Graffiti, which can be classified simply as the act of making markings on a wall can be dated back to the prehistoric era with the first cave paintings being found in the Lascaux caves of France.[1] What is known as modern graffiti is widely considered to have begun in the late 1960s with twelve-year-old, African American, Darryl “Cornbread” Mccray in Philadelphia and sixteen-year-old Taki 183 on the streets of New York City. Graffiti in its purest artistic form came from communities of mainly young, impoverished, African Americans, who sought a creative outlet. Graffiti artists were known for the writing of their names in spray paint–a practice colloquially known as “tagging”– across big cities such as Philadelphia, New York, and Los Angeles as well, allowing for major exposure. With graffiti’s popularity, however, also came the question of how to discern art from vandalism, one that quickly caused major issues within these big cities. One of the worst examples was in the 1980s, when the city of New York began to view graffiti as a concern, seeing it as unwanted vandalism and consequently a sign of ineffective authority within the city.[2] Because of this, graffiti was given a bad name and consequently many resources were poured into extinguishing it as an artform. This in turn reflected poorly on Black America, becoming yet another way to penalize and stereotype African Americans as criminals. However, serious attempts from the Metropolitan Transit authority in 1983 like the painting of 25% of subway cars with graffiti resistant paint and the placement of double walled barbed wire lined fences around the resting area for the trains still failed to erase it from American culture.[3]
Across the country in Los Angeles, CA, graffiti was becoming very popular as well during the 1990s and 80s. In conjunction with an influx of muralism in the city during this time, many artists began to take to graffiti as a new way of expressing artistic creativity and liberation. Artworks like the
Great Wall of Los Angeles, a muralism project during the 1980s lead by Judith Baca gained Los Angeles notoriety for being one of the main destinations for these large scale public pieces (fig. 1). However, when Los Angeles was sued by the outdoor advertising industry in the late 1990s for unconstitutionally enabling muralism as a form of projected speech, a once vibrant city full of public art became subdued. In response, the city enacted a ban on signage, which included muralism in 2002, and with it rose the popularity of graffiti. One group in particular, known as the Metro Transit assassins, a group of teenagers from Los Angeles, really revived graffiti in the city.[4] In 2008, the group painted the words “MTA” across the large concrete walls lining the Los Angeles River, in a protest against the Metro Transit Authority who cut off a popular bus service that was heavily used in impoverished minority neighborhoods (fig. 2). This graffiti style mural was one of the largest tags ever created and resulted in an estimated $3.7 million worth of damage.
Another large group of graffiti artists in Los Angeles was the
Seventh Letter Crew (SLC) who combined the work of two graffiti collectives, Mad Society Kings and Art Work Rebels/Angels Will Rill Rise.[5] This group worked towards pushing graffiti away from the notion of illegality and vandalism and instead towards a reputation of true artistic genius and estime. Their team had a large emphasis on making graffiti something positive especially for children, providing opportunities for artists to have legally sanctioned canvases throughout the city. In 2007 a member of the crew worked with community clean up organization,
Friends of the LA River and international graffiti network,
International Meeting of Styles, to transform blank walls lining the LA river into a “visual narrative courtesy of over 100 graffiti artists.” At the time graffiti was still heavily viewed by the Los Angeles community as a public eyesore and even a safety hazard.
Today, graffiti is still often seen as something that negatively affects major cities across America, carrying racially biased connotations with it as well. Groups like SLC continue to do amazing work for the graffiti community to show the greater public the artistic gravity it holds as an artform.[6] Further graffiti writers like the well known, Stefano Bloch, who focus on creating historically relevant and educational articles on graffiti culture push this initiative even further. Graffiti continues to be an art that is popular amongst minority communities who have used muralism in all forms to call attention to African American culture and excellence in particular, as was seen throughout the late 20th century with the Black Arts Movement, the Black Feminism Movement and the Black Muralism movement.
Notes
1. “Street and Graffiti Art,” The Art Story, accessed May 6, 2021. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/street-art/#nav
2. The Art Story, “Street and Graffiti Art”.
3. "20th Century Graffiti - the Rise of Graffiti Art,” Steve Grey, accessed April 19th, 2021, https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/20th-century-the-rise-of-graffiti.
4. Montana Colors, "History of Graffiti: Street Art in Los Angeles: 2000-2010,” accessed May 5, 2021, https://www.sprayplanet.com/blogs/news/history-of-graffiti-street-art-in-los-angeles-2000-2010
5. Colors, “History of Graffiti”.
6. Stefano Bloch, “The Illegal Face of Wall Space: Graffiti-Murals on the Sunset Boulevard Retaining Walls,” accessed May 14, http://web.a.ebscohost.com.libproxy2.usc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=24ed293f-4c16-4188-be9e-0c4c5bf76b63%40sessionmgr4006.
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