Is Graffiti Art or Vandalism

July 12, 2009
Professor Andrew Ryan
Debative
Is Graffiti Art or Vandalism

Graffiti is known to be the first element of the Hip- Hop cultur and also the myriad of international styles which has derived from New York City's Subway stations. However, there are many other instances of notable graffiti this century. Graffiti has long appeared on caves, walls, railroad boxcars and subways. I believe the one with the longest history, dates back to the 30, 000 BCE during caveman times when graffiti appeared as paintings and pictographs of the usage of tools such as animal bones and pigment. These illustrations were often placed in ceremonial and sacred locations inside of the caves. The images drawn on the wall showed scences of animal wildlife and hunting expeditions inmost circumstances, as well as tracking of history.
The anicent Romans, also carved graffiti on walls and monuments, which examples how Egyptians survive. 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 which is the same as today, but the popular message differ in some ways about the social and political ideals. th eruption of Vesuvius perserved graffiti in Pompell, including Latin crses, magic spells, declaration of love, alphabets, political slogans and famous literary quotes, providing insiht in anicient Roman street life. Now, it has been proven that graffitti is historic and world profound. Then it should be easy for people to appreciate because this was form of how we kept track of history and express ourselves as people.
As discuss in class about World War II and the decades afterwards, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an illustration to accompany it, made graffiti spread throughout the world because of the American troops and making it easy for graffiti to filter into the American popular culture. Awhile after the death of Charlie Parker who's nickname was "Yardbird" or "Bird"; attracted exisitence of graffiti to and around New York because of the words "Bird Lives". Later, student protests and form a general strike on May 1968 and saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchist, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire, which means "Boredom is counterrevolutionary" and was expressed in varoius arts which is painted graffiti, poster art, and stencil art. During this period the U.S. at this time became phrases of politics such as "Free Huey" from the Black Panther (Huey Newton) which 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 played a significant role in the history of graffiti. 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, which a dog is seen urinating on the wall. Graffiti also became associated with the anti-establishment such as; the punk rock movement that began in the 1970s. Bands such as Black Flag and Crass, as well as other followers widely stenciled their names and logos, while many punk night clubs, squats and hangouts were famous for their graffiti. In the late 1980s the upside down Martini glass that was the tag for punk band Missing Foundation, which was the most ubiquitous of graffito in lower Manhattan, and copied by hard core punk fans throughout the U.S. and West Germany.
In the year 1979, graffiti artist Lee Quinones and Fab 5 Freddy, which we learned in Monday's class; were given a gallery opening in Rome by art dealer Claudio Bruni. For those whole lived outside of New York, this was a great opprutunity and a first encounter for at an art form. Fab 5 Freddy's friendship with Debbie Harry influenced Blondie's single "Rapture" (Chrysalis, 1981), a video of which featured Jean-Michel Basquiat of the SAMO© Graffiti, and gave them glimpse of depiction of elements involving graffiti in the hip hop culture. Most importantly, Charlie Ahearn's independently released a fiction film called Wild Style (1982), which we saw on Monday's class and the early PBS documentary titled 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 roles within New York, allowing it to emerge with hip hop culture by incorporating famous early break dancing groups such as Rock Steady Crew into the film which also features a solely rap soundtracks. Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film that is a representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour of 1983. Hollywood also paid a lot more attention, consulting writers like PHASE 2 as it depicted the culture and gave it international exposure in movies like Beat Street (Orion, 1984).
During this period, graffiti also saw the emergencement of the new stencil graffiti genre. Some of the first examples of Hip- Hop was created in 1981 by graffiti artist Blek le Rat in Paris and also 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 photograher Rennie Ellis.
To conclude, I believe that graffiti is more of an art than vandalism, mainly because of creative usage of spray paint that produces an artwork that is beautiful and also beautifies the community and it's a form communication to people. The purposes and functions of graffiti is mainly for: (1) visual delight, (2) social and political purposes, (3) cultural expression, (4) personal expression, (5) spiritual sustenance, (6) day- to - day living, and (7) communication.