

Some of the most common styles of graffiti have their own names. A «tag» is the most basic writing of an artist’s name, it is simply a handstyle. A graffiti writer’s tag is his or her personalized signature. Tagging is often the example given when opponents of graffiti refer to any acts of handstyle graffiti writing (it is by far the most common form of graffiti). Tags can contain subtle and sometimes cryptic messages, and might incorporate the artist’s crew initials or other letters. One form of tagging known as «pissing» is the act of taking a refillable fire extinguisher and replacing the contents inside with paint, allowing for tags as high as around 20 feet. Aiming and keeping a handstyle steady in this form of tagging is very difficult, usually coming out wavy and sloppy.

Another form is the «throw-up», also known as a «bombing» which is normally painted very quickly with two or three colors, sacrificing aesthetics for speed. Throw-ups can also be outlined on a surface with one color. A «piece» is a more elaborate representation of the artist’s name, incorporating more stylized letters, usually incorporating a much larger range of colors. This of course is more time consuming and increases the likelihood of the artist getting caught. A «blockbuster» or «roller» is a large piece, almost always done in a block shaped style, done simply to cover a large area solidly with two contrasting colours, sometimes with the whole purpose of blocking other writers from painting on the same wall. These are usually accomplished with extended paint rollers and gallons of cheap exterior paint.

A more complex style is «wildstyle», a form of graffiti usually involving interlocking letters and connecting points. These pieces are often harder to read by non-graffiti artists as the letters merge into one another in an often undecipherable manner. Some artists also use stickers as a quick way to catch ups. While certain critics from within graffiti culture consider this lazy, stickers can be quite detailed in their own right, and are often used in conjunction with other materials. Sticker tags are commonly done on blank postage stickers, as these can be easily acquired with no cost on the writers part.

Many graffiti artists believe that doing complex pieces involves too great an investment of time to justify the practice. Doing a piece can take (depending on experience and size) 30 minutes to months on end, as was the case for Saber MSK while working on the worlds largest graffiti piece on the LA river. Another graffiti artist can go over a piece in a matter of minutes with a simple throw up. This was exemplified by the writer «CAP» in the documentary Style Wars, who, other writers complain, ruins pieces with his quick throw ups. This became known as «capping» and is often done when there is «beef», conflict between writers.

Uses

Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Scandinavian Institute of Comparative Vandalism in 1961. Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or in the achievement of a political goal.^[36]

The murals of Belfast and of Los Angeles offer another example of official recognition.^[37] In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically and/or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by Graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.

Many artists involved with Graffiti also are concerned with the similar activity of Stencilling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognised while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffiti artist Mathangi Arulpragasam a.k.a. M.I.A. has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles «Galang» and «Bucky Done Gun», and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, having herself become a muse for other graffiti artists/painters worldwide in cities including Seville.^[38] Graffiti artist John Fekner, called «caption writer to the urban environment, adman for the opposition» by writer Lucy Lippard,^[39] was involved in direct art interventions within New York City’s decaying urban environment in the mid-seventies through the eighties. Fekner is known for his word installations targeting social and political issues, stenciled on buildings throughout New York.

Anonymous artists

Graffiti artists constantly have the looming threat of facing consequences for displaying their graffiti. Many choose to protect their identities and reputation by remaining anonymous.

With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted «graffiti» art, graffiti artists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the 1 of 4 hip hop elements that is not considered «performance art» despite the image of the «singing and dancing star» that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a form of visual art, it might also be said that many graffiti artists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.

Banksy is one of the world’s most notorious and popular street artist who continues to remain faceless in today’s society.^[40] He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England but his work can be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy’s artwork can be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, though he has painted pictures around the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel’s controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions have also taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy’s art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while other officials have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.

Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public.^[41] Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy’s anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts . Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do so as well. «One of the pieces was left up above Steve’s Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome»- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston.

Radical and political

Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist and anti-consumerist messages around the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[42]

In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names as ‘De Zoot’, ‘Vendex’ and ‘Dr Rat’.^[43][44] To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there already was a vibrant graffiti culture.

The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L’ennui est contre-révolutionnaire («Boredom is counterrevolutionary») and Lisez moins, vivez plus («Read less, live more»). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the millenarian and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.

The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as «on the street» or «underground», contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints for a variety of reasons—but primarily because is it difficult for the police to apprehend and for the courts to sentence or even convict a person for a protest that is as fleeting and less intrusive than marching in the streets. In some communities, such impermanent works survive longer than works created with permanent paints because the community views the work in the same vein as that of the civil protester who marches in the street—such protest are impermanent but effective nevertheless.

In some areas where a number of artist share the impermanence ideal, there grows an informal competition. That is, the length of time that a work escapes destruction is related to the amount of respect the work garners in the community. A crude work that deserves little respect would invariably be removed immediately. The most talented artist might have works last for days.

Artists whose primary object is to assert control over property—and not primarily to create of an expressive work of art, political or otherwise—resist switching to impermanent paints.

Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences forced onto them as a means of further protest.^[46]

The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each others’ practices. Anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers, for example, did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.

On top of the political aspect of graffiti as a movement, political groups and individuals may also use graffiti as a tool to spread their point of view. This practice, due to its illegality, has generally become favored by groups excluded from the political mainstream (e.g. far-left or far-right groups) who justify their activity by pointing out that they do not have the money – or sometimes the desire – to buy advertising to get their message across, and that a «ruling class» or «establishment» control the mainstream press, systematically excluding the radical/alternative point of view. This type of graffiti can seem crude; for example fascist supporters often scrawl swastikas and other Nazi images.

One innovative form of graffiti that emerged in the UK in the 1970s was devised by the Money Liberation Front (MLF), essentially a loose affiliation of underground press writers such as the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams and magazine editor and playwright Jay Jeff Jones. They initiated the use of paper currency as a medium for counterculture propaganda, overprinting banknotes, usually with a John Bull printing set. Although short lived the MLF was representative of London’s Ladbroke Grove centered alternative and literary community of the period. The area was also a scene of considerable anti-establishment and humorous street graffiti much of it also produced by Williams.^[47]

In 2009, following the elections in Iran, protesters (who regarded the electoral result as rigged) began to deface banknotes with slogans such as «Death to the dictator». In Colombia writing and drawing on banknotes has become increasingly popular, either to make political comments, for fun or as an artistic medium. The national government has run advertising campaigns in an attempt to discourage the practice. In the UK there have been signs of an MLF resurgence with a number of banknotes in circulation being over-marked with protest slogans such as «Banks=Robbers», relating to the perceived culpability of banks in the financial crisis.

Both sides of the conflict in Northern Ireland produce political graffiti. As well as slogans, Northern Irish political graffiti include large wall paintings, referred to as murals. Along with the flying of flags and the painting of kerb stones, the murals serve a territorial purpose, often associated with gang use. Artists paint them mostly on house gables or on the Peace Lines, high walls that separate different communities. The murals often develop over an extended period and tend to stylization, with a strong symbolic or iconographic content. Loyalist murals often refer to historical events dating from the war between James II and William III in the late 17th century, whereas Republican murals usually refer to the more recent troubles.

Territorial graffiti serves as marking ground to display tags and logos that differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.^[48]

As advertising

Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. In NYC, Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies like Coca Cola, McDonald’s, Toyota, and MTV. In the U.K. Covent Garden’s Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes of cross referencing would promote their store. Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product. Shepard Fairey rose to fame after his «Andre the Giant Has a Posse» sticker campaign, in which his art was plastered in cities across America.

Many graffiti artists see legal advertising as no more than ‘paid for and legalised graffiti’ and have risen against mainstream adverts. The graffiti research lab crew have gone on to target several prominent adverts in New York as a means of making a statement against this criteria.

Offensive graffiti

Graffiti can also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti can be difficult to locate, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly).^[49] Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight not easily recognized as «racist». It can then only be understood if one knows the relevant «local code» (social, historical, political, temporal and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus an ‘unique set of conditions’.^[50]

A spatial code could for example be, that there is a certain youth group in an area which is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti only containing the name or abbreviation of this gang is already a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases the herald of more serious criminal activity.^[51] A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.

Hence, the lack of obvious racist graffiti does not necessarily mean that there actually is none. By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints),^[52] these drawings are less likely to be removed but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.^[53]

Decorative and high art

In the early 1980s, the first Art Galleries who started to show graffiti artists to the public were Fashion Moda in Bronx and Now Gallery in East Village, Manhattan.

A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York’s outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early ’80s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

It displayed 22 works by New York graffiti artists, including Crash, Daze and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in Time Out Magazine, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti. Terrance Lindall, an artist and executive director of the Williamsburg Art and Historic Center, said regarding graffiti and the exhibition:^[54]

«Graffiti is revolutionary, in my opinion», he says, «and any revolution might be considered a crime. People who are oppressed or suppressed need an outlet, so they write on walls—it’s free.»

In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within visual art. Oxford University Press’s art history text Australian Painting 1788-2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti’s key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.^[55]

Artistic graffiti is a modern day offspring of traditional graffiti that has elevated itself from just scrawling words or phrases on a wall, to a complex artistic form of personal expression.^[56]

Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris — a clear acceptance of the art form into the French art world.^[57][58]

Many graffiti artists have used their design talents in other artistic endeavors. In 2009 graffiti artist «Scape» published «GRAFF; the Art & Technique of Graffiti», the world’s first book dedicated to displaying the full techniques of creating graffiti art. Other books that focus on graffiti include Faith of Graffiti by Norman Mailer, Trespass by Taschen press,^[59] and the comic book Concrete Immortalz by Elite Gudz, which has a graffiti artist as its main character.

Figurines by KAWS, featuring icons of pop culture often with x’ed out eyes, run in limited editions and sell for thousands of dollars.^[60] World-renowned street artist Banksy directed the film Exit Through the Gift Shop, which explored street art and commercialism, in 2010.

Government responses

Asia

In China, graffiti began with Mao Zedong in the 1920s who used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanise the country’s communist revolution. Mao holds the record for the longest piece of graffiti, which contains 4000 characters criticising his teachers and the state of Chinese society.^[61]

In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Some of his work is now officially preserved.

In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffiti artists. Since 2005 they’ve been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated «Graffiti Zones».^[62] From 2007, Taipei’s Department of Cultural Affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, «We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It’s our goal to beautify the city with graffiti». The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. Graffiti artists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to $6000 TWD under a Department of Environmental Protection regulation.^[63] However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, «Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won’t get involved. We don’t go after it proactively.»^[64]

In 1993 in Singapore, after several expensive cars were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing the car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay’s caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six lashes of the cane, but the then President of Singapore Ong Teng Cheong agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.^[65]

In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined 2 million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in “G-20” sounds like the Korean word for “rat” however Korean government prosecutors alleged that Mr. Park was making a derogatory statement about President of ROK Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting “an ominous creature like a rat” amounts to “an organized criminal activity» and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution’s request for imprisonment for Park.^[66]

Europe

In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.^[67]

In September 2006, the European Parliament issued the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animals’ excrement and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.^[68]

The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain’s latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing «on the spot» fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16.^[69] The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed ‘cool’ or ‘edgy’ image.

To back the campaign, 123 MPs (including Prime Minister Tony Blair) signed a charter which stated: Graffiti is not art, it’s crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem.^[70] However, in the last couple of years the British graffiti scene has been struck by self-titled ‘art terrorist’ Banksy, who has revolutionized the style of UK graffiti (bringing to the forefront stencils to aid the speed of painting) as well as the content; making his work largely satirical of the sociological state of cities, or the political climate of war, often using monkeys and rats as motifs.

In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.

In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffiti artists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation,^[71] nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from 18 months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.^[72]

Some councils, like that at Stroud, Gloucestershire and Loerrach provide approved areas round the town where graffiti artists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the ‘spray and run.’^[73]

In Budapest, Hungary both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.^[74][75]

Australia

In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffiti artists. One early example is the «Graffiti Tunnel» located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the University to tag, advertise, poster and create «art». Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.^[76][77] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere.^[78] Some Local Government Areas around Australia have introduced «anti-graffiti squads», who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can’t Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.

Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of Local Governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.

Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne’s street are as a major attraction. Everything including; sticker art, poster, stencil art and wheatpasting can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As you move further away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.^[79]

New Zealand

In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand Prime Minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 where a middle aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.

United States

Aggregation of Damage — Police and Prosecution use of Graffiti Tracker Databases

Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender’s moniker or tag in a simple, effective and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to city to help allocate an anti graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all of the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all of the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them to not only focuses on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.^[80]

Police Response — Gang Injunctions

Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls and fences, vehicles and/or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing the property of another, both public and private property, including but limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, trees, or power pole. ^[81]

Graffiti Hotlines and Reward Programs

To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego’s hotline receives over 5000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time, there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and the actual removal of it. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided and the action taken. ^[82]

Police Response — Graffiti Search Warrants

When the police use search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays, etching tools or other sharp or pointed objects used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces, and permanent marking pens, such as markers or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew, paraphernalia to include any reference to “(tagger’s name),” and any drawings, writings, objects or graffiti depicting taggers’ names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or mention of tagging crew membership; any newspaper clippings relating details of or referring to any graffiti crime.^[83]

Main article: Graffiti in the United States

Documentaries and films

• 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s (1979) – A rare glimpse into late ’70s New York towards the end of the infamous South Bronx gangs. The documentary shows many sides of the mainly Puerto Rican community of the South Bronx, including reformed gang members, current gang members, the police, and the community leaders who try to reach out to them.
• Stations of the Elevated (1980), the earliest documentary about subway graffiti in New York City, with music by Charles Mingus
• Wild Style (1983), a drama about hip hop and graffiti culture in New York City
• Style Wars (1983), an early documentary on hip hop culture, made in New York City
• Quality of Life (2004) a graffiti drama shot in the Mission District of San Francisco, starring and co-written by a retired graffiti writer.
• Piece by Piece (2005), a feature-length documentary on the history of San Francisco graffiti from the early 1980s until the present day.
• Infamy (2005), a feature-length documentary about graffiti culture as told through the experiences of six well-known graffiti writers and a graffiti buffer.
• NEXT: A Primer on Urban Painting (2005), a documentary about global graffiti culture
• RASH (2005), a feature documentary about Melbourne, Australia and the artists who make it a living host for illegal artwork called street art.
• Bomb the System (2002), a drama about a crew of graffiti artists in modern day New York City
• BOMB IT (2007), a graffiti and street art documentary filmed on five continents.
• Jisoe (2007), a glimpse into the life of a Melbourne, Australia graffiti writer. Shows the audience an example of graffiti in struggling Melbourne areas
• Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (2009) is a Canadian documentary about Montréal artist Peter Gibson and his controversial stencil art on public roads.
• «Exit Through The Gift Shop» (2010) is a documentary produced by the notorious artist Banksy tells the story of Thierry Guetta, a French immigrant in Los Angeles, and his obsession with street art. Shepard Fairey and Invader (artist), who Guetta discovers is his cousin, are also in the film.
• «Graffiti Wars» (2011), documentary detailing King Robbo’s feud with Banksy aswell as the authorities’ differing attitude towards graffiti and street art^[84]

See also

References

External links

• Ancient Graffiti of Saudi Arabia
• Art Crimes, leading contemporary Graffiti-related website
• Art of graffiti
• A TIME Archives Collection of Graffiti’s progression
• Belarusian graffiti
• Big Art Mob — a user-created pictorial map of graffiti and street art across the United Kingdom
• Bridge-Gallery Loerrach, Germany — established 2010
• Ekosystem.org
• FatCap, largest structured database of graffiti and street artists around the world
• World Wide Graffiti Gallery — established 1997
•  «Graffiti». New International Encyclopedia. 1905.

Graffiti is a form of visual communication created in public places. Graffiti is differentiated from street art or graffiti art in that it is usually illegally produced and often involves the unauthorized marking of public or private spaces by individuals or groups. 

What Does Graffiti Mean?

The term Graffiti was originally a reference to ancient inscriptions. These could be words or figure drawings found on the walls of ancient sepulchers, public buildings, or ruins. Ancient Graffiti can be observed in the Catacombs of Rome or at the ruins of Pompeii.

The use of the word “Graffiti” has evolved over the centuries to refer to text or graphics applied to surfaces. For a long time, the term Graffiti was synonymous with vandalism.

Is Graffiti Art?

Graffiti, while once considered vandalism, is becoming more widely recognized as a type of artwork. However, it is still not always positively received or universally accepted as art by the general public.

Graffiti Art takes the techniques and methodologies behind street Graffiti and applies them to other mediums. At the same time, all Graffiti can be considered art. The distinction between Graffiti and Graffiti Art is usually used when Graffiti leaves city surfaces and moves to another more traditional art surface, such as a canvas. Graffiti Art takes Graffiti off the streets and allows it to be sold, exhibited, and displayed in other environments. 

Graffiti is still a predominantly public and urban art form. However, recently, Graffiti artists and street artists such as Banksy and the artist Alec Monopoly, who is behind the infamous Richie Rich artworks, – have exhibited their graffiti-style paintings commercially in gallery and museum spaces.

How Graffiti Started

Forms of Graffiti can be found throughout history, dating back to the cavemen. The first drawings on walls could be called Graffiti; Lascaux cave paintings in France date back to thousands of years ago. The Ancient Greeks and Romans also graffitied their names and protest poems on public buildings, similar to modern taggers. 

American soldiers adopted a form of Graffiti throughout World War II by writing the phrase “Kilroy was here.” This message was accompanied by a simple sketch of a man peeking over a ledge. 

Soldiers would draw on surfaces along their route as a form of camaraderie with the soldiers who would follow. British and Australian soldiers used similar practices. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, this was a war error meme and a precursor to modern Graffiti and meme culture.

While Graffiti has existed in many forms throughout history, it didn’t become a widely visible and well-known phenomenon until the 1960s. The modern and commonly recognized form of Graffiti started in the mid-sixties. This contemporary form of Graffiti is often referred to as hip-hop Graffiti. 

This form of hip-hop Graffiti started in urban America in the mid 20th century and was centered in Philadelphia and New York. The invention of aerosol spray paint in 1949 made spray cans the affordable, transportable medium of choice for modern Graffiti. 

Historical Graffiti was usually carved or painted, but contemporary Graffiti still typically uses spray paint. Graffiti Art also predominantly uses spray paints to recreate a Graffiti aesthetic into fine art forms.

Graffiti has always been about making the artist’s name or message visible, which is why it is created in public spaces. Graffiti artists of the late 20th-century were often individuals who didn’t have access to more traditional means or platforms of expression to get their name or message out. The culture of Graffiti and tagging revolves around leaving a mark so other artists and taggers can see your tag in the community.

Who Started Graffiti Art?

It isn’t easy to pinpoint precisely which artist started the trend for Graffiti Art. Graffiti often doesn’t last long, so its origins can be hard to track. Graffiti artists are usually anonymous, other artists often tag over artworks, or artworks are removed or painted over by the city or building owners. 

However, one candidate is frequently referenced as the originator of Graffiti, and that is the artist Cornbread. The artist known as “Cornbread” – whose real name is Darryl McCray – is widely considered to be the first artist of the modern Graffiti scene. In 1965 Cornbread was just a 12-year-old teen in Philadelphia with a penchant for writing his nickname on every possible surface. 

But Cornbread started a movement that soon spread and grew in popularity. Cornbread’s most famous work was the infamous tagging of an Elephant in the Philadelphia Zoo. In response to false claims he had died, Cornbread painted “Cornbread Lives” on both sides of a live elephant. Modern Graffiti Artists like Alec Monopoly follow Cornbread’s example and tag a greater variety of other objects. 

Alec Monopoly and Banksy are two of the first artists to take Graffiti off the streets and put it in one different artistic medium or setting. Sometimes these settings are traditional, like a canvas, but other times shocking and innovative, like helicopters, cars, handbags, escalators, and many other places. 

Where Graffiti Started

Graffiti flourished in major American cities, particularly in Black and Latino neighborhoods, and grew in popularity alongside hip-hop street subcultures. 

Most historians pinpoint either Philadelphia or New York as the birthplace of modern Graffiti. However, New York quickly became the undisputed epicenter of Graffiti culture. At its peak in the 1970s, the Graffiti tags found on New York subway trains were so prevalent that you could barely see through the subway car windows. 

Graffiti is now widespread, with bustling Graffiti scenes in Berlin, Mexico City, Lisbon, Melbourne, New Delhi, London, Bogota, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and many other urban destinations. 

What Is a Graffiti Tag?

A Graffiti tag is the original, most common, and most basic of the Graffiti styles you see every day. A tag is essentially the Graffiti artist’s “signature” – although artists usually use a pseudonym. 

A tag is usually created using spray paint cans in a single color and uses the artist’s tag name or identifying symbol. More advanced forms of Graffiti, such as Throw Ups or Blockbusters, take tags to varying levels of artistic sophistication, but the artist’s moniker or tag is almost always included in the design. The repeated use of variations of the same tag or design differentiates Graffiti from other forms of street art. 

What Type of Art Is Graffiti?

Graffiti art is a radical contemporary art movement. Coming after the Pop Art movement, Graffiti artists show some of the influence from the Modern art movements that preceded it, such as Pop Art, Abstract Expressionist, or Surrealism. While Graffiti Art started in the modern art period, most Graffiti Art is being created by living contemporary artists. 

What Is the Purpose of Graffiti?

Graffiti aims to be seen without being caught or to spread an important message. The end purpose of Graffiti, like other art is to tell a story or express oneself. 

Graffiti allows artists to express themselves, even if it is not in a publicly acceptable manner. Graffiti can also be used to mark territories and is well established in gang culture. 

Graffiti can be criminal, political, humorous, or even beautiful. Graffiti challenges societal norms and laws, and it does not aim to be legal. The thrill and risk of creating Graffiti are part of the culture. 

What Does Graffiti Represent?

Graffiti often represents rebellion, so it is often the visual language of the unheard or disenfranchised. Graffiti can tell you a lot about the people, politics, subcultures, counter-cultures, and socio-economics of an area. 

Is Graffiti Good or Bad?

Once firmly regarded as vandalism, the public perception of Graffiti continues to move closer to appreciation. However, art is always subjective, and some people may never accept Graffiti as art.

Graffiti can be technically good artwork. Creating Graffiti takes a high level of skill, and some artists are exceptionally talented. There are many Graffiti and street artists whose artwork clearly shows an immense level of technical painting or artistic ability.

Not everyone thinks Graffiti art is good, but acceptance and appreciation are not the purposes of these artworks. Graffiti is a rebellious counter-culture statement that is created for self-expression, often by disenfranchised individuals. It is usually made primarily for other Graffiti artists in the community and does not usually seek public acceptance. 

What Is Light Graffiti?

Light Graffiti is a form of performative art. Light Graffiti is created by exposure and uses a light source to draw Graffiti in the air. You can make light Graffiti with a torch, a sparkler, a fire, or another light source. The light Graffiti can be viewed for a fleeting moment or captured in a photograph. 

Where Is Graffiti Most Popular?

The popularity of street art and Graffiti grows worldwide. There is now an increasing number of destinations where Graffiti is not actively removed by authorities so you can visit and view street art.

The top ten destinations where Graffiti is most popular and tourists can see world-famous Graffiti are:

1. New York, USA: New York is the home of the Graffiti movement, and there are many pockets across the city where you can view exceptional artworks, including Brooklyn’s Bushwick, Hunts Point in the Bronx, Manhattan’s Chelsea, and the Graffiti Hall of Fame in Harlem.
2. Bristol, UK: This English town is home to Banksy, one of the most famous street and Graffiti artists of the present day. The city has embraced its Graffiti scene and now hosts the See No Evil Festival, one of the biggest street art festivals in the world.
3. Stockholm, Sweden: The Stockholm Metro Station has so much Graffiti is has been nicknamed the world’s longest art gallery. Most of this artwork was commissioned, not produced illegally.
4. Berlin, Germany: Berlin has a long and well-established history of public artworks. Some, like the Berlin Wall, are public legal works that speak to the history of the city. But there is also a strong illegal Graffiti scene that speaks to the new Berlin.
5. São Paulo, Brazil: São Paulo,has embraced public artworks and Graffiti. Many of the world’s most famous Graffiti and street artists, such as Eduardo Kobra, come from São Paulo.
6. London, UK: London’s Brick Lane, The Village Underground, and the surrounding neighborhood of Shoreditch are home to many of the world’s famous Graffiti works. Look out for the works by Banksy, ROA, Reka, and MadC.
7. Paris, France: Paris is home to a vivid urban scene with strong political roots. You can find some sharp political criticism and a sense of rebellion within the Graffiti found on the streets of Paris. Look out for the works by Invader, Kraken, Miss.Tic and the mysterious John Hamon.
8. Los Angeles, USA: Los Angeles has a strong hip-hop culture, so it should come as no surprise that Graffiti culture is also prominent around the city. La Brea Boulevard, Culver City, Melrose Avenue, The Arts District, and Venice Beach are just a few of the places you can see exceptional street art around LA.
9. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne is the Graffiti capital of Australia and Hosier Lane in particular has been attracting worldwide attention for its Graffiti and street art.
10. Mexico City, Mexico: Modern Mexican art is traditionally well known for the prominence of murals, so it’s no surprise that the Mexican capital offers diverse street art styles and religious and political Graffiti. Must see neighborhoods include Avenida Reforma, The Museo del Juguete Antiguo México and Plaza Luis Cabrera.

Buying Graffiti Art

The line between Graffiti, Graffiti Art, and fine art continues to blur. Many well-known street artists have begun exhibiting in museums and galleries. Fine artists like F&G, Alec Monopoly, Clems, Noah Lubin, and Marco Battaglini now incorporate Graffiti styles and techniques into fine artworks to create something altogether new. You can now buy and display artwork that uses Graffiti styles and enjoy it in your own space.