Lectures: Lecture Four: Graffiti and Street Art

Graffiti and Street Art
(wall and street)

History

Caves at Lascaux, France

*Before the 1960s it was mainly used by art historians and archaeologists to refer to drawings or writing scratched on the walls of ancient buildings.
*Drawings and paintings on cave walls from the Paleolithic period (17,300 years old) is believed to be the oldest. Discovered in 1940 by four teenagers, it depicts scenes of everyday life, such as hunting.
*It was scratched with animal bones and had natural pigments to colour it.

Ancient Roman Graffiti
*The most notable graffiti in history is from pompeii (Italy)

*Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning two days in the year AD 79

*As human society modernises graffiti becomes more popular.

Paris May '68
*During the revolution students would past posters (screen printed images) on walls spreading the message.
*Fusion of visual communication and revolution.

People have always wrote on walls to communicate and spread messages.

Urban Graffiti

*Spray-can daubings since the 1970s have brought the word Graffiti dramatically into general use.

1970 New York
*Youth culture emerged out of the 70's disco era alongside Spray can graffiti.
*Spray can graffiti also evolved alongside hip hop culture
*It made the language on the street viable and announced a presence of those on the streets.
*It was one element of the four that made up hip hop life- Graffiti, Breakdancing, DJ'ing and Rapping.

John Naar, photographer, 1973.
*Documented emerging graffiti using photography.
*Does the quote from the lecture show he romanticises graffiti and the artists? Is it not just a celebration of new youth culture?

Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88) also known as SAMO- Same-OH

*Created SAMO as a comic character. It was a private joke during art college that grew. He put graffiti relating to it in Manhattan.
*From a privileged background but chose to slum it.
*Is he really a true graffiti artist or a fine artist?
*Famous for working with Warhol. Collaborated with Warhol towards the end of his life as he died of a heroin overdose 18 months after Warhol.

Keith Haring.

*In 1981 he sketched his first chalk drawings on thick black paper and painted plastic, metal and found objects.
*In 1984, Haring visited Australia and painted wall murals in Melbourne.
*Other commissions include Rio, Paris and Berlin.
*Opened PopShop, which sold t-shirts, posters, toys bearing his signature style. It became a celebrity hangout.

Jenny Holzer
*Times Square Show, 1980.
*Also printed t-shirts of her work.

*Are Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Jenny Holzer are all more examples of high art inserted onto the streets.
Fine art trying to colonise street art.

Graffiti in advertising and video games

TATS CRU

*A group employed by big corporations to add advertisements of their products into their murals.
*In 1997 they did a piece for coca-cola.
*Massively selling out! Are they trading a whole culture for money?

Bomb the World (2004) PS2
Jet Set Radio (2000-2003)
Sideways New York (2011) PS3
Grand Theft Auto- tagging

Corsa ad 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPWbnuNXqD0

Modern Graffiti

Invader

*French artist, born 1969
*Made mosaics of 'invaders' with tiles. First mosaic in mid 1990's Paris.
*Mosaic tile has permanency as it is weatherproof and more difficult to remove. First use of new materials.
*The 'invasion' spreads first across French cities and then 22 countries worldwide.

Parisian photographer JR, Favela Morro Da Provienda- Rio, 2008.

Blu (Italy) and Os Gemeos (Brazil) Lisbon, 2010

123 KLAN (France)
*Founded as a graffiti crew in 1989 by Scien and Klor.
*Gradually turned to illustration and design while still maintaining their graffiti practise and style.
*Designed and produced many logos and illustrations, shoes and fashion for the likes of Nike, Adidas, Lamborghini, Coco-Cola, Stussy, Sony, Nasdaq and more.

Paul Curtis (Moose)

*A British graffiti artists who cleans grime and dirt off surfaces to create his art. REVERSE GRAFFITI.

*Not strictly illegal as it is 'cleaning'

*Also used for advertising by companies such as Smirnoff, Dominoes, BBC, Microsoft etc.

The Global Picture

Sam 3 (Spain)

Murcia 2010

VHILS aka Alexandre Farto (Portugal)

London 2008

*Plaster chipped off the wall

Diva (Brooklyn)

*A female take on Graffiti?

Fafi (France)

Miss Van

Herakut

*Akut is from a small city in what used to be East Germany, and Hera is from Frankfurt. They both started painting because they liked everything graffiti involved (hiphop culture, being outdoors, painting on huge dimensioned 'canvases' for everyone to see).

Art of Resistance

*Israel, Palestine. Peace walls in Palestine- imposing limits on people. Walls are like cages (like the Berlin wall) brings out protests.

*Banksy, 2005

“The Israeli government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories. It stands three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700km – the distance from London to Zurich. The wall is illegal under international law and essentially turns Palestine into the world’s largest open prison. It also makes it the ultimate activity holiday destination for graffiti writers.”