Came from Italian word. Graffiato - to scratch.
http://www.thisisyellowism.com -
The people responsible for Graffiti on Rothko piece.
Caves at Lascaux, France.
-Drawings 17,300 Years old, scratched with bones
and natural pigment.
Roman Graffiti - vandalism.
Graffiti with a political nature - the main
focus.
Kilroy/ Chad - WWII ' "Wot no" - making
a joking about a social/ political situation - rationing.
It was more about where the piece was placed that
the drawing itself.
Paris May '68 - We are the power
- Civil unrest inspiring cultural/ creative
material.
-CONTEMP GRAFFITI-
Photographers still hold respect for anonymity of
street artists.
1970's New York Scene
Choice of media is spray paint.
Tube cars create a spreadable message - carry the
art with them.
-evolved alongside Hip Hop culture
-making the language of the streets visible
- disco scene was the antithesis and superficial
side of New York. Interesting 2 sided culture.
-Photography - Jon Naar (from 1973)
-Messages would be sent from the deprived areas
to the affluent areas to show that they are there and will not be ignored.
- Becoming a Graffitii photography - John Naar -
A distinction between work in the 1970's and commissioned work. " you will
see that the majority of these writers came from the most run down and
neglected sections of new York"
- Jean - Michel Basquiat (1960 -
1968) - Neo - expressionist painting - essentially Graffiti as painting.
-SAMO (Same Old Shit) Life is Confusing at This
point
- Poetry. Asking questions but not giving an
answer. Uses "Samio" as pseudonym.
- SAMO is dead (1979)
Warhol and Basquiat - General Electric with
Weighter - 1984
One of Americas largest corporations
- Collaborated towards the end of his life,
Basquiat died of a heroin overdose 18 months after Warhol.
Keith Haring
- Radiant Baby - 1990
- Social activist
- Sketches onto existing advertising - positions
them around the subway system.
- First drawing in 1981
-1984 Haring visited Australia and painted wall
in Melbourne.
- His work often has a message of sexuality -
working in a time when AIDS and HIV were big. As a gay artist, he makes a
comment of how these have affected the art community.
- Criticised for commercialism - Making money out
of something that had a social message. - If I wanted to I could make more
paintings and sell them for a higher price" - "breaking barriers
between high and low art".
John Feckner
Broken Promises - 1980
Genre of Word Art, when artists used words in a
street setting to make a social/ political context
Jenny Holzer
Times Square Show - 1980 - Used an LCD digital
display to produce similar effects to Feckner's pieces.
-Subliminal messages that you would read and not
consider as art instantaneously.
- Calls her pieces "Truisms"
Video Game Culture
- Graffiti on the Berlin Wall - Comment on the
lack of brands in East Germany.
-Commenting on the desire for goods and be part
of the commercial world.
- Symbolism on the wall coming down: giving those
goods and commerciality.
Tats Cru
- -1997 work for Coca - Cola
- No message here, no act of rebellion or
claiming of territory. Literally just image being conveyed.
Jet Set Radio (200 - 2003) - Play as a
graffiti artist.
Space Invader
French Artist - born 1969
First mosaic in mid 1990s's Paris.
-Mosaic tile which has the permanency as its
weather-proof and more difficult to remove than paper/ paint.
- Tiles are pixel like.
- The "invasion" spreads first across
French cities and then 22 countries worldwide.
- Conceptual element: points on a map in
Montpellier, encourages you to take a journey, almost like a game. Form of a
real game play, sends you round the city to collect his work, like
Pacman.
-RE – EMERGENCE OF STREET
ART-
- Reciprocal arrangement with Graffiti and the
art world.
Banksy, Kate Moss - Reference to
Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe
Parisian Photography - JR - Favela Morro Da Provienda - Rio
(2008)
- Works with members of the community in huge
photos of the women who live there and pasting them onto the sides of the
buildings of the favela.
-Used to convey protection and the human cost to
live there
Blu and Os Gemeos - Lisbon - 2010 - Sucking
the globe dry through a straw: symbolising man taking the Earth's resources.
- copied to Vauxhall Corse ad in 2011
123 Klan (France)
Founded as a graffiti crew in 1989 by Scien
and Klor, have gradually turned their hands to illustration and design while
still maintaining their graffiti style.
- Commissioned by Stussy to produce an artist
series set on a special edition t shirt
Paul Curtis - Reverse Graffiti.
- Uses stencils to blast off the dirt on the
walls with a water jet.
- Recognised style in advertising by Smirnoff.
-GRAFFITI AS A GLOBAL
PICTURE-
Free Art Friday
- A movement in which artists place free
art out in people for people to enjoy or take home.
- Unlike established street art which stays where
it is, the work is portable and removable.
- Resistance to capitalism and commercialism of
street art
-LIMITED MATERIALS IN
STREET ART-
Sam 3
- uses only black paint to produce
silhouettes on a billboard - making a response to an environment and adapting
it - city becomes backdrop to "puppet show" where a narrative can be
played out.
VHILS aka Alexandre Farto - London 2008.
Plaster is knocked away so white areas are used
to create a sculptural relief.
-GENDER AND GRAFFITI-
- A way of escaping gender stereotypes -
feminisation of letters
- Diva (Brooklyn)
- Fafi (France_ - cartoony sexuality - brings
female figure onto the street- Japanese manga style.
- Miss Van - mythology
- Herakut - mythology - characteristics of female
Graffitii
- Swoon - Fine Art background but based on
fables/ myths.
-ART OF RESISTANCE-
Banksy (2005) ' " the Israeli
government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories.
It stands there three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually
run for over 700km - the distance from London to Zurich. .........
- Girl with balloons - rising above and escaping
the wall.
- Graffitti and added dialogue - "sister you
need more" - balloons.
- Wall has been used for public expression /
public concern.
FURTHER READING
- 80 Blocks from Tiffany’s (1979)
- Style Wars
SCAN IN HAND OUT