Street Art Versus Museums

Street Art Versus Museums: The Role of Context in Exhibition The concept of integrating urban life and art has come to play a central role in a movement of artists for whom the city walls act as the canvas to their limitless imaginations. These artists practice street art - the creation of unsanctioned visual art in a public space outside the context of traditional art venues. Since the birth of this art form during the late 1960s in New York, these artists have often been in dissonance with the dominant culture due to the illegal nature and unconventional methods behind their self-expression. As detailed in the following: The energy and expression of street art [has been] widely regarded by the general populace as a kind of urban noise …show more content…
I ultimately argue that this representation is reflective of the outside perspective that street art has been generally seen through since its beginnings as an art form - such alone should prompt traditional art institutions to further investigate into the contextual significance behind the exhibition of a marginalized subculture. Understanding the importance of context behind artwork in general will demonstrate the fundamental significance of the context behind street art specifically. As defined by Doctor Belton of the University of British Columbia, context is “the varied circumstances in which an artwork is (or was) produced and/or interpreted” that constitute one of the three essential artistic elements next to content and form (“The Elements of Art”). As such, context has an undeniable importance in an artwork. However, to truly develop an understanding of this importance, its definition must be examined through the concept of authenticity. According to German philosopher Walter Benjamin, authenticity can be described as “the core…the quintessence of all that is transmissible in [an artwork] from its origin on, ranging from its …show more content…
Prior to the popularization of street art today, street artists have often consisted of a group of youth who clashed against the dominant culture through their artwork. As such, they have typically faced in the past “an increasingly aggressive criminalization of their activities by local and state authorities” as described by author and criminologist Jeff Ferrell (79). This criminalization has led to an urban environment defined by the control of the general public and government - for example, it has become commonplace for cities to have laws restricting minors to certain curfews and limiting the sale of spray paint to those over the adult age. The effect is to suggest that street art acts as a gateway into more severe criminal offenses. Consequently, street artists have often been inspired by this presumption to act resistant to the normative societal structures and pressures placed on them - this creates a feedback loop of insubordination that bolsters rather than prohibits the artists (Ferrell 80). The portrayal of street art within the traditions of the Museum of Contemporary Art depicts conformity rather than this rebellious nature that street art is rooted in. In his exhibition, Deitch differentiated the street artists and their work that he chose into arbitrary categories that he thought was best