should graffiti be considered art or vandalism essay

Vandalism or art? Graffiti straddles both worlds

By Jean Reichenbach | March 1991 issue

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K ilroy was here ... and there ... and everywhere. Anyone old enough to have experienced the American landscape between 1942 and 1956 remembers that Kilroy left his name on rocks, bridges, buildings and—during World War II and the Korean War—even on walls behind enemy lines.

Kilroy may be history but today, in America’s inner cities, there are still graffiti scrawls “behind enemy lines.” Some gang graffiti serves as a billboard announcing to streetwise cognoscenti that “I sell drugs here” or “I shoot people who don’t belong here” or a warning that “You are passing into enemy territory.”

Other gang-related scrawls are simply expressions of a basic adolescent urge to establish groups and set goals. A list of names or nicknames (called “tags” in graffiti culture), for example, may simply mean “We hang out together,” says a UW expert in graffiti.

Whether it’s Kilroy’s name or a gang member’s “tag,” the writers are exercising one of graffiti’s most important functions: providing people with little access to other means of public expression the opportunity to be heard, explains Rick Olguin. An American ethnic studies professor, Olguin became interested in the subject as a graduate student at Stanford University and is now writing a book about graffiti.

A 1976 photo shows both Anglo and Hispanic anti-war graffiti.

Actually, G.I.s and gang members are relative latecomers to this ancient medium of communication, protest and occasionally genuine art. The catacombs under the city of Rome, for example, bear names and symbols left by persecuted first century Christians.

Olguin describes visiting a ruin in Greece where one of the now-scattered building blocks bears a mark scratched into it by a stonemason 3,000 years ago. “At that moment something really clicked about this universal urge to write graffiti, or for people to write their initials in fresh cement or carve their name in a tree or a  desk,” he recalls. “Fundamentally, graffiti is almost the universal way in which people express a fairly universal drive to be remembered.” And because it represents a universal human desire, Olguin deplores society’s tendency to “trivialize ” modern graffiti by “collapsing all of it into gang behavior.”

Olguin’s views notwithstanding, Sue Honaker, Seattle’s anti-graffiti coordinator, doesn’t hesitate to label as “graffiti vandals” the people who decorate walls that don’t belong to them.

Honaker can’t estimate how much graffiti removal costs the city of Seattle each year. But, she points out, the Seattle Public Library one year spent half its annual maintenance staff hours removing graffiti and Metro spent “well over $500,000” in one year cleaning graffiti from buses.

New York City spends $52 million annually in the battle against graffiti on its more than 6,000 subway cars, according to U.S. News and World Report . Last year, Time reported that annual U.S. costs run “into the billions.” Jay Beswick, founder of the National Graffiti Information Network, said in the same report that Los Angeles spends $28 million annually dealing with graffiti and Southern California cities together incur costs of $100 million.

“ It's not a question of art. It could be the Mona Lisa, but if it's on the side of your house, your rights are violated. ”

Sue Honaker, Seattle's anti-graffiti coordinator

“Basically, graffiti is any scrawl, writing, picture or marking on someone else’s property without their consent,” says Honaker, a 1984 UW alumna. “I don’t think there’s a person alive who has a problem with art,” she adds. “It’s not a question of art. It could be the Mona Lisa, but if it’s on the side of your house, your rights are violated.”

Olguin agrees that graffiti that encourages criminal behavior should be obliterated. But, he adds, society often fails to recognize that graffiti can also be art and a serious expression of cultural roots. “Not quite as complex as Navajo blanket weaving, but it has that kind of characteristic.”

Among Puerto Rican youth in New York City, for example, a master graffiti painter will draw out the mural and a group of apprentices, many of whom aspire to master status themselves, complete the project under his direction, says Olguin. “They’re seriously involved in learning a cultural aesthetic form of representation. It’s not just pure vandalism. … It’s art school just like Rubens.”

Olguin also ties graffiti to what he calls the “aesthetic of no empty space ” found in many cultures around the world. The walls of whole villages in remote parts of West Africa are painted in mural fashion, he says, and traces of these traditional motifs can be identified in African-American graffiti. “If these (African village) people occupied these offices,” he notes with a gesture toward the pristine perimeter of his Padelford office, “none of these walls would be white.”

Graffiti style makes its way into the mainstream in the lettering of this Chicano preschool sign.

The same aesthetic of filling empty space is also characteristic of pre-Columbian cultures. Walls in the ancient city of Teotehuacan, which 1,200 years ago had a population of 100,000, were entirely covered in floral murals, Olguin observes. Pre-Columbian designs, such as the feathered serpent or the step-pyramid shape, can be found today in graffiti in Mexican-American sections of cities such as Los Angeles and Albuquerque.

Olguin also ties the psychological mechanisms behind graffiti to the practice of ritual scarification (including the up-to-date “ritual scar” of pierced earlobes). He also likens it to tattoos (which he calls “personal permanent graffiti”), and even the current craze for message-bearing T-shirts, which are “thoroughly painless and another place you see all kinds of graffiti.” All of those practices, he says, reflect a deep human need to control our surrounding space.

Honaker, whose view is less academic, divides the graffiti she sees into several categories, including bubble gum (“John Loves Mary”), religious (“Jesus Saves” or “Allah Saves”), political, cartoon, gang and satanic which, she adds, is sometimes accompanied by evidence of animal mutilations such as a beheaded cat.

Each type of graffiti tends to have its own symbols. Satanist and white supremacist graffiti may be accompanied by the names of heavy metal rock ·bands such as Black Sabbath, Guns and Roses, Metallica and URU, Olguin notes. The pentagram, a five pointed star within a circle, is also a satanist symbol.

Disembodied heads are another common graffiti motif, Olguin notes, of which Kilroy, with his head and hands showing above a horizontal line, is a prime example. Chicano youth currently favor a front-view face with a goatee and perhaps a mustache, sunglasses and a fedora. Sculptors have been making disembodied heads for centuries whenever they create busts, Olguin points out. “It’s sort of canonical.”

One mysterious symbol that has cropped up in Seattle recently is a “weird squiggle,” in Olguin’s words, that at first glance suggests an Asian language. But experts at the Jackson School of International Studies have not been able to identify it. Sometimes, upon close inspection, the images resemble Roman letters elaborated almost to the point of being illegible, much like some of the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, notes Olguin, who remains mystified about what the messages signify or who is writing them.

A 1990 mural in Albuquerque, New Mexico, painted to discourage drug use, employs street graffiti styles.

Contemporary writers of political graffiti have adopted 19th century anarchist symbols such as a black flag or the letter A inside of a circle, Olguin notes, although he doubts they understand classic anarchist philosophy. “To them, anarchy means ‘There are no rules,’ which is different from ‘There is no government,’ which is what anarchy is about.”

As is often the case in popular culture, California can be a trendsetter in graffiti. Corporate symbols, such as the familiar bell of the telephone company, the logo of the Los Angeles Raiders, or oil company logos are popular territorial markers for Los Angeles gangs, says Honaker. “El Norte” and “El Sur” are gang designations seen throughout Northern and Southern California respectively. Such designations, including the gang names Bloods and Crips, tend to make their way north. One of Olguin’s friends has seen the word “Surrenos” in a neighborhood in West Seattle, the mark of a group of kids from a neighborhood in southern Orange County.

In contrast to some cities, Honaker notes, only about two percent of Seattle’s graffiti is the work of true gang members. Olguin agrees that the percentage is small. Most gang-type work is “copy cat,” in Honaker’s words, but she declines to make public the clues that allow her to tell the difference.

If gang graffiti is an expression of “I belong,” hate graffiti is a statement of separation, Olguin says. “You get a real statement of identity, not through connection to a space but through definition of an out­group: ‘I am not gay’ … ‘I am not black’ … ‘I am not woman.”‘

The campus has seen a recent “flurry of really ugly racist stuff,” says Anne Guthrie, administrative manager in the UW’s facility management office. Guthrie ties the wave to a resurgence of racism both here and on American campuses in general. Official policy calls for the prompt removal of all graffiti, says Guthrie, but special efforts are made to remove racist and sexist scrawls within 24 hours.

A mid-1970s mural in San Diego that promotes the United Farmworkers has not been defaced by graffiti in more than 10 years.

Political graffiti is also popular on campus, and is usually aimed at political and military hot spots from El Salvador to the Middle East. Favorite locations seem to be the west wall of campus facing 15th Avenue N.E., the back wall of Kincaid Hall near the Burke Gillman Trail and “Red Square” near the Odegaard Undergraduate Library, Guthrie says. The stairwells from the Central Plaza Garage are another popular target.

To Guthrie’s knowledge, no tally is kept of how much money and staff time is spent removing campus graffiti. But, she points out, in an era of limited budgets, every dollar or hour devoted to graffiti removal is that much less available for other, badly needed, purposes.

Removal techniques and costs vary according to the surface and the kind of paint used. Concrete can be painted over, cleaned with high pressure water hoses or sprayed over with what Honaker calls a “slurry” that, in effect, applies a thin layer of new concrete.

Brick and marble surfaces are especially expensive to clean, Honaker notes, and often require the use of chemicals which pose an environmental threat when they make their way through storm drains into rivers or other bodies of water.

Like Olguin, Honaker spends considerable time on the street getting to know the youth who engage in the graffiti. She tries to “stay away from the punitive” and works hard to maintain good relationships with known graffiti vandals who keep her up to date on “what’s new on the street,” she says.

Her experience leads her to believe that graffiti vandalism is an essentially anonymous behavior which permits individuals to, in her words, “rile without risk.” Youngsters who have failed to attract approval through academic, social or athletic achievement can, through graffiti, command a moment in the sun, she notes. Take, for example, the New York City youth who slipped into a zoo at night and spray-painted graffiti on the back side of an elephant. “He had a good story to tell at school the next day,” Honaker notes.

Most youthful vandals are from the lower economic levels, Honaker says, but the activity also attracts affluent children who “put up graffiti or run with a tag team” as a way to add a sense of risk to otherwise orderly, safe lives. A “tag team,” she explains, often consists of an artist, a lookout, and someone adept at stealing paint—which can be a major undertaking and is often a point of honor in itself. “A good piece can take as many as 500 spray cans,” she adds.

Whenever possible Honaker tries to persuade the best of the painters to design and paint murals on walls offered for that purpose by Seattle business people. The city already boasts dozens of such productions.

“There’s a lot of really good talent out there,” she notes. “Good people who are misdirected.”

Olguin urges that we work harder to re-channel not just the art but also the energy of the youths who participate in it. These youngsters, with their graffiti and gang behavior, are exploring the limits of society’s rules, he notes. “It seems to me that (exploring these limits) is what entrepreneurial societies are all about, what aesthetically creative and dynamic societies are all about.”

At top: A 1990 photo of a retaining wall on Rainier Avenue South in Seattle that is covered with hundreds of “tags.”

Jean Reichenbach is associate editor of Col­umns.

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Graffiti: Is It Art or Vandalism?

Introduction – what is graffiti.

Graffiti is a word used to describe any writing or images that have been painted, sketched, marked, scrawled or scratched in any form on any type of property. It can be a design, figure, inscription or even a mark or word that has been written or drawn on either privately held or government owned properties. While graffiti refers to an entire scribbling or drawing, graffito describes a single scribble. Graffiti can be any form of public marking which appears as a distinguishing symbol and most of the time it comes out as a rude decoration having the form of simply written words, elaborate and complicated wall paintings or etchings on walls and rocks.

Graffiti can also be described as an unauthorized drawing or inscription on any surface situated in a public area. Apart from this graffiti also includes hideous scribbles which we often find scrawled and painted on the fences of a house, in subways, bridges, along the sides of houses and other buildings and even on trains, buses and cars. Although some look like elaborate paintings most of them are garbage which appears to have been done by small children.

Graffiti vandalism has a number of forms. The most harmful and destructive of all are the gang graffiti and tags. The former are generally used by gang members to outline their turf or threat opposite gangs. These often lead to acts of violence. Tags represent the writer’s signature and can also be complicated street art. Conventional graffiti is often hurtful and malicious and generally the act of impulsive or isolated youths. Ideological graffiti is hateful graffiti which expresses ethnic, racial or religious messages through slurs and can cause a lot of tension among the people. Sometimes the graffitists also use acid etching where they use paints mixed with acids and additional chemicals which can rankle the surface making the etchings permanent. (Wilson, 52-66)

Graffiti – Art or Vandalism

Graffiti cannot be considered as a form of art since its basic difference from art is consent or permission. Although a number of people consider graffiti to be one of the numerous art forms, most of the times graffiti is considered as unwanted and unpleasant damage to both public and government properties. In modern times almost all of the countries in the world consider the defacing of public or government owned property with any type of graffiti without taking the owner’s permission or authorization to be an act of vandalism.

Had graffiti been created without destroying someone’s belongings then even it would have appeared artistic, due to their bright use of colors, and not as an act of vandalism. Graffiti scribblers often claim that in order to improve the look of the walls and fences of one’s property they make colorful paintings on them. But this is highly questionable since they almost never take the permission of the owner of the property before making their art, turning the entire thing into vandalism. They do not have the right to destroy or change the look of one’s property without taking their permission or authority. (Smollar, 47-58)

All throughout history people have considered graffiti to be an act of vandalism since it incorporates an illegal use of public and government property. Such an act is not only mutilation of property and an ugly thing but is also very expensive to remove. Although graffiti artists use their talents to share and express their feelings, until and unless graffiti is done on an area designated for it and by somebody authorized to do so, graffiti in any form will remain to be an act of vandalism and not art.

Graffiti done without proper authority cannot be considered as art since immature vandals simply use graffiti as a means to seek infamy. Graffiti is noting more than an irresponsible and dangerous form of art promoting gang activities and truancy. Thus, we can see that there is nothing artistic about graffiti vandalism. (Austin, 450-451)

The Problem of Graffiti

The problem both the government and the people of the world face due to graffiti is not at all a new one as it has existed for centuries, and sometimes it is even dated back to the Roman Empire and Ancient Greece. Some people even consider graffiti as an act of terrorism which is in its larval stage. The main problem with graffiti is that it is fundamentally unauthorized and is created by destroying someone’s possessions.

Today graffiti vandals use markers and spray paints as their most common medium for creating graffiti which makes it a much bigger problem. Painting over the graffiti is a costly affair which the owners of the property vandalized have to bear. Graffiti makers tend to remain unknown and thus, never even make an offer to pay for the repairs for vandalizing someone’s property which at times could even be thousands of dollars.

Sometimes due to graffiti a property’s value gets lowered by a huge rate due to some inane scribbling across the wall or fence of the property. Not only do these graffiti vandals scribble on the fences and walls of the property they sometimes even destroy them by breaking a window, door or fence just for the mere sake of art. They slash the seats of the cars, buses and trains for which the government has to pay. (Ley, 491-505)

Recent History

In the last few decades the problem of graffiti has become far reaching and has spread from the largest of cities to small localities. Graffiti should not be viewed as an isolated problem since it leads to other public disorders, like loitering, littering and even public urination, and crimes, since most of the time the graffiti scribblers unable to pay for the markers and paints shoplift the required materials. Since graffiti is considered to be a public disorder it is sometimes even perceived as a means of lowered quality of living in certain communities.

As graffiti is almost always associated with crimes, it tremendously increases the fear of various criminal activities among the families of a community. Sometimes graffiti vandals even arouse questions in the hearts of the citizens by making them feel that the government authorities are incapable of protecting them from graffiti scribblers, thus making them further insecure.

Graffiti vandals have no concern for public or government property near public areas and deface anything they can lay their hand on including blank walls, trees, alley gates, monuments, statues, utility boxes, schools, furniture in parks and streets, buses and bus shelters, pavements, railway areas, utility poles, telephone boxes, street lights, traffic signs and signals, inside and outside of trains, vending machines, vacant buildings, freeway, subways, bridges, billboards, parking garages, sheds and road signs.

In a nutshell, graffiti is present almost in any area that is open to the view of the general public. Since graffiti vandals even mess with street signs and traffic signals that help the drivers navigate through busy towns, graffiti poses a threat to the safety of those drivers. Sometimes due to depreciation in land value or excessive nuisance created by these graffiti vandals, families and businesses alike have to avoid certain areas and may even have to move out of it completely. People facing graffiti vandalism and living in areas with graffiti have to face reduced business activities since common people generally associate criminal activities with graffiti and are thus, afraid to set up businesses in those areas. (D’Angelo, 102-109)

Cost of cleaning

Prevention and cleaning up of graffiti is associated with high costs. The government and the public have to bear heavy costs in order to protect themselves from the graffiti vandals. Currently, it had been estimated that almost $22 billion is spent in the US each year for cleaning up and preventing various acts of graffiti. It was also found that England almost has to spend £26 million every year to remove graffiti which is present in almost 90% of the places in the nation.

It becomes the headache of the local authorities to clean up the graffiti and fix whatever has been destroyed as soon as possible. Councils and government officials have to maintain quick responsive units who can rapidly and effectively clean out graffiti and fix damages the instant such an act is reported. Government authorities and councils even have to take up a combination of protective, preventive and removal strategies to fight back graffiti vandalism, making the whole process extremely costly. But since protecting or deterring property will not completely eliminate graffiti, it is better to remove graffiti as soon as it is reported. (Ley, 491-505)

Negatives of Graffiti

Graffiti not only causes danger to the citizens of a neighborhood but it also creates a huge mess which government officials have to clean up by paying from the city funds. Since the government has to bear the cost for cleaning up graffiti, it has a direct impact on the budget of a city too. Government officials have to use a significant amount from the available city budget for fixing damages to public buildings, streets and other properties. A huge amount of money also goes in the eradication and prevention of graffiti vandalism since this requires special equipment, materials and trained labors, making the entire matter highly expensive and time consuming.

Graffiti also adversely affects the taxpayers who have to pay extra for fixing damages to public properties, circuitously, during their yearly property taxes. Sometimes businesses pass on the cost for cleaning graffiti off their property on to their customers, who have to make larger payments for their goods purchased, for no fault of theirs. (Rafferty, 77-84)

Further, graffiti also causes losses in revenues related to reductions in retail sales and the transit systems. Thus, the money that needs to be spent for cleaning up and preventing graffiti can also be used for improving an area and may also have other valuable uses. Since graffiti contributes to a reduction in retails sales, businesses plagued by graffiti is least likely to be sponsored by others. Also the general public will be afraid and will feel unsafe when entering a retail store scrawled all over with graffiti. Graffiti vandalism is not always simply limited to spray painting and destruction of property since the graffiti vandals often commit severe crimes like rape and robbery. Given that they are not caught or reported most of the times, graffiti vandals think that they can do anything and get away with it. (Austin, 450-451)

Graffiti is frequently associated with gangs, although graffiti vandals are not limited only to these gangs. It creates an environment of blight and intensifies the fear of gang related activities and violence in the heart of the general public. It has been seen that gangs often use graffiti as a signal for marking their own territory and graffiti also functions as a tag or indicator for the various activities of a gang. In those areas, where graffiti is extremely common, tag and gang graffiti is extremely widespread and also causes a lot of trouble.

Gangs commonly make tags using acid spray paints or markers on apartments and buildings and they serve as a motto or statement or an insult. Such graffiti also include symbols and slogans that are exclusive for a particular gang and may also be made as a challenge or threat for a rival gang. Not only are graffiti made to disrespect other gangs but sometimes racist graffiti is also scribbled on walls which creates a lot of racist tension among the people of certain communities.

Such activities shock the residents who are indirectly forced to move out of the areas for the safety of their families. Graffiti scribblers who are also members of a gang or part of its crew sometimes get involved in fighting, and every now and then a number of them end up dead due to these gang wars. The messages relayed through graffiti are taken very seriously by gang members and the threats are almost always acted upon. (Smollar, 47-58)

Another problem with graffiti is that although sometimes a single act of graffiti may not be a serious offence, graffiti itself has a cumulative outcome which makes it even more serious. Its original emergence in a particular neighborhood almost always attracts even more graffiti vandals. At certain areas graffiti tend to occur over and over. Graffiti offenders are inclined to attack those areas that are painted over to clean the graffiti. Such areas act as a magnet attracting graffiti offenders to commit re-vandalism repeatedly.

Some graffitists commit acts of vandalism since they are extremely stubborn and do so in order to fight an emotional and psychological battle with the city council and government officials. They deliberately commit graffiti vandalisms in order to establish their authority and claim over a specific area. Graffiti offenders do so with the intention to defy the government authorities. (Wilson, 52-66)

Sometimes graffiti is extremely repulsive and thus, gets people, especially teenagers into extremely bad habits. They stop caring about other people or the government and develop a tendency to scribble anywhere they find a blank space. They stop respecting people and their property and the kids even start to make graffiti on the desks and tables of their schools. Graffiti vandals have no concern for the people around them and thus, increase the pessimistic attitude of the neighborhoods around them.

Not only does graffiti lead to crimes but the scribblers also harbor disruptive anti-social feelings and behavior inside them. Sometimes teenagers and kids place graffiti on other people’s property without their authority or consent as a mischievous act, not realizing that they are committing a crime which is equivalent to vandalism and punishable by law. These juvenile scribblers are accountable for almost all of the graffiti we find on the buildings and streets and they do not even realize that their graffiti sometimes even becomes offensive and racist in nature. (Rafferty, 77-84)

Juvenile crime

City officials are also concerned about the fact that when juveniles take part in graffiti vandalism it may be their initial offence leading them into much more harmful and sometimes even sophisticated crimes. Not only does graffiti create a gateway for these juveniles into a world of crime, it can sometimes also be associated with truancy due to which the juveniles may remain uneducated their whole lives.

Deprived of a proper education these young minds get involved with alcoholism and drug abuse, thus leading to even severe problems. Adolescents and juveniles become astray sending a message to all that graffiti give rise to various criminal activities. In those communities where people gather in groups at street corners during late hours, it is easier for the drug peddlers to promote their products among the juveniles without being interrupted either by the authorities or residents. (Smollar, 47-58)

Graffiti as a Social menace

Graffiti is a huge problem since it contaminates the environment of a locality. It is undeniably a plague for our modern cities since it leads to visual pollution. City officials and councils have to spend huge sums in order to clean the ever present graffiti on the walls and fences. But even an expensive cleaning strategy is not but a useless and ineffective way to deal with these graffiti vandals since they almost always find a way to reproduce graffiti.

Graffiti vandalism is an extremely complex and multifaceted public disorder which does not have any easy solution. Not only is the cleaning of graffiti an expensive affair, it is also an extremely difficult one since it involves a lot of hard work. Sometimes graffiti damages certain surfaces to such an extent that they remain permanently impaired as the graffiti vandals change the entire nature of the surfaces they paint on, thus changing the nature and environment of the whole neighborhood. If an act of graffiti vandalism is left unchecked, then it may even lead to urban decay by causing further decline in property value and increasing fear in communities.

Most of the times when graffiti is cleaned or painted over a part of the damage always remains. For example, the paint does not match entirely or sometimes the area becomes darker than before, making the cover up completely visible. Graffiti has a significant impact on the overall appearance of a neighborhood and almost always lowers the quality of life of the entire community. When these graffiti scribblers destroy train terminal and subways they immediately create a harmful first impression on others, of that city, all over the country.

Graffiti simply does not give rise to maintenance issues but it gives rise to a complicated social problem, one that makes people feel extremely unsafe in their own neighborhoods. Communities become unlivable due to reduction in the beauty and pride of their neighborhood. Graffiti completely destroys the design and scenic beauty of the entire community and the hate messages conveyed through graffiti hurts the people of the community.

Sometimes graffiti becomes so offensive that it disturbs the local residents making it a concern for the entire community. The residents not only feel unsafe themselves but also fear for their children who have to grow up in such a disturbing and troublesome locality. Though graffiti may appear to be a radical form of art, to the people whose belongings have been disfigured by graffiti it is nothing more than an unwanted form of vandalism, which is not only distressing but also extremely difficult to remove. (Rafferty, 77-84)

Consequences of Graffiti

Since defacing of public or government property without the owners authority is considered to be vandalism, offenders are even punishable by the law of many countries. Graffiti is like a crime since its creators steal the rights of the owners of the property to have their possessions look well and clean. Police authorities all over the world refer to graffiti vandalism as criminal damage. Graffiti vandals should be made to face strict penalties which should not only include jail time but also large fines, so that they do not repeat their actions again. The offenders not only have to pay huge penalties but can even be prosecuted for their crimes.

The graffiti vandals should not only have to pay fines for destroying properties but should also be made to clean the graffiti themselves, as a punishment. Juvenile scribblers have to carry out community services as a punishment for their crime. Graffiti vandals who have committed serious crimes, like rape or murder can even be imprisoned for life. Not only do these graffiti vandals damage other people and government properties, they also risk their own lives in making the graffiti. They often display their stupidity by gambling with their lives while trying to create graffiti on trains and bridges. It has often been seen that these graffiti scribblers suffer from dreadful injuries and some even end up dead. (D’Angelo, 102-109)

Some countries do not view graffiti as a major problem since they may not have encountered widespread incidences of graffiti vandalism, which may have been focused on only a few relatively hot spot areas. But the areas facing the problem of graffiti vandalism realize its intensity. Since graffiti is a highly visible form of vandalism, it greatly affects the people living in that area since it completely changes their existing perception of the entire neighborhood.

Graffiti scribblers carefully choose those locations frequented by passersby so that they can be affected by the drawings and scribbling even more. Graffiti becomes a form of vandalism due to the medium the graffitists use to display their art which is almost anything other than a piece of canvas. Graffiti vandals somewhat force the viewers to view their work, even if they do not want to do so.

They have no consideration as to where they place their work or that it may become a problem for the general public or that the medium which they are using either belongs to the government or to an individual. All these add up to people’s perception which views graffiti as vandalism leading to urban decay and crime and causing depreciation of business and property value and in the growth of industries.

Works Cited

Austin, J. “Wallbangin’: Graffiti and Gangs in L.A.” American Ethnologist 29.2 (2004): 450-451.

D’Angelo, Frank J. “Fools’ Names and Fools’ Faces are Always Seen in Public Places: A Study of Graffiti.” Journal of Popular Culture 10.1 (2006): 102-109.

Ley, D. “Urban Graffiti as Territorial Markers.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 64.4 (2001): 491-505.

Rafferty, P. Discourse on Difference: Street Art/ Graffiti Youth.” Visual Anthropology Review 7.2 (2005): 77-84.

Smollar, J. “Homeless Youth in the United States: Description and Developmental Issues.” New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development 39.5 (2006): 47-58.

Wilson, J. “Racist and Political Extremist Graffiti in Australian Prisons, 1970s to 1990s.” The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice 47.1 (2008): 52-66.

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Arguments for Graffiti as Art Essay

Introduction.

The modern world has born witness to the emergence of a new form of creative expression known as graffiti. It is usually represented by writings or drawings on walls, which are in many cities prohibited. There is a debate on whether this type of artistry is art or vandalism. Given the comprehensive nature of art and the time and care necessary to produce a piece of graffiti, it should be considered a form of art.

Definition of Art

Before determining the appropriateness of calling graffiti art, it is essential to understand what is meant by art. It is an extremely wide term that encompasses a large array of human activities. In its most general definition, almost anything created by a person can be considered art. However, children’s drawings are not displayed in a museum, although they also can be an example. The same principle of distinguishing creations by the fact of their existence applies to graffiti.

Graffiti is a form of art because it requires creativity and artistic expression. Any form of drawing or aesthetic writing cannot be accomplished without skill and talent. Graffiti are complex creations, consisting of numerous details and stylistic choices. An individual without the knowledge of the basics of drawing and the ability to use a paint stick is not capable of producing an adequate graphical piece. As a result, the limitations in people’s capacity in graffiti production exemplifies it as art.

It should also be noted that not all art in history was immediately recognized as such. Some of the creations, which are socially accepted and positively regarded today, were also previously condemned. As arts writers point out, “statues and other works of art flaunting penises and the naked body were considered perverse and sacrilegious” ( Graffiti: Is Graffiti Art ). Therefore, the current lack of tolerance toward graffiti does not mean that perception will not change over time.

Quality as a Prerequisite

Many people do not acknowledge this type of drawing as a form of art. The reason for graffiti’s ambivalent status lies in the lack of official quality criteria. Whereas it is possible to analyze a painting relying on a set of artistic standards, there are no established and agreed guidelines for evaluating graffiti. Nevertheless, the absence of formal recognition does not devalue the efforts that are necessary to embellish walls with aerosol paint.

It might even be possible that the lack of rules for making graffiti is precisely what distinguishes it as art. “Graffiti is one of the purest forms of art, supporters say, because it can exist without support or syndication from the mainstream art establishment” ( Graffiti: Is Graffiti Art ). In essence, nothing constrains an artist from delivering the work they envision. The freedom of expression further solidifies graffiti’s position as art.

Just like any human creation, pieces of graffiti differ based on quality. Writing and drawing on walls have evolved into a subculture. Its representatives have their own conception of techniques and standards for creating a work of graffiti ( Graffiti: Is Graffiti Art ). Moreover, the illegal nature of these drawings has forced creators to work faster, incorporating stencils. “As a result, graffiti has grown more complex and specialized, including stickers and other media besides spray paint” ( Graffiti: Is Graffiti Art ). Overall, the qualitative features of graffiti have added to its artistic value.

Functions of Art

Most pieces of art convey a creator’s message or artistic idea. Graffiti is not an exception since it emerged as a means to voice social displeasure. As supporters of attributing graffiti to art claim, it “provides a tool for communicating with the larger population” ( Graffiti: Is Graffiti Art ). Similar to many other forms of visual art, like caricatures, cinema, or paintings, writing on walls can draw attention to social issues, propagate an idea and, in any other way, execute the communicative function of art.

Another purpose of art is setting the tone and accentuating an artist’s feelings. In a similar manner to typical visual art, graffiti can also brighten the mood. Colorful drawings and writings on walls can make urban surroundings less grim and more joyful. Graffiti can impact a person emotionally and psychologically, appeal to their sense of beauty, and entertain them, thus functioning as any other work of art.

Probably the most evident feature of art is that it does not have to be enjoyed by everyone. There are pieces, which are appraised as manifestations of genius and dismissed as shallow objects at the same time. Graffiti also form a wide range of reactions, from those who consider it to be evidence of criminalization and vandalism to those who sincerely uphold it as the modern iteration of street art.

Altogether, graffiti can, by all means, be considered a form of art. It requires skill and lets artists express their ideas and sentiment. Some graffiti can be characterized as possessing exceptional quality rivaling socially accepted works of art. The opinion and legal status can change over time, with the current condemnation of graffiti being a contemporary phenomenon. Ultimately, it executes all functions typical of art and should subsequently be recognized as such.

“Graffiti: Is Graffiti Art.” Infobase . 2011. Web.

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1. IvyPanda . "Arguments for Graffiti as Art." March 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/arguments-for-graffiti-as-art/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Arguments for Graffiti as Art." March 14, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/arguments-for-graffiti-as-art/.

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Not all graffiti is vandalism – let’s rethink the public space debate

Researcher in the Philosophy of Play, The University of Queensland

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Earlier this month, at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to his work at Brisbane’s GOMA, David Lynch got stuck into street art, calling it “ugly, stupid, and threatening”. Apparently, shooting movies can be very difficult when the building you want to film is covered in graffiti and you don’t want it to be.

Is there a distinction between art and vandalism? This is the question that always seems to rise up when graffiti becomes a topic of conversation, as it has after Lynch’s outburst. This is, however, not just important for those of us who want to know the answers to obscure questions such as, “what is art?” It affects everyone.

Why? Because graffiti exists in our public spaces, our communities and our streets.

Let’s for a minute put aside the fact that an artist such as David Lynch, known for pushing the envelope in terms of what art is and can be, is criticising one type of art on the grounds that it is inconvenient to the kind of art that he prefers to undertake.

There is something more important to discuss here. The opinion that street art is vandalism (that is, not art) is widely held. Many people despise graffiti – but we are more than happy to line our public spaces with something much more offensive: advertising. That’s the bigger story here, the use and abuse of public space.

At heart, I think this is why people don’t like graffiti. We see it as someone trying to take control of a part of our public space. The problem is, our public spaces are being sold out from under us anyway. If we don’t collectively protect our public spaces, we will lose them.

Two types of graffiti

I would like to make a bold distinction here.

I want to draw out the difference between two kinds of graffiti: street art and vandalism.

We need something to be able to differentiate between Banksy and the kids who draw neon dicks on the back of a bus shelter. They are different, and the difference lies in their intention.

Tagging, the practice of writing your name or handle in prominent or impressive positions, is akin to a dog marking its territory; it’s a pissing contest. It is also an act of ownership. Genuine street art does not aim at ownership, but at capturing and sharing a concept. Street art adds to public discourse by putting something out into the world; it is the start of a conversation.

The ownership of a space that is ingrained in vandalism is not present in street art. In fact, street art has a way of opening up spaces as public. Street art has a way of inviting participation, something that too few public spaces are even capable of.

Marketing vandals

If vandalism is abhorrent because it attempts to own public space, then advertising is vandalism.

The billboards that line our streets, the banner ads on buses, the pop-ups on websites, the ads on our TVs and radios, buy and sell our public spaces. What longer lasting sex? A tasty beverage? To be young, beautiful, carefree, cutting edge, and happy? For only $24.95 (plus postage)!

Advertising privatises our public spaces. Ads are placed out in the public strategically. They are built to coerce, and manipulate. They affect us, whether we want them to or not. But this is not reciprocated.

We cannot in turn change or alter ads, nor can we communicate with the company who is doing the selling. If street art is the beginning of a conversation, advertising is the end. Stop talking, stop thinking – and buy these shoes!

Ads v graffiti

We are affronted by ads. They tell us we are not enough. Not good enough, not pretty enough, not wealthy enough.

At its worst, graffiti is mildly insulting and can be aesthetically immature. But at its best, it can be the opening of a communal space: a commentary, a conversation, a concept captured in an image on a wall. Genuine street art aims at this ideal.

At its best, advertising is an effective way of informing the public about products and services. At worst, advertising is a coercive, manipulative form of psychological warfare designed to trick us into buying crap we don’t need with money we don’t have.

What surprises me is that the people who find vandalism in the form of tagging and neon dicks highly offensive have no problem with the uncensored use of our public spaces for the purposes of selling stuff.

What art can do

If art is capable of anything in this world, it is cutting through the dross of everyday existence. Art holds up a mirror to the world so that we can see the absurdity of it. It shows us who we really are, both good and bad, as a community.

Street art has an amazing ability to do this because it exists in our real and everyday world, not vacuum-sealed and shuffled away in a privileged private space. Its very public nature that makes street art unique, powerful, and amazing.

If we as a community can recognise the value in street art, we can begin to address it as a legitimate expression. When we value street art as art, we can engage with it as a community and help to grow it into something beautiful.

When street art has value, our neon dicks stop being a petty and adolescent attempt at ownership, and become mere vandalism. When we value our public spaces as places where the we can share experiences, we will start to see the violence that is advertising as clearly as the dick on the back of a bus shelter.

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The learning network | can graffiti ever be considered art.

Can Graffiti Ever Be Considered Art?

Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

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“I don’t know what art is, but….” People have been finishing this sentence with “I know what I like” or “I know it when I see it” for a long, long time.

How do you define “art”? It is something that shows mastery, has stood the test of time, speaks for the era in which it was created, is valued by the masses, is not valued by the masses–or something else?

In “Stalking a Most Prolific Phantom,” Michiko Kakutani reviews “Banksy: The Man Behind the Wall,” a book by Will Ellsworth-Jones that is about the work of the elusive graffiti artist.

The graffiti artist Banksy’s work is immediately recognizable: clever, funny, sometimes political stencils and artworks that have popped up on walls (and occasionally in museums and galleries) in cities around the world — giant rats clutching paint brushes or umbrellas or boom boxes; chimps wearing placards (“Laugh now, but one day we’ll be in charge”); trompe l’oeil windows/holes (opening out onto a mountain vista or a picturesque beach or a pretty cloudscape) on barrier walls in the West Bank; children wearing gas masks or chasing after balloons that are floating away. Some are out-and-out sight gags — giant scissors with cut-here dotted lines stenciled on a wall. Some are doctored works, replacing the Mona Lisa’s famous visage with a yellow smiley face or flinging some shopping carts into one of Monet’s tranquil water gardens. And some are oddly philosophical meditations: showing a leopard escaping from a bar-code zoo cage, or a woman hanging up a zebra’s stripes to dry on a laundry line. What they have in common is a coy playfulness — a desire to goad viewers into rethinking their surroundings, to acknowledge the absurdities of closely held preconceptions. Over the years Banksy has tried to maintain his anonymity. He has argued that he needs to hide his real identity because of the illegal nature of graffiti — that he “has issues with the cops,” that authenticating a street piece could be like “a signed confession.” But as obscurity has given way to fame and his works have become coveted — and costly — collectors’ pieces, critics have increasingly pointed out that Banksy has used anonymity as a marketing device, as another tool in his arsenal of publicity high jinks to burnish his own mystique. … Mr. Ellsworth-Jones’s book is at its most fascinating in tracing Banksy’s evolution from outsider, spraying walls in Bristol like dozens of other young graffiti practitioners, to international artist with work that “commands hundreds of thousands of pounds in the auction houses of Britain and America.” He is adept at examining some of the existential dilemmas this success created for Banksy — dilemmas shared by many outsider and counterculture artists, who suddenly find their work embraced by the very mainstream they’d once scorned. He also looks at the eclectic new fans (including kids and street toughs) that Banksy’s art has attracted to museums and galleries, and the debates over whether wall art by Banksy and other graffiti artists should be left on the streets, where it runs the danger of being written over, defaced, scrubbed clean by city cleaning crews or filched by opportunists eager to make a fast buck. Some argue that such pieces should be liberated, so that they can be preserved and exhibited in museums and other places. Others argue that context is everything, that these works were made for specific sites and need to be seen in their original environment. If they vanish, so be it; ephemerality is part of what street art is. (And besides, photographs posted on the Web, which has hugely accelerated his fame, can always provide a pictorial record.) In one interview, Banksy observed: “I’ve learnt from experience that a painting isn’t finished when you put down your brush — that’s when it starts. The public reaction is what supplies meaning and value. Art comes alive in the arguments you have about it.”

Students: Tell us …

• What do you think of Banksy’s statement that public reaction gives art meaning? What examples back your point?
• Do you consider the Banksy image shown above to be art? Why or why not?
• Have you ever been moved by a piece of graffiti, street art or even a billboard?
• Does the viewer need to be moved in order for something to be considered art? Why or why not?
• How do you interpret Banksy’s anonymity? Is it art, marketing, shyness?

NOTE: Students, please use only your first name. For privacy policy reasons, we will not publish student comments that include a last name.

Comments are no longer being accepted.

I can see the kids in the Lascaux caves thousands of years ago painting on the walls, disapproved of by their elders, shooed away, retreating far back into the maze of caves to do their art.

Yes, perhaps that’s why much of that art is in out-of-the-way places, graffiti of the times.

And two thousand years from now, when archeologists uncover a spray painted wall or, perhaps, a carefully sprayed New York subway car, what will they make of it? Will they consider it the canvas of the 21st century masses, or will they attribute profound but dubious meaning to it, as current archeologists due with the Lascaux cave art?

I don’t usually appreciate grafitis because most time it is not done as art but only as vandalism. Graffiter confuse art with political motivation. The photo related might easily bring up a brawling, specially in places with a previous tension like Libia, Iraq or Afghanistan. These acts encourage people to create riots and it often leads to deaths.

Graffiti artists are are called artists for a reason: because it’s art. A regular person can not go to a canvas, put their emotions on the canvas and have it come out either beautiful, powerful, or a master piece. And while yes vandalism is illegal it is still art

I believe that Graffiti is considered art because art has a meaning behind it and has feelings beneath the picture itself and so does graffiti. People express themselves in art work, they can also express their emotions in graffiti. Art can make people feel something like sadness or happiness. Graffiti does the same. when your walking in the street and whenever you see graffiti you stop and look at it and you sometimes fell emotions I know that i have when I’ve driven by it in a car and seen it and it made me feel happy and put a smile on my face or it made me feel angry or depressed. Art wok lights up the room where it is and graffiti does the same, but it doesn’t light up a room it lights up the area it’s at. It gives the place more lively energy and a more positive outlook. Graffiti and artwork have more similarities than they have differences. Graffiti should be considered art work because it has all the accepts and traits of be art work.

I think graffiti should be considered art, for most people say that a picture is worth a thousand words. The reason people say this is, for that a picture has a much deeper meaning then just a random picture. Some people use art to show how they feel about themselves, or about other events around them. Some people use it to show other things like gang signs which isn’t always right but there expressing themselves. Taking away graffiti is like taking away a mural. Those are the same thing there symbolic showing and expressing something. I also believe that you shouldn’t take away graffiti because sometimes that’s the only way people can be heard. There is a movie out there called Step Up Revolution, and they use there dance and their art work to be heard about taking away peoples homes. Art can show everything about a person and it also could help people get off hard times. Art is a beautiful thing and some people use that instead of doing a sport. In conclusion i think that graffiti should be considered art.

What is art art could be a pile of trash a artist finds on the side of the road or Graffiti on a wall its art just the same. It may look like vandalism but it is art you don’t look down on an artist that just puts a red dot on a white canvas you marvel at that and think its amazing but when an artist graffiti’s a wall you look at it like vandalism but you see graffiti it can be shown as an art of vandalism but it can also be shown as something unique and amazing. So i disagree to those who say its not art because really art is the way you feel as you sculpt, make, or even think of a design its everywhere even in nature and the buildings you live in and there some who sit down and think what it is and what its not but the thing is its everything so why not Graffiti being art?

In my opinion i think that graffite is a way of art because it involves a theam to it but it also is vandalism.

I think it should be considered art because most of the pictures move people in ways that other art cant. Graffiti shows the real problems and what’s really going on in the word unlike other art that tries to show the word in a perfect state when its not. And most art doesn’t even look like anything it just looks like colors splattered on a page, but graffiti shows pictures that look life like and often tell a story.

I believe that some kinds of graffiti are considered a work of art because people have the right to show how they feel about things in the world in any form. People see the world in a lot of different ways. . Graffiti is just one of the many types of art. But in order to create graffiti you should be able to show how you feel about it and not just do it to show off your gang. Showing off your gangs name is not the type of graffiti I would like to see.

i think graffiti can be considered a work of art because many of the pieces artists paint are portraits of historical things or beautiful outlines of famous art work. Creating street art can be a beautiful piece of work when put to good use . But I don’t think gangs should use graffitti for their own personal agenda. People have the right to voice their opinion on how art transforms their life whether it be through street art or just a regular painting. So I really think street art can be a truly creative way of expressing yourself.

Public endorse an art work or not does, more or less, provide a meaning to the art itself. Since art is valued by personal opinions, it is hard to give a definition of “a good art” is. For example, van Gogh’s art works are not considered masterpieces until many years after his death. A same art work may receive totally different reviews about it. So it is obvious that public reaction, by how they value it, definitely gives “life” to an art work.

I think that the Graffiti is a way for people to express them selfs. When you are out on the streets a little more beautiful things would be nice. When people use it as a crim then they sould be punished for it. When you are doing it illegaly then you are not makeing art.

yes it is art.graffitti is all about art.Is all about what you see in your state of mind.ITS ABOUT EXPRESSING YOUR SELF ON WALLS.NO iv never been moved by a piece of graffiti, street art or even a billboard.why? because i dont do graffitti.

Graffiti to me is a sence of art work as long as it dosn’t involve hurtful images, words, or gang related things. I do belive that it should be kept in appropriate places and not just on random walls. For example, in a nieghborhood if there is really random graffiti that involves anything I listed above it will make it look ugly.

I think that graffiti should be considerd as art. Dont do it when you are not supposed to. It is the way that poeple feel in ways. If you are doing it illegaly then it is not art.

I believe that some griffiti could be considered art, but some graffiti are around just to distruct property. Graffiti is done for many reasons and some are for good reasons. Even though its not legal some people do it to express themselves on a higher level. I’ve seen it next to my house before and I didn’t really like it because it made my neighborhood look bad.

I think graffiti is considered as art, because it revolves with people seeing all of the beautiful, pictures, and also all the pretty different colors on the art that people design.

Art is a method of expressing ones personal feelings. Graffiti can be interpreted this way as well. although graffiti is considered destroying personal property and illegal throughout the country, I personally believe that it is an appropriate way of expressing feelings. For someone to take the time and effort to graffiti the side of a mountain or underneath the underpass on the highway, it shows the passion that one person has for art. Graffiti is a form of art, just a form of art that is wrongly frowned upon in society. Those who graffiti are punished severely for doing so, while all they are attempting to accomplish is expressing their emotions on a blank piece of landscape. Graffiti will be and should currently be accepted in society.

the question of “is it art?” has been laid to rest for nearly a hundred years now regarding any style or any medium. Anything can be considered art, ANYTHING! I believe the question people should be discussing is whether something is good art or bad art. I grow weary of the everyman looking at an art piece and saying “that ain’t art!”. Duchamp said that the artist of the future will merely have to point to something to make it art. Which means anything can be art and it isn’t for anyone but the artist to decide that. If the viewer chooses, he or she can then decide and discuss whether its good or not until they are blue in the face.

I can understand why spray painting on buildings would be illegal, but graffiti is another form of self expression. It is another way for people to share their thoughts and feelings with others. And to show citizens that they do not just go around vandalizing property because they please too, but to show them that they possess skills and talent. If one can become famous from splattering some paint on a canvas, then why can’t those that graffiti become well known too? Graffiti art tells its audience a story, and that should be recognized and praised for.

Modern day graffiti is artwork done illegally on public or private property. There is a post-graffiti movement of artwork influenced by graffiti in a gallery setting. There is really no name for this yet. Some tried to label it graffuturism.

People don’t understand the emotion that is put behind graffiti, every peice is telling a story. Some are about life, others are political, and yet the ones who ‘vandalize’ are penalized for simply doing what America has given us the right to do. I can understand that business owners don’t want spray paint showing up on the sides of their buildings, but where else do you expect them to go? If a person can become famouse for drawing a bunch of shapes then shouldn’t a message or a picture done for the public be art? Art is the expression of emotions, that’s exactally what graffiti is, raw expression to the world around them.

Graffiti takes thought, emotion, and creativity just like any other form of art. Graffiti should be considered art and not an illegal act because to us, the people, it’s the beauty of expression. The thought behind graffiti is showing the human condition in a beautiful outspoken, and rebellious sort of way. The world isn’t perfect so why should the way we express it be?

I think it can be considered art because of the meaning of it . Its not meant to be visualy appealing but to bring attention to a problem . If you look at modern art you usually get no meaning from it . Its absract and meaningless . its meant for looks . Graffiti is meant to have a reason behind . I understand its not always this way though . The people that make meaning of it and make it to bring attention and not to destroy things have created works of art .

Graffiti is not about is it art or not, it has to do with painting on property that does not belong to teh person painting, plain and simple. Steve F. You mention kids painting caves being art, well that is true, but remember, they were painting in the caves they lived. Had they scurried over to another persons cave and painted unwanted symbols, and been caught, it would have been a death sentence carried out right then then and there. Graffiti can be art if done on any medium, with permission from the person who owns the property. Even if Van Gogh had taken his talents and went and painted on the Venus de Milo statue, it would not have been considered art. It is a simple mind that can not understand the respect for the property of others.

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Conservation, exposition, Restauration d’Objets d’Art

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The duality of Graffiti: is it vandalism or art?

Introduction.

1 Graffiti is found in many societies with different cultural contexts and has become a witness and an ethnographic source of information on urban art development (Waclawek, 2011). Modes of expression are mainly related to visibility, notoriety, choice of venue, transgression, and are often a mean to react and protest while remaining anonymous, by illegally introducing messages in the public space. Contemporary graffiti is also described by its controversial issues between social, style and aesthetic forms along with vandalism aspects. Facing a worldwide plethoric production, the assumption that Graffiti is a positive urban art form raises some paradoxical questions regarding ephemerality and “visual pollution” with a growing art market demand. However, it is often seen as illicit production and vandalism asset. For instance, removing graffiti or restricting the practice of graffiti from the public space has been a controversial issue for artists and authorities. A question therefore arises: how can the aesthetic and pictorial aspects of these acts of creation be considered as acts of vandalism? ( Bengsten, 2016).

Fig. 1 Vandalism

Vandalism by Goon and Chick, 1985

© Henry Chalfant and James Prigoff

Fig. 2 Vandalism?

Keith Haring, New York, 1983

© Laura Levine/Corbis

The problem of temporality

2 Similarly, the notion of temporality, by dissociating conservation and transmission must be considered. The growing interest leads to different perceptions probably with greater attention to the act of "heritage" at the expense of the act of protest. The patrimonialization of graffiti and, to a large extent, of Street Art is an essential point, because graffiti writers or street art practitioners often see institutions as "looters" who, come to preserve cultural acts that other public institutions have condemned (Omodeo, 2016).

3 Heritage is primarily a process which, in principle, prevents any destruction or voluntary surrender of an artwork, which are a corollary of creation and its limitation of copyright in time. For most “writers”, Graffiti is not an act thought out on the basis of a future conservation. The issue is visibility and notoriety, by the number, size and/or the choice of venue. Regarding paint materials, so many spray paint brands are available to the general public in hardware stores. Graffiti writers would not necessarely comply with this rule as their preferences for brands are more related to habits, opportunities and word of mouth, along with, plastic qualities and not for resistance properties.

Alterations

4 If Graffiti question the artistic approach of the artist and the context of their creation, it also poses those of alteration mechanisms, sometimes irreversible, these colors, which are significant from the point of view of heritage conservation. This encourage today to have a different perspective than that of the material history of the work with the creative process, the components used and the effects of environment parameters and ultimately, of time (Colombini, 2017).

5 The traditional methods of conservation are questioned; which must intervene and what modifications in relation to the original one can be accepted? (Beerkens, 2005). Is it essential to invite the artist to take part in the heritage process? One must look at the field of Muralism, mainly in the USA, to find more innovative and frequent restoration procedures. Indeed, the restoration of murals, often monumental paintings, is a civic and collective act within the "neighborhood". The actors of the restoration/renovation are both volunteer civilians trained and supervised by experienced conservators, artists and more generally, of persons engaged in neighborhood committees (Shank, 2004). This is not without rewards and sometimes reveals abuses that go beyond the artistic acts.

Fig. 3 Conservation

Community mural conservation

© 2014 Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles

Fig. 4 A public Art project, 1985

6 The practice of graffiti and its legislation ambiguities are at stake. Graffiti and Street Art have their own definitions and interpretations, but they have something in common with illegal acts when it comes to the artistic act carried out on surfaces without the given permission by a property owner, whether public or private. We are now witnessing a radicalization of practices both from two points of view: legality and vandalism. The character of these acts explains why some artists (not only from the graffiti scene) have seen their career highlighted with arrests, penalties and sometimes trials, while their works are copyrightable (Moyne, 2016).

7 T he question of authenticity of paint arises when, aesthetic and style expertise, may not be sufficient to ascertain whether the juridical designation of Street Art as “Art” versus graffiti as vandalism. This is even truer for legal graffiti, mainly because of the variability of quality of the known and the good quality of spray paints, supposedly meant to last, as opposed to, the use of cheap brands of spray paint as illegal graffiti (Marsh, 2007).

Duality of the phenomenon

8 This paper relates to the duality of the modern graffiti phenomenon, as to whether it is a vandalism act or a cultural production. It focusses on a comparison study, mainly through artist interviews, between the evolving graffiti practices in Western major cities where illegality is often reclaimed by artists, and the fast emergence of graffiti in China, where this artistic expression is not only watched through its illegal and vandalism forms, but also for its aesthetic perceptions, though practices happen in restricted areas for expressing social, anti-official and political actions (Valjakka, 2011). Graffiti are buffed, almost straight away, by city cleaners the so called “buffers”, who are in the streets to remove all sorts of inscriptions from plumbers to whatever girl ads. If they cannot scrap it out, they paint over and that is why graffiti never lasts. At the same time, the relationship with authorities has improved very much over the last few years. It is more and more common to negotiate with the police by explaining what graffiti writers are doing, colours and mode of expression for everybody, in order to, embellish the streets rather than litter or vandalize them. From a civilization where calligraphy has been the core of the artistic production, the writing on a wall has different meanings than in a Euro-American context (gangs and political + social protests). Confronting these two almost opposite approaches, it allows a better understanding of this artistic form, as to whether it is considered vandalism or art. This controversial interrogation can be illustrated by the artist Bando’s quote “Graffiti is not vandalism, but a very beautiful crime”.

List of illustrations

Electronic reference.

Alain Colombini , “ The duality of Graffiti: is it vandalism or art? ” ,  CeROArt [Online], HS | 2018, Online since 09 December 2018 , connection on 29 April 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ceroart/5745; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/ceroart.5745

About the author

Alain colombini.

Contemporary art scientist. Centre Interdisciplinaire de Conservation et de Restauration du Patrimoine (CICRP), Marseille – France

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• Les matériaux en polyuréthanne dans les œuvres d’art : des fortunes diverses. Cas de la sculpture « Foot Soldier » de Kenji Yanobe [Full text] Published in CeROArt , 2 | 2008

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  |  Is Graffiti Art or Vandalism? Yes.

Is Graffiti Art or Vandalism? Yes.

BY ASHLEY ZHOU 

Defined as the unauthorized marking of public space by an individual or group, graffiti dates back to prehistoric times. 

Ancient cave art, like the Lascaux cave paintings in France, shares remarkable similarities with modern-day graffiti. Thousands of years later, during World War II, it became popular for soldiers to write the phrase “Kilroy was here,” along with a sketch of a bald figure with a large nose peeking over a ledge.

As time progressed graffiti has evolved from crude, simple tags and become increasingly technical and complex, developing into large, artistic, and colorful pieces. As graffiti is unauthorized and illegal, by the 1980s, the city of New York began to crack down on its proliferation and dedicated a massive amount of resources to solving the graffiti “problem.” However, graffiti artists saw these as mere challenges and worked even harder to hit their targets. Graffiti was anything but eradicated. In fact, it has spread around the world.

 “Graffiti, at its core, is both vandalism and art. In my opinion, graffiti is 100% art and 100% vandalism,” said Henry Zhou, a student artist in Los Angeles, California.

Zhou noted that graffiti is the voice of those who perhaps cannot find other ways to voice themselves and express themselves. 

Zhou compared graffiti to the Dada movement, a reaction to World War I which rejected logic and civilization, embracing irrationality, non-sense, and chaos in artistic works. Both movements, he said, have challenged the social norms of society. 

“Unlike traditional and institutionalized art forms, graffiti is rebellious and defiant, presenting a new form of art and creativity,” Zhou said. “At the same time, graffiti is vandalism, a crime, as it is an act of defacing public property without permission.” 

The prevention and removal of graffiti in a community can be very costly and ineffective, he added.

The very reaction it arouses from the public and the government as vandalism makes graffiti graffiti, and it pushes the boundaries of art, Henry concluded. He is not alone in these beliefs. 

Shayla Waldron is a young artist, majoring in the arts at college, and a volunteer at a nonprofit arts organization fighting for social justice. Like Zhou, Waldron also strongly said graffiti was art despite being vandalism. 

She described graffiti as a form of self-expression, that adds character to the cities and buildings it is on.

“People express themselves in so many different ways artistically that I just consider it [graffiti] another form of that,” Waldron said. “ I’ve seen some amazing works of art done by graffiti artists.”

In addition, Shayla noted that because of the legality aspect of graffiti, the perceived value of graffiti differs greatly for people. 

Waldron noted that graffiti was a “prime example of how art is subjective.” From an outsider or someone who doesn’t understand the art of graffiti, it may not seem like art, while others who appreciate it may see it as an expression of self, love, and life.

Indeed, perhaps there isn’t a clear answer to whether graffiti is art or vandalism, and there needs not be – after all, like all art, graffiti is valuable, but the value is subjective.

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Home / 2021 / September / The writing on the wall: exploring the cultural value of graffiti and street art

The writing on the wall: exploring the cultural value of graffiti and street art

Doctoral candidate’s research interprets graffiti’s deeper meaning among Latinx and Black urban subcultures in Los Angeles

September 14, 2021

By Allison Arteaga Soergel

Ismael Illescas grew up admiring the graffiti around his neighborhood in Los Angeles. He had migrated to the city with his mother and brother from Ecuador in the 1990s as part of a large Latin American diaspora. In his urban environment, he found himself surrounded by beautiful, cryptic messages. They were written on walls and scrawled daringly across billboards. Little by little, he began to understand the meanings behind some of these messages. And, eventually, he started writing back. 

Illescas became a graffiti writer himself, for a time. He has since given it up, but he never lost his initial sense of curiosity and admiration. In fact, now, as a doctoral candidate in Latin American and Latino Studies, his dissertation research has taken him back to Los Angeles, where he gathered insights from current and former graffiti writers about how their work connects with concepts of art, identity, culture, and space. 

For those who create it, graffiti is an expression of identity and an outlet for creativity, social connection, and achievement, according to Illescas’s research. Some of the most popular graffiti yards in Los Angeles are abandoned spaces in communities of color that neither the economy nor the city has been willing to invest in, he says. But graffiti allows Black and Latino young men to transform these areas into spaces of congregation and empowerment. 

“In a city where these youth are marginalised, ostracized, and invisibilized, graffiti is a way for them to become visible,” Illescas said. “They feel that the system is against them, and upward social mobility is limited for them, so putting their names up around the city is a way for them to achieve respect from their peers and assert their dignity, and that doesn’t come easily from other places and institutions in society.”

Graffiti also offers what Illescas calls an “illicit cartography,” meaning that it can be read like a cultural map of the city. Graffiti styles in East Los Angeles, for example, reflect Mexican-American artistic influence that began with Pachuco counterculture in the 1940s. Rich graffiti writing traditions emerged, including “placas,” or tags that list a writer’s stylized signature, and “barrio calligraphy,” which blends rolling scripts with Old English lettering. In the 1980s, those traditions then incorporated colorful, whimsical East Coast influences.

“The result is that Los Angeles has a really unique graffiti style,” Illescas said. “Although outsiders might not necessarily notice it, you can easily see the Mexican-American artistic influence in the aesthetics, and that has become associated with Latinx urban identities.”

Graffiti is a multiracial and multi-ethnic subculture, and Illescas says his research aims to recognize the specific contributions of Black and Latinx communities. He’s also critically examining the subculture’s hypermasculinity and how that may limit its transformative potential.  And he’s particularly interested in shedding light on how race may affect public perceptions of graffiti.

Depending on the context, graffiti can either be publicly admired as “street art”—and valued up to millions of dollars—or it can be criminalized at levels ranging up to felony charges and years of jail time. In Los Angeles, a city which many researchers consider to be highly racially segregated, Black and Latinx communities, like South Central Los Angeles and East Los Angeles, are the places where graffiti is most likely to be severely criminalized and lumped together with gang activity, Illescas says.

Meanwhile, Illescas says street art is more likely to be recognized as such within arts districts, where officially sanctioned “beautification” projects use public art to attract more business and new residents, which can contribute to gentrification issues. And some of the most famous street artists are actually white men, like Banksy or Shepard Fairey, who have each attained international recognition for the artistic value of their illegal works. 

“This is where systemic racism occurs,” Illescas said. “You have some people who are more prone to being criminalized and severely punished for a very similar act, and that punishment falls mainly on young Black and Latino men.”

For these reasons, Illescas has found that many graffiti writers of color have mixed feelings about the growing public appreciation for street art. 

“On the one hand, it’s a capitalistic appropriation of transgressive graffiti into commercialized street art,” Illescas said. “But it also ties into the efforts of graffiti writers who have been pushing for years to decriminalize their art and demonstrate its artistic and social value and the types of knowledge that it brings with it.”

Street art has, in fact, already brought opportunities for some veteran Black and Latino graffiti writers, who told Illescas they had recently been commissioned for their art or had found jobs as tour guides in arts districts. But each of these artists got their start creating illegal graffiti tags. Illescas believes that decriminalization will ultimately require transforming public appreciation of street art into a deeper understanding of the expressive value of other forms of graffiti. And he hopes his research might aid in that process.  

“The graffiti that we see up in the streets may seem like an insignificant tag or scribble to some people, but there’s a lot of meaning behind it,” he said. “There needs to be a recognition that graffiti is actually a visual representation of someone’s identity, and it’s also potentially their starting point to a very meaningful artistic career.” 

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Last modified: September 16, 2021 128.114.113.82

Graffiti Art: Why Graffiti Is Art And Not Vandalism

Although graffiti is generally considered to be a contemporary artform, it actually originated thousands of years ago. The earliest examples are things like cave paintings and inscriptions on ancient buildings in Egypt, Greece and the Roman Empire, with the word ‘graffiti’ itself stemming from the Italian word graffiato, meaning ‘scratched’. Yet as the art form has evolved, so have the connotations surrounding it, and at present, turning walls into canvases remains nothing more than vandalism according to US law.

Editorial Team , Oct 3, 2023

The debate over whether graffiti constitutes art or vandalism is incredibly complex, and depends on many factors, such as the location of a particular piece, and the quality and message of the design. There is no clear answer, and it’s easy to see both sides of the debate — after all, not everyone would be happy to have their property painted without their consent. On the flip side, it could also be argued that graffiti is an artist’s right to freedom of expression, and a way to ensure their work can be appreciated by those beyond the artistic elite.

However, we champion plenty of graffiti artists here at ArtLife, and even though there will always be exceptions, we stand firm that graffiti is deserving of its status as art for the following reasons:

Graffiti Takes Technical Skill

A great deal of talent is required to create brilliant artwork, and graffiti is no exception. In fact, there are plenty of street artists whose work clearly displays an immense level of technical ability. Take Retna, for example, who has gone beyond painting walls to cover entire buildings with his distinct calligraphic style, such as the 21-story Cuauhtemoc building in Mexico City. This unbelievably complex achievement required a great deal of strategic planning and real imagination to pull off, as well as a clear understanding of color and composition. This may not be true of all graffiti creations — many critics would argue that you don’t need talent to paint a scruffy tag. However, art is subjective, and there will always be ‘good’ and ‘bad’ artists within every movement. Those like Retna prove that, as in any art form, graffiti can be exceptional when created by someone with impressive skill.

It Exemplifies Freedom Of Expression

Art ceases to be art without freedom of expression, and perhaps graffiti exercises this right more than any other medium. Taking creativity to the streets means that the artists don’t need to worry about gallery curators, critics or potential buyers, and can therefore be completely unrestrained, and even anonymous if they so choose. Status doesn’t matter, and the lack of limitations allow graffiti artists to break conventions and push boundaries to create even more exciting — and arguably more authentic — works of art.

Political And Social Themes Are Powerfully Represented

Many of the most renowned artworks make a powerful comment on the social and political issues of their time, and graffiti can make a huge impact in this respect. Just look at Banksy, who has become world-famous for his humorous and subversive commentaries like Love is in the Air, first painted on Jerusalem’s West Bank barrier in 2003 as a statement in favor of Palestinian rights. Similarly, Keith Haring was able to bring mass attention to the crack epidemic through his Crack is Wack mural, as well as homosexuality and the AIDS crisis. Plenty of aficionados would argue that it’s art’s duty to shed light on such topics, and given that these themes relate to ordinary people, perhaps it’s unsurprising that the most iconic examples were created on the streets the target audience live on.

Impressive Works Bring Drab Spaces To Life

As well as having meaning, art is also valued for its beauty, and there’s no denying how beautiful some graffiti can look, which is why street art tours are now so popular all over the world. Even though graffiti is generally free to access, more and more people are willing to pay to see some of the most magnificent works in the city of choice. Bold colours, shapes and patterns are key features of this art form, and when artists let their imaginations run wild, their creations instantly transform drab spaces into places people are excited to be. Seeing as art is used to decorate the walls of our homes, couldn’t it be argued that graffiti does the same to the walls outside?

Huge Sales Demonstrate Its Artistic Value

Anyone arguing that graffiti isn’t art may struggle to explain why people have paid so much for it in recent years. For example, Untitled by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for a huge $110.5 million in 2017, the most expensive American painting ever to sell at auction at the time, while Banksy’s Girl with Balloon sold for $1.37 million. Other expensive pieces include Retna’s Untitled ($38,000) and Charlie Chaplin by Mr. Brainwash ($100,000). Not everyone would agree that an artwork’s value is determined by its price tag, however the fact that graffiti can sell for such high sums proves the respect and prestige it has generated within the art community, and it would therefore be entirely reductive to claim all graffiti is mere vandalism.

Is Graffiti Art or Vandalism in America?

This essay about the debate surrounding graffiti in America, questioning whether it should be considered as artistic expression or vandalism. It explores the complexities of graffiti as both an illegal act and a form of cultural commentary, acknowledging the tensions between art and law. While some argue that graffiti enhances urban environments and provides a voice for marginalized communities, others emphasize its criminality and disregard for property rights. Despite differing opinions, the essay emphasizes the need for thoughtful consideration and dialogue on this multifaceted issue.

How it works

Graffiti has long been a contentious subject in American society, with passionate arguments on both sides of the debate. Some view it as a form of artistic expression, while others see it simply as vandalism. However, the reality is far more complex than these simplistic viewpoints suggest.

At its core, graffiti is an art form. It is a means of self-expression for individuals who may not have access to more traditional forms of artistic expression. Graffiti artists use walls, buildings, and other public spaces as their canvas, transforming ordinary surfaces into vibrant works of art that reflect their thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

In this sense, graffiti can be seen as a form of cultural commentary, a way for marginalized voices to be heard in a society that often ignores them.

But while graffiti may be art, it is also illegal. The unauthorized defacement of public or private property is a criminal act, and graffiti artists who engage in it can face fines, jail time, and other legal consequences. This raises important questions about the relationship between art and law, and whether artistic expression should be subject to the same rules and regulations as other forms of behavior.

One argument often made in defense of graffiti is that it adds to the vibrancy and character of urban environments. Indeed, many cities around the world have embraced graffiti as a legitimate form of street art, commissioning murals and other works to beautify public spaces and deter vandalism. However, there is a fine line between sanctioned street art and illegal graffiti, and not all graffiti artists are interested in creating art that is socially or aesthetically valuable.

Ultimately, the question of whether graffiti is art or vandalism is a subjective one, and different people will have different opinions on the matter. What is clear, however, is that graffiti has become an integral part of the cultural landscape in America, challenging traditional notions of art and public space. As such, it is a phenomenon that cannot be easily dismissed or ignored, but rather one that demands thoughtful consideration and dialogue.

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Is Graffiti Art Or Vandalism In America?. (2024, Apr 07). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/is-graffiti-art-or-vandalism-in-america/

"Is Graffiti Art Or Vandalism In America?." PapersOwl.com , 7 Apr 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/is-graffiti-art-or-vandalism-in-america/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Is Graffiti Art Or Vandalism In America? . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/is-graffiti-art-or-vandalism-in-america/ [Accessed: 29 Apr. 2024]

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PapersOwl.com. (2024). Is Graffiti Art Or Vandalism In America? . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/is-graffiti-art-or-vandalism-in-america/ [Accessed: 29-Apr-2024]

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Defining Graffiti: Art or Vandalism

A draft proposal for a paper about graffiti

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In this paper, we critically review the literature on graffiti and street art with a view to bridging the divide between the stark extremities of public graffiti discourse. We make the case for moving beyond singular responses to the challenges posed by graffiti – into the complex terrain between visions of a city free from graffiti and one where public art has free rein. To this end, we have chosen a series of interrogations of common dialectical positions in talk of graffiti: is it art or crime; is it public or private expression; is it necessarily ephemeral, or does it seek permanence; is it a purely cultural practice, or is it economic? Our list is by no means exhaustive, but it does go some way to uncovering the complexity of graffiti's dynamic and contested geographies.

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The New York Times

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The Opinion Pages

July 11, 2014

When Does Graffiti Become Art?

Introduction.

New York City’s police commissioner, William Bratton, recently refocused police efforts to crack down on graffiti vandalism, even as many street artists have begun to sell their art through elite galleries for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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No museum that has celebrated graffiti in recent years would allow its own premises to be defaced for even one minute.

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I, for one, would rather see the creative outpouring of our youth on the walls, instead of the billboards and advertising inflicted on us around every corner.

Value in the Message and the Medium

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Despite the acceptance of graffiti, it needs the law so that it can function outside of it — that is how innovation is born.

Recent Discussions

Calabasas Courier Online

Graffiti should be recognized as art, not vandalism

Graffiti covers the walls of freeways, bridges and buildings, showcasing the talent of those who create the beautiful imagery.  It continues to become more widespread despite the ongoing debate of whether or not it is vandalism.  This street art beautifies cities by giving them character and making them look unique and personal.  As a non-violent form of expression, graffiti is a necessary outlet and should not be limited.

Buildings that are “tagged” have a more personal feel than buildings with plain white walls.  Because of the appreciation for graffiti’s beauty, instead of viewing graffiti as vandalism, many realize the amount of skill necessary to create the street art and appreciate the message it delivers.  Many people admire Keith Haring, a famous graffiti artist from the 80s known for his artwork around New York City.  Haring’s artwork is so widely known that the city has embraced its presence around the city.

“Graffiti reflects individuals’ views on various issues and can make a dull brick wall stunningly beautiful,” said junior Megan Richardson.

Graffiti is a form of expression, and artists should be free to make their thoughts and beliefs public.  Serving as a way to avoid violence, graffiti is an outlet for many to express their feelings.  Making street art illegal limits the freedom of artists to create influential masterpieces.  Graffiti artists create works that reflect both struggles and accomplishments and at many times display political and social messages.  The paint that coats walls in communities everywhere can contain symbolism so profound that it has been compared to poetry.  People around the world also know Banksy, a famous London-based graffiti artist, for his satirical street art that reflects his political views.  Banksy’s work is so distinct that it has inspired Obey Propaganda, a famous clothing company.  Many others are beginning to realize the influence graffiti has on the world, and famous street art will only continue to flourish.

Many believe that graffiti rebels against authority, yet the skill required to create elaborate graffiti is remarkable.  The world is a canvas for graffiti artists, and they should feel free to cover it as they please.

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Anonymous Hacker • Jun 10, 2021 at 8:49 pm

I have to write a debate for IPSHA Debating (in Australia) and this information has provided me much help. Thank you 🙂

Faye Aston • Mar 12, 2021 at 3:55 am

I’m writing a debate on this and it’s so helpful just reading ideas to write thank you so much for this website it’s helped me a lot

Chloe Wicker • Mar 5, 2021 at 8:39 am

Hello i’m in 7th Grade and I am writing an argumentative essay about Weather or not I think Graffiti should be illegal and I think it shouldn’t be this story is really helping me write my essay thanks so much for it

Jesus • Feb 5, 2021 at 8:28 am

Beautiful work

unkown • Oct 19, 2018 at 8:17 am

hmm. lameeee

carman flores • May 21, 2018 at 2:05 pm

I honestly believe that graffiti is a way for people not as wealthy as others to show that art doesnt come from intelligence but the desire to bring whats in their minds out for others t see. ~Carman Flores

Ashlynn Anthony • May 9, 2018 at 5:48 pm

I am doing an essay on this and I think all you’re comments are very helpful and the information is valid. Although I do think you should include more insite for both sides of the debate. Cheers.

nino • Mar 13, 2018 at 2:53 pm

6this article was very helpful for essay at evergreen

destiny • Jan 11, 2018 at 8:48 pm

i beleie that graffiti is art its beautiful and it allows you to pour out your feelings into a drawing

Jane • Jun 6, 2017 at 9:44 pm

I’m writing an argument to argue that graffiti is art and not vandalism and this is so helpful thankyou!

Quack • May 17, 2017 at 12:03 am

I really need some help on my debating topic

Hailey • Mar 1, 2017 at 8:13 am

Thankyou so much this helped so much with my paper i’m writing.

Brandon • Aug 18, 2016 at 1:54 pm

I am also writing an essay on this and think it is a great topic. I think all these people are really talented. Thank you for the info.

Say_savage • Feb 15, 2017 at 6:54 pm

Thanks for this I really needed this article to provide evidence that graffiti is an art thanks again

notme • Jul 1, 2016 at 1:21 pm

it is art but its better that it is illegal if it was not it wouldn’t be so prolific, so dramatic, and intensified. to get in the mind of a writer is a crazy thing but they enjoy it being illegal. if graffiti was legal it would cease to have those powerful messages they convey they say so much if a writer goes out at dead of night while no one is their. it would be like a verse with no beat if it would ever be legal…people would loose their drive for it

samantha • Jun 1, 2016 at 6:24 am

Graffiti is a beautiful non-violent to express emotion.

carly • Feb 26, 2016 at 9:31 am

I believe graffiti is art it shows emotion and skill plus an amazing talent the artists have.

Dana • Mar 22, 2016 at 11:02 am

I am writing a paper on this topic and I think this is so true

jordan • Feb 9, 2017 at 9:40 am

i am to and this is helpful for my debate

Maddie • May 14, 2018 at 4:31 am

Me to I am writting an exposition writing for it

Seth Price • Mar 26, 2017 at 9:39 pm

im doing a debate on this topic and I think the info is great

destiny • Jan 11, 2018 at 8:37 pm

yes i aslo agree with what you have said it also!

carman flores • May 21, 2018 at 2:02 pm

I honestly believe graffiti is a way for people who dont have any money to show that they are talented too.

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Why Graffiti Should Be Considered Art, not Vandalism

• Categories: Graffiti Street Art

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Words: 1592 |

Published: Dec 16, 2021

Words: 1592 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Works cited

• Shoenberger, Elisa “Despite Graffiti’s Global Popularity, Cities Still Criminalize It” Artsy, 18 july 2019, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-despite-graffitis-global-popularity-cities-criminalize
• MacDonald, Christine “Street Art Used To Be the Voice of the People. Now It’s the Voice of Advertisers.” In These Times, 11 March 2019, https://inthesetimes.com/article/21732/street-art-murals-corporations-advertising-los-angeles-muralism-graffiti
• Lucero, Sage “Shepard Fairey and the Phenomenon of Street Art” Medium, 12 August 2018.
• Green, Madeleynn “A Beautiful Mess: The Evolution of Political Graffiti in the Contemporary City” Journal Quest, 11 August 2019, www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1699/a-beautiful-mess-the-evolution-of-political-graffiti-in-the-contemporary-city

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Cornerstone of the essay, presenting the central argument that will be elaborated upon and supported with evidence and analysis throughout the rest of the paper.

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Is Graffiti Art or Vandalism? (1473 words)

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Graffiti – The Art of the Outlaws

There is a certain beauty to graffiti, with all the colors and the big variety of different styles of letters. There has been a debate about graffiti ever since the caveman days. Although graffiti is illegal and is considered vandalism by the law, some people considered it art because, it is a way people can express themselves and let their voices be heard. Graffiti can be used as artistic expression, or a form of communication, but many people consider it to be vandalism.

Because it occurs in public, graffiti is a way for a wide range of people that might not typically interact with one another, to freely and directly communicate with one another” (Conklin). It is considered a form of communication for many people who feel they are not heard. Many graffiti protests have transpired throughout social history. It is the only way some people communicate dissenting messages to the public. Both form of communication can bring powerful messages to the public through political commentary, and making an impact on civic consciousness.

What is graffiti

Graffiti is a way under-served parts of society can gain power and value though communicate and presence into space where they are otherwise not allowed or welcomed” (Conklin). Graffiti challenges “ free speech zones”, pushing the boundaries of what is allowed and not allowed. Graffiti is considered a form of communication in the form of images that are put on buildings without permission. Graffiti can give humans a voice for places they can not go or are not allowed. That is how some people might communicate to let their voices be heard, while other think it is vandalism. In public art and street art there really is no difference.

If graffiti is considered vandalism then why should not public art be considered vandalism as well. “Street art is considered rebellious in nature and illegal in practice, while public art is commissioned by cities or property owners and is considered culturally enriching and socially acceptable”(Imam). Street art is both illegal and is not accepted in society. While public art is culturally and socially acknowledged. They are both made in the street and they are both written on walls. Graffiti has been around many years. Graffiti is been one of the largest art trends to last.

Cave painting can be considered graffiti as well. Graffiti technique can be viewed as pricey art. Graffiti has gained popularity and has become socially acceptable such as commercial graffiti. In commercial graffiti street artist get hired to create graffiti based on advertisements in cities such as London, New York, Atlanta and Paris. “A school teacher in Montessori sees himself as a public artist. People around the city call him a street artist because of his use of spray painting” (Imam ). Many people who are street artists or public artists don’t consider themselves as street artist.

Many artist hesitate to call themselves a street artist or a graffiti artist. Graffiti artist are socially or politically driven, it can even be drive by almost communal pride. People’s attitude towards graffiti is extremely different, they hate tags but they want the murals. Many do not realize that they are all connected and related; their is no murals without tagging. Elaborate beautiful murals on random or local public walls is where graffiti is mostly found. Their is no difference in public art and street art. They are all connected and related to each other.

Graffiti: Art or vandalism

Thought our history many different styles to graffiti have been created. Their a merals, tagging and more. Graffiti can be considered art as well, if graffiti artist are tagging then that is considered vandalism. If it is a meral and it points out a message then it is considered art. “ Distinction between simple tags and more complicated pieces, stating that tags have little aesthetic appeal and probably should not be considered art. However, larger pieces require planning and imagination and contain artistic elements like color and composition”(Stowers). Graffiti has many different types of styles.

Some pieces can be complicated while others like tagging are simple. Tagging is one form of graffiti anyone can do it. Than their is wildstyle graffiti. Wild Style changes with each artist’s view of the alphabet. Also wildstyle relies on the fading, foreground and background color. Each graffiti peice that is creating a states a statement or a saying. “ Tags scribbled on subway trains to a complex mural on a billboard are movements that graffiti has experienced change in style. Like all other forms of art” (Stowers). Tagging should be considered vandalism. Writing your name on the wall is not a piece of art.

A five year old child can do that. The definition of art is the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture. Graffiti is visualized, it is a way for the artists to express themselves. Graffiti to some people can be always considered vandalism. It is something they do not understand, so they dislike it. “That graffiti signaled that informal social controls and law enforcement had broken down in New York’s public spaces, making them vulnerable to even greater levels of disorder and law-breaking”( ).

To some people think that graffiti is a juvenile act. Graffiti is a silent characteristic which is crime itself . In New York many of social controls and law enforcements had broken down in public spaces making it a more greater for place to be graffiti on and for crime to happen. Graffiti on public walls and ruined building that will lead to bigger crimes in the cities. Which will ruin the whole cities perspective. “People think that since their is tagging or graffiti in a park or a certain area that that area is dominated by vandals who might be involved in other crimes” (Donald).

Why people don`t like graffiti

People do not like going to parks or through streets that have graffiti around them. They think it is related with gangs which can lead to bigger crime. Also they think graffiti is associated with gangs, violence and drugs. So everytime they see graffiti on a wall, broken windows they associated it with gangs and crime. If you must force your efforts on the public your “art” is seriously lacking merit. Many people consider graffiti as vandalism instead of art. Graffiti art, public art and graffiti writing is simply another art form.

Art is personal and can take on many forms. “It would not make sense to expect everyone to have the same taste”(Nieves). They do not like it and think it is vandalism because they do not understand it. People do not like things they do not understand. Not all forms of graffiti is related to gangs and vandalism reputations. Their festivals around the world that give graffiti artists a chance to show of their work. It also pops a questions about showcasing graffiti as art.

Would showcasing graffiti engage people’s curiosity as art would spread into vandalism across cities. Buildings that been abandoned and ignored by the community are the ones that get tagged on and become art canvases”( (Nieves). The only building and communities that they see graffiti on is place that have been abandoned. Graffiti art is not seen on many well built communities. It might be gang influenced but it is not always crime related. Graffiti has served a social identity of generations of youth. Graffiti that is considered tagging in vandalism and may influence gangs and violence. According to the dictionary it is unauthorized and it destroys someone’s property.

The owner has the right to their own property to make it look clean, but if someone is tagging on it then it is stealing the property owners right to keep their yard clean and nice. Graffiti artists never make the offer to pay the repair for their destruction. Which cost thousands to repair or replace. Graffiti that takes a great deal of time and has lots of color graffiti would be considered art. When artists create graffiti they can not erase or stroke, it is hard to get the right texture and the right shadowing; it can be considered on of the hardest forms of art.

The graffiti artists want people to see their work. Their is no incentive target to a area if people erase the art of a graffiti artist. Tagging is horrible scribble you see painted or scrawled on fences, bridges, in subways, on the sides of buildings and houses. Which is why people don’t like it. What they do not see is it has a certain beauty to it, with beautiful colors and powerful messages. It is a way people express their opinions about the world. Where people like it or not graffiti is considered art.

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Climate activist who defaced Edgar Degas sculpture exhibit sentenced

Chloe Veltman

Joanna Smith was sentenced today for defacing the case of Edgar Degas' Little Dancer sculpture in 2023. National Gallery of Art hide caption

Joanna Smith was sentenced today for defacing the case of Edgar Degas' Little Dancer sculpture in 2023.

A climate activist found guilty of one count of causing injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit last year for defacing the case around a sculpture by Edgar Degas at the Washington, D.C., museum was sentenced in federal court on Friday.

Joanna Smith, 54, of Brooklyn, N.Y., got 60 days of prison time out of a possible maximum sentence of five years for smearing red and black paint on the case surrounding Degas' Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen on Apr. 27, 2023. The 1881 artwork is on permanent display at the museum.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered Smith to serve 24 months of supervised release and 150 hours of community service, of which 10 hours must involve cleaning graffiti. Smith must pay restitution for the damage to the Degas exhibit and is also barred from entering the District of Columbia and all museums and monuments for two years. (The plaintiff did not incur a monetary fine otherwise, though the maximum sentence could have included anything up to a $250,000 penalty.)

Smith undertook the action with North Carolina-based climate activist Tim Martin. They are members of the climate activism group Declare Emergency.

According to a statement from the D.C. United States Attorney's Office, Smith and Martin specifically targeted the artwork.

"Smith and the co-conspirator passed through security undetected with paint secreted inside water bottles," the statement said. "The duo approached the exhibit, removed the bottles from their bags, and began smearing paint on the case and base."

The statement said the National Gallery had to remove the sculpture from public display for 10 days, and that gallery officials said it cost over $4,000 to repair the damage.

"On April 27, 2023, the protective sanctuary for this beloved girl [Degas' "Little Dancer"] was battered. She is one of the most vulnerable and fragile works in our entire collection. I cannot overemphasize how the violent treatment of her protection barrier, repeated slamming, and vibrations, have forever jeopardized her stability," said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art, in a statement to NPR. "With increased frequency, institutions – overwhelmingly non-profit museums for the public benefit – have suffered collateral damage at the hands of agendas that have nothing to do with museums or the art attacked. The real damage that these acts of vandalism pose must be taken seriously to deter future incidents that continue to threaten our cultural heritage and historic memory."

"The 'Little Dancer' is a depiction of a vulnerable, 14-year-old girl who worked at the Paris Opera. Degas' depiction of her is beautiful and has been viewed by millions, but the 'Little Dancer' seemingly disappeared after she posed for Degas," said a statement on Declare Emergency's Instagram page explaining the action at the museum last year. "Like the 'Little Dancer,' millions of little girls and boys won't have a future because our leaders didn't act decades ago when they should have and continue to drag their feet to stop the fossil fueled climate catastrophe that is engulfing us all."

'We want to help': Why climate activists are trying something new

Smith and Martin were taken into custody following an indictment . They were charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit.

Smith pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson in Washington D.C., last December.

Martin's jury trial case is scheduled for Aug. 26.

A cause célèbre

Popularly known as "The Degas Two," Smith and Martin have become a cause célèbre in climate activism circles.

Colleagues from other climate groups have spoken out publicly about the case.

Last June, around 20 members of Extinction Rebellion NYC and Rise and Resist protested the charges against Martin and Smith at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Extinction Rebellion climate activist Lydia Woolley interrupted a Broadway performance last month, yelling, "Don't forget about Joanna Smith. Don't forget about Tim Martin. Don't forget about the truth tellers. This play doesn't end when you leave the theater."

And more than 1,000 people signed a petition ahead of the sentence hearing urging judge Amy Berman Jackson to show leniency on Smith.

Climate activists have been attacking artworks recently, but how effective is this?

"Smith and Martin placed their hands in water-soluble paint and left their handprints on equipment supporting the Degas sculpture 'Little Dancer,' which portrays a child. They willingly allowed themselves to be arrested for this symbolic act of civil disobedience, which caused no harm to any person and did not result in the destruction or damage of any property," the letter to Jackson accompanying the petition states. "The right to protest in the U.S. and the history of symbolic, nonviolent civil disobedience actions are well-documented. However, these charges and this case appear to disregard past precedents and respond to these recent acts in an excessively severe manner."

Increasing penalties

Penalties against climate protest have been increasing over the past couple of years — and not just in the U.S.

Last year, for instance, two protesters from the climate activism group Just Stop Oil each received sentences of more than two-and-a-half years for scaling a bridge over the River Thames in southeast England, causing a public nuisance. (Both men ended up serving partial sentences — Morgan was released last December and Decker, this past February.)

Climate activists throw soup at glass protecting Mona Lisa in Paris

And just this week, British physician Sarah Benn, who spent more than a month in jail after a series of climate protests, was suspended by a medical tribunal for misconduct.

In Germany, police launched raids against climate activists with the Letzte Generation (Last Generation) group last year. According to an article in The Washington Post from May 2023, seven suspects "were accused of organizing a fundraising campaign to finance criminal activities, advertising them on their website and collecting at least $1.5 million in donations so far."

Broader implications

Some climate change activism experts are considering how the ratcheting up of penalties against protesters will impact the movement more broadly.

"It is putting people off for sure," said James Özden, the founder of Social Change Lab , a nonprofit that researches climate activism and other social movements. "I think it's meaningful that only a small number of people who are willing and able to take these kinds of risks are taking these kinds of actions."

Protests at art museums are nothing new. Here are 3 famous examples from history

But Özden also said the severity of governmental pushback could potentially galvanize activists towards taking even more risks.

"Even though the sentences increase, so does people's desire to actually do something about climate change and make a change and try help wherever they can. So I expect people will keep taking these actions because they don't see a viable alternative," he said.

Martin of "The Degas Two" said the inability of many people to grasp the severity of the climate change crisis is the biggest hurdle obstructing the momentum of the climate movement.

"Until the climate and social justice emergencies become more of a clear and present danger to Americans, we won't have nearly the number of supporters we ought to have who are willing to risk arrest," Martin said.

Jennifer Vanasco edited this story.

• declare emergency
• climate activism
• joanna smith
• little dancer
• Extinction Rebellion
• National Gallery
• climate change