Graffiti is unpredictable and fleeting, making it all the more exciting when you see a work you admire. In the back of your mind, you know it’s here for only a short time before another graffiti artist paints over it or, worse, a sanitation worker for the state. This is the push and pull between graffiti artists and the public and the government.
Graffiti has become a staple of any urban development around the world. It can most commonly be found dressing the dull areas of a city, like the empty concrete spaces of buildings, in bright, bold colours and strong expressions. You may know the names Banksy and Shepard Fairey, with these artists being considered as great artists, but these guys are also graffiti artists who started out painting the streets of their respective cities before stretching their spray can across the world and ending up in galleries and museums.
There is, however, a long and almost tiresome debate over whether graffiti should be considered for wall art prints or not. And while graffiti is expressive and unique and skilful images are executed, many dislike its presence. Painters and illustrators use almost the same materials, but should graffiti be considered art?
Graffiti as Art
If you’re looking for the meaning of graffiti in a lawbook, you will most likely find that it falls under vandalism. It’s been a tough uphill battle for a lot of graffiti artists but those from the art world believe graffiti now falls under the contemporary art umbrella.
Nowadays, some of the most celebrated names in art come from the world of graffiti. These artists hail from the biggest cities around the world, like London, Los Angeles, New York, and Paris, to name a few. Graffiti emerged in New York alongside hip-hop culture in the late 1960s. It was considered a street subculture, and the artists were armed with aerosol spray cans and agility, spreading through the city to leave their mark.
Why is graffiti art?
While it isn’t commonly hung in museums or galleries, graffiti is considered art in the art world. The Wrangler believes “Graffiti is a form of expression.” Graffiti allows artists to express themselves, just like painting, illustrating, acting, and any other art form does. But is there a difference between graffiti and art?
Well, graffiti isn’t a traditionally accepted art form, it’s rather new and challenges the conventions of the time. Many different movements now accepted were considered scandalous and vandalism when they first emerged. Impressionism and Abstract art are some examples. Impressionism, for instance, while it got its name from the Claude Monet painting Impression, Sunrise (1872), a critic insulted the work and that of the other artists who painted in a similar fashion, calling the works unfinished but merely impressions.
As the artist, Raymond Salvatore Harmon says, “Art is an evolutionary act. The shape of art and its role in society is constantly changing. At no point is art static. There are no rules.”
Is graffiti art or vandalism?
“Graffiti is art but on a different canvas,” says Forest Hills Public School. In Melbourne, Australia, graffiti is allowed and celebrated as cultural gems rather than vandalism. If you live in a property in Melbourne, you’ll no doubt be exposed to it. A popular tourist attraction in Melbourne is Hosier Lane, within walking distance of Federation Square. It’s a narrow laneway that invites graffiti artists to leave their colourful marks on the walls. Unlike Melbourne, Brisbane has taken a different stance on graffiti art, labelling a large number of the work, like tagging and stencils, as vandalism. While Melbourne allows a certain number of graffiti to take place, Brisbane would rather allocate large walls to be painted by select artists.
While a small city like Brisbane may have a stricter approach to handling the influx of graffiti, bigger cities that spearhead culture don’t take the same approach. Paris, Los Angeles, London, and New York each have their own graffiti culture. From Paris, artists like Invader and Blek le Rat, emerged on the graffiti art scene like fire through a forest, completely lighting it up with vibrant and beautiful imagery that liven up the city.
For the art pair Mint and Serf, they saw New York City as “a canvas for their creative vision and work those transverses relationships between street art and civic spaces.”
What is the difference between street art and graffiti?
While graffiti is commonly known and associated with street art, there are slight differences between graffiti and street art. One defining factor of each is that graffiti is word-based (like tags) while street art is image-based. Street art is a piece of art painted on commission or painted in public spaces with permission. Both street art and graffiti are created and displayed outdoors, in both public and private places.
If street art is art created by permission, should graffiti be considered art?
Take it from British street artist Banksy, who says, “Graffiti is one of the few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don’t come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make someone smile while they’re having a piss.”
What should be ignored is, as Art and Journal believe, that “street art and graffiti murals have the potential to benefit the area from a financial perspective, which then benefits the community by creating jobs, which is particularly helpful in areas where there is a lack of employment.”
Who are the graffiti artists?
Slowly but surely, graffiti has come to be appreciated by the art world, with some high-level auction houses auctioning off the works of notorious graffiti artists. Graffiti has become a fixture of cities and attractions tourists from around the world flock to see the works of artists they admire. While people continue to visit museums and see the works of master artists like Vincent van Gogh, Edgar Degas, and Pablo Picasso, graffiti art is as contemporary as it gets, and what better place to engage with the work than on the city street you walk down?
These are the artists who, if asked, “should graffiti be considered at?” they answer in a resounding YES! Let’s take a look at some of these artists.
Banksy
Banksy is the most famous graffiti artist in the world today. While the artist’s real name isn’t Banksy, it is in fact the pseudonym. At the beginning of his graffiti career, he fiercely protected his identity because graffiti was illegal. While now you may find more and more graffiti artists making their mark on the gallery world, Banksy was one of the first and certainly the most sought after. His most famous graffiti works are Balloon Girl (2002), Kissing Coppers (2004), and Parachuting Rat (2010) while his gallery works are Love is in the Bin (2006) and the ground-breaking, jaw-dropping Show Me the Monet (2005). Banksy’s rat stencils were influenced by the French graffiti artist Blek le Rat.
Blek le Rat
The French artist Blek le Rat studied printmaking and painting at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. Since the early 80s, Blek le Rat adorned the streets of Paris with stencil rats. He believed that rats are “the only free animals in cities”, and while some may agree, others might just see the rats and graffiti as vermin. Le Rat specialises in stencils, but also uses spray paints and photos to create his politically controversial work. Some of the more famous pieces by Blek le Rat include Ballerina and Sheep. His works, being so critical of society, have inspired Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and fellow Frenchman Invader.
Invader
If you see mosaics of characters from the video that gave Space Invaders tacked to a building, you’re probably looking at a work by the French artist Invader. The artist also takes his name from the 1970s video game. His work appears in 53 cities across France and greater Europe, and his body of work is over 4,000 artworks large. You can even see a mosaic of his Space Invader at the top of the Eiffel Tower! The subject he creates is fitting for the material as the mosaics Invader creates are small tiles that make the overall image seem like a pixel. Banksy isn’t the only artist who maintains his privacy, with Invader choosing to mask his face despite his real name (Franck Slama) being made public.
Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey is not only a graffiti artist but a fashion designer and political artist. While at the Rhode Island School of Design, he gained attention for the stickers he pasted across the city showing the portrait of the professional wrestler Andre the Giant, titled Andre the Giant Has a Posse (1989). From this sticker campaign grew Obey Giant, which Fairey intended for the work to inspire curiosity within people and question their relationship with their surroundings. The word “obey” was taken from the John Carpenter film They Live (1988). The statement “The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker” is found on the Obey Giant website.
