Graffiti and Street Art - Lecture Notes

Notes from the Graffiti and Street Art Lecture - 19/10/11

Graffiti & Street Art

- graffiti - term comes from Italian and literally means 'scratched'

Origins of graffiti:

Caves at Lascaux, France

- drawings and paintings on cave walls from the Paleolithic period (17, 300 years old)
- discovered in 1940 by four teenagers
- depicting scenes of everyday life, hunting etc.
- scratched with animal bones, natural pigments

Ancient Roman graffiti

- Pompeii

- caricature of a politician

Paris - May 1968

- civil unrest inspiring cultural/ creative revolution

"we are the power"

Urban Graffiti:

New York - 1970's

- spray can graffitti
- evolves alongside hip hop culture - groups rivalling against each other
- making the language of the streets visible
- announcing a presence, and saying ‘we will not be ignored’

John Naar

- photographer - 1973

- sympathetic towards graffiti as an art form

Jean -Michel Basquiat (1960-88)
SAMO –Same-OH
- ironic use of the copyright symbol

- neo-expressionist painting

- collaborated with Warhol

Keith Harring

- radient baby

- sketched first chalk drawings n 1981

- commissioned to paint murals worldwide

- social activist

- subway art

Street Art:

Invader

- born in 1969

- French artist

- first mosaic in mid 1990's, Paris

- spread across France then 22 countries worldwide

- conceptual work - importance of location

Banksy

- Kate Moss

- street art starts to move from the streets to galleries

Shepard Fairey

- 2008 - Obama

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

- idea of city being taken over by graffiti is represented in media and advertising

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 practice and style. In doing so they have designed and produced, logos and illustrations, shoes, and fashion for the likes of Nike, Adidas, Lamborghini, Coca Cola, Stussy, Sony, Nasdaq and more.