Fourdays Old Graffiti

Depending on your frame of reference, unsolicited graffiti is a crime. It is in my opinion, in the context of intentional defacement to someone else’s property. There’s no two ways about it. Over the past few days I’ve been attempting to offer a perspective you might not be familiar with and at the same time give you a re-presentation of an academic take on the issue of graffiti as an art form and its historical roots. I’m understanding the academic speak though I’ll be sitting on the other side of the table to it in my community shortly.

“Goldman claims that art takes us to other worlds in a manner that is quite fulfilling sensually and aesthetically. This removal from the real world is enhanced by the mood of the gallery or the dark setting of the opera house. Most of the time when we encounter art and are transported by it to other worlds, we are in a location in which we expect this to happen.

However, this is not the case with graffiti art. It appears suddenly and in unexpected places. Thus, when we apprehend it, we are transported to these other worlds at a time and in a place that we are not accustomed to doing so. We are not used to art approaching us outside of conventional settings such as a museum. Instead of the audience going to view the art form, spraycan art reaches out to the viewer; sometimes in a startling manner. One can only imagine how shocking and surprising it might have been to see a colorful train moving swiftly through the dingy stations and drab boroughs of New York City.

Spray can art is an art form that is completely open to the public because it is not hemmed in by the confines or “laws” of the gallery system or the museum. The institutional theory, in brief, mandates that art is that is displayed by the art world to be accepted as art as determined by the members of the art world. Since graffiti art is not permanently established in any galleries or museums, often it is argued that it is not art, but even this criticism falls short because there are instances where the art world has recognised graffiti art as art.

In the 1970’s, galleries in New York and Europe brought graffiti to the attention of the art world. Lee Quinones, a prominent writer in New York and one of the few graffitists to bomb, i.e. paint, a whole train from top to bottom and end to end, was invited to exhibit his work on canvas in Claudio Bruni’s Galleria Madusa in Rome. Likewise, Yaki Kornblit of Denmark, an art dealer, helped to launch the careers of several graffitists during the years of 1984 and 1985 at Museum Boyanano von Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Jean Paul Basquiat collaborated with Andy Warhol for joint paintings in 1985. And recently, in 1996, Barry McGee, also known by his tag, “Twist”, was commissioned to do a graffiti art mural for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. As graffiti was introduced to the art world, two trends happened. One, the art world of collectors, dealers, curators, artists, and the like helped graffitists evolve in style, presumably by sharing their artistic knowledge with the newcomers. Two, the exposure helped to expand graffiti to all parts of the world.

Furthermore, cities such as LA and Chicago have recognized the talent of graffitists by providing a means for them to do legal graffiti art which has helped to foster the art form and lessened the amount of graffiti art that appears in the city as vandalism. Likewise, organisations of graffiti artists such as the Phun Factory or the United Graffiti Artists in New York solicit places to do legal graffiti such as abandoned buildings, businesses, or community walls in parks. What this shows is that some graffiti, particularly in the form of spray can art, is recognised as art by the art world.

This recognition of graffiti art by the art world is important for two reasons. One because of the social, political, and economic influence of the art world, its recognition of graffiti art as art helps to increase the awareness and overall understanding of the art form. Two, this recognition prevents the sweeping generalisation that all graffiti is vandalism and therefore something that always should be eradicated. In actuality, spray can art does not necessarily have to be illegal or on a wall to be considered as graffiti art, although, philosophically, this might be the purest essence of the art form. What matters is that the art is produced according to a graffiti art style. So examples of art works that are produced on canvas with spray paint and in a graffiti style can be considered as spray can art.

The exhortation that graffiti should be on a visible private or public space in order to be in its optimal context is not so much to glorify any illegalities but rather, to highlight the idea that graffiti is meant to be completely accessible to the public for immediate appreciation. Also, the increasing acceptance of graffiti art is not due so much to its adoption of traditional techniques. On the contrary, books, magazines, movies, and the artists themselves have helped people to understand how and where graffiti harmonises with and goes a step beyond traditional methods.

For example, wildstyle changes with each artist’s interpretation of the alphabet, but it also relies on the use of primary colors, fading, foreground and background, and the like to create these letters. Thus, it is important and valuable to characterise some forms of graffiti as art because this challenges people, who are conditioned to accept art works as art only if they are created in a traditional manner and appear in institutional setting, to appreciate art works that originate and develop outside of these constraints.

In doing so, people come to realise graffiti is not an art form that is done just for the sake of rebellious destruction. Quite the opposite, it is an innovative and truly original art form that is meant to bring an aesthetic pleasure to the audience like any other recognised art form. To summarise, some forms of graffiti become art according to four criteria.

First, graffiti art is separated from everyday graffiti markings by the artist’s intention to produce a work of art. Second, graffiti art has an established history of development in style and technique. Third, graffiti art has been recognised by the art world. A fourth criterion is that the public response to graffiti art indicates that it is art. Whether or not all of the public agrees that graffiti art is good, bad, or extremely valuable is a different discussion about evaluation and not whether or not graffiti art is art. The evaluative concerns actually play more into where, when, and how graffiti art should be displayed.

The above criteria are defensible in so much as they have been used to legitimise other artistic forms. However, what appears to be the most significant answer to describing how and why graffiti art is art is the notion of understanding where the artist and the audience synchronise in agreement about a particular work being an example of art. It is a matter of comprehending what makes a creation art for the artist and what makes this same creation art for the audience. When and according to what criteria that these two viewpoints coincide is what thoroughly determines graffiti art as art.

Like other art forms, graffiti art is definitively art when both the artist and the audience agree on the works ability to provide maximal aesthetic satisfaction. While it is almost impossible to formulate a theory of necessary conditions or rules specifying when graffiti art is art, I think it is sufficient to draw on already established aesthetic theories and criteria to point out that some forms of graffiti do qualify as art.

Whether you or me agree with the academic perspective matters very little I suspect, at the end of the day we all have our opinions on the subject and we are only persuaded to a differing one by strong reason or a wish for peace and quiet again. Tomorrow I’ll look specifically at the New Zealand scene and see how and what one community, Flaxmere in Hastings has done to combat tagging in their surrounds.

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* This is 4 of a 6 part blog. The NEXT blog is entitled ‘Fivedays Old Graffiti’