From Graffiti to Galleries: The Evolution and Impact of Street Art
Throughout history, people have always been drawn to writing and making pictures on walls and public spaces. Although wall art dates back to ancient and prehistoric times with name tagging in Rome and Greece and cave paintings, in recent decades, graffiti and street art have taken the art world and urban landscape by storm, rendering the world an open canvas. Despite its controversial history, street art has evolved into a large part of popular culture and mainstream art.
“Kilroy Was Here”: Military Moral
Early tracings of modern street art began in the early 20th century and carried into the mid century with several doodle and graffiti trends. During World War II, American soldiers popularized the “Kilroy was here” doodle, which featured the phrase alongside a sketch of a large-nosed bald figure, leaving it behind on the walls and other places where they were stationed, encamped, or visited. Others began disseminating the emblem of pride across bathrooms and schools. Setting the motivations of contemporary graffiti, this early graffiti was a symbol of unity and connection amongst soldiers, allowing them an avenue to be seen and to boost morale.
WWII Memorial in Washington, D.C,
Graffiti by Displaced People: Revealing Whereabouts
Although mostly gone today, hobo-graffiti (a term used by displaced and nomadic people in the early 1900s and coined for this graffiti trend during that time period) was often used by displaced people as an internal communication to reveal their whereabouts. Dating to the 1910s, people traveling from place to place in search of jobs would leave markings with their name, or nickname, date, and usually a letter corresponding to a cardinal direction or an arrow pointing to the direction they were headed. Others in the community would use these markings to keep track of their friends and to try to catch up with them.
Mexican Muralism: Messages for the Illiterate
Agrarian Leader Zapata (replicated detail of larger mural), Diego Rivera, 1931. Courtesy of MOMA.
In the 1920s in response to the Mexican Revolution, the Mexican government commissioned the creation of public murals around the country, aimed at educating the illiterate on the country’s history and hope for the future. José Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera, the three main leaders of this movement, known as “Los tres grandes,” demonstrated the power of the image in universal communication. They soon took their work onto the walls of America, contributing greatly to the development of street art and murals within the U.S.
The Graffiti Movement: Demonstrating Defiance against Government Infrastructure and Fostering Identity and Self-Expression
The 60s and 70s marked the birth of the modern graffiti movement, originating in New York and Philadelphia. At the time, New York’s status on the edge of bankruptcy provided a prime creative landscape of vacant and boarded up spaces. With close ties to hip hop culture, graffiti was born out of transgressive means to demonstrate defiance against government infrastructure. Often considered an illegal act of vandalism in many cities and with associations to gang culture, the movement served as a way for communities and individuals to express themselves and respond to the socio-economic environment.
Although deriving from Greek and Italian, the term “graffiti” means “to write” or “a scratch” and encompasses any wall inscription, this modern wave of “graffiti” more so represents a specific aesthetic of vivid colors, cartoonish figures, and stylized writing often created with spray paint. The first modern form of graffiti, Tagging, involves the signature of the graffiti artist(s) normally through a logo or pseudonym, allowing artists to assume a new identity. Known by their tag names, Julio 204, Cornbread, and Taki 183 are recognized as the pioneers of Tagging, initiating one of the most iconic and prevalent forms of graffiti during their teenage years. Bored during the summer and after being inspired by seeing someone named Julio write their name and street number (Julio 204), Taki (also known as Demetrius) along with his two friends started writing their own pseudonyms and street numbers. Enjoying getting away with writing his name everywhere, he didn’t stop, writing his tag everywhere he could. The spread of his tag eventually reached a news reporter who after interviewing Taki published a New York Times article, “TAKI 183 Spawns Pen Pals,” which immediately contributed to his fame and legendary status in the development of graffiti. Meanwhile, Cornbread (also known as Darryl McCray) wrote his first tag, “Cornbread Lives,” on an elephant to let people know of his presence after an article wrongly cited his death. He then started Tagging regularly to get the attention of a girl and kept going, seeking the media’s attention anyway he could, gaining attention by Tagging a cop car and the Jackson 5 Jet.
Rather than serving a public or artistic purpose, modern graffiti began as a communication code amongst other artists, groups, and followers. Graffiti artists began leaving their tags anywhere they could with goals to gain credibility by spreading their identity on as many locations as possible. Status amongst graffiti artists is not only solidified by the amount of tags but also the location of the tags. The riskier or more inaccessible the location such as trains, subway cars, or railway tunnels, the greater the reputation and prestige for the artist; the more complicated and time-consuming the pieces would also increase risk of being caught by authority. Subway cars also meant the artist’s name would travel and reach more people, increasing their fame, as well as promoting the beauty of art in motion.
As tagging became more popular and graffiti spread internationally,it became a significant cultural phenomenon. New styles and techniques emerged, utilizing diverse tools and methods to create more colorful and intricate works. This evolution marked the transition towards the Street Art movement, which incorporated more elaborate imagery and messages.
Graffiti even became an important aspect of Berlin politics when people began covering the West side of the Berlin Wall in political images. This served as a means of expression and rebellion against the government. Credited to have been started by Thierry Noir began painting the wall almost every day. As others joined him, the use of graffiti symbolically conveyed the stark contrast between the two sides of the wall.
The West side’s extravagantly and brightly covered walls juxtaposed the East side’s blank, oppressive facade. After the wall’s destruction, a gallery of murals was installed on the remaining East side. As a result, today, Berlin stands as a major hub for street art.
Street Art: Delivering Socio-political Messages, Providing Entertainment, and Breaking Down Barriers to Museums and Galleries
Although murals had been around since the early 1900s, as artists began to broaden the concept of graffiti by creating more pictorial works and moving away from solely coded communication, the “post graffiti” street art movement emerged. Similar to graffiti, street art covers public and urban areas like walls, bridges, or overpasses and often carries a socio-political message. Unlike graffiti, it is made with the intention of being seen and accessible to everyone as well as often to be aesthetically pleasing. Further, as opposed to graffiti, street art is not always done as covertly and is often more prepared and planned out more beforehand in a studio, though graffiti can also be pre-planned. Also, street art is frequently commissioned or permitted such as for murals, which can also be done inside and are meant to positively transform the space. Street art also redefined the definition of this medium within the world of mainstream art.
Paving the shift into street art’s place in fine art, central artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring went from backgrounds in graffiti into huge names in exhibits and galleries. Basquiat, under the tag name SAMO with partner Al Diaz, transferred his roots in graffiti to paintings, characterized by the same sketch like doodles and figures, bold colors, and societal messages of his street art. His first exhibition featured a mural on a wall and demonstrated the upcoming presence of graffiti and street art influence within fine art. Along with beginning to work alongside Andy Warhol, his neo-expressionist work and iconic motifs such as three-pointed crowns and dinosaurs continued to exhibit amongst other leading artists, often serving as statements about race and police brutality.
Similarly, Haring, another prominent figure in the movement towards street art and friend of Basquait, began his career in fine art, exhibiting his first solo show at age 19. However, after moving to New York, he helped mold the definition of street art by bringing his fine art skills into the city. He created his celebrated cartoonish outlined, bold figures, radiant babies, and graphic designs all over the city’s walls and subways just like graffiti artists did, the act of creating like performance art. After making his name in the streets, he would paint the walls of galleries and also featured in many notable exhibitions and museums. As with many street artists, his murals and work served as activism, addressing drug addiction, prejudice, and the AIDS crisis.
Keith Haring working in the subway, 1983. Photo by Chantal Regnault.
Street Art Today
One of the most modern and famous living street-artists is English-based Banksy, responsible for the infamous shredding painting at a Sotheby’s auction replicated after a stenciled street art. Influenced by Blek le Rat, the anonymous artist began stencils and spray painting in the 90s and has only grown larger, now creating street art around the world. Also known for his humor, he continues the tradition to use street art for social and political activism, creating murals in Ukraine in 2022 as well as subjects on sexuality and the refugee crisis. Many of his pieces feature humans and are crafted with the space in mind and to interact with the environment, incorporating objects around the street art into his work such as stairs, hydrants, and other ordinary objects. Along with the likes of Basquait and Haring, his work has sold for millions, often being removed from the original public spaces.
While less common, other forms of street art have grown to include stickers; sculptures; posters; video installations; ceramic tiles (like French artist Invader); and yarn-bombing where artists cover objects such as street lamps, monuments, trees with crochet or knitted colorful patterns. Cities worldwide also host street art festivals and invite the public to paint murals together.
Despite the controversy, graffiti undoubtedly changed the art scene, establishing a new way to consider and display art and started one of the largest pop culture movements that has even reinvented itself to the ranks of fine art. Now, it is almost impossible to go outside without seeing street art in any of its many forms, demonstrating its place in contemporary culture and status to stay and evolve for decades to come.
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