Graffiti or ART?
There's a certain irony to the fact that graffiti, while ever-warmly embraced by the art-world establishment as a legitimate form at exhibits-such as the Brooklyn Museum's new show, Graffiti -is simultaneously being demonized by the legal establishment. Here in New York City (even greater irony) the modern art movement associated with hip-hop took hold and blossomed from the early 1970s onwards, but last year in the city, arrests of graffiti "crimes" were reportedly up about 90 percent. City politicians, namely councilmember Peter Vallone, Jr., are continually pushing to have arrested graffiti "vandals" receive the maximum penalty on felony charges.
Graffiti's political detractors and its most visible promoters-like the curators of shows such as Graffiti-both differentiate between commissioned or approved graffiti pieces (usually on canvas) and those that are done (illegally) on public or private property. Most politicians lump all styles/types of graffiti from gang-tags to murals/pieces done illegally as one and the same. Meanwhile, in its description of Graffiti, which features 20 large-scale works from such artists as Tracy 168, NOC 167, Lady Pink, Daze and Crash, the organizers state that the show "explores how a genre that began as a form of subversive public communication has become legitimate-by moving away from the street and into private collections and galleries." As if to further reinforce this cultural legitimacy, the curators present the artists by their legal names with their "tags" semi-hidden in brackets: John Matos ("Crash"). From the early '80s, when New York galleries first embraced graffiti, the question arose: Was graffiti still graffiti if it was done on canvas, and not on a wall or subway car? Longtime Bronx artist Crash, who has his 1985 spray paint and silkscreen on canvas "A-U-T-O-matic" and two other pieces on display at the Brooklyn Museum, weighed-in on this age old debate. "Graf belongs on the side of a bus or train. As soon as it is taken out of that context it totally changes. It is technically not graffiti anymore," said the artist, who's been making art since age 13.
So, if not graffiti, then what's it called? "It is graf-related," he replied, explaining that there's a very fine line between the legit and illegal art. He added, "You can't have one without the other!"