In 1984, 80% of all New York subway trains had graffiti on them and the city was said to be ‘out of control’. Vandalism was a quality of life issue for most people, and seeing spray paint on the side of buildings or dumpsters gave people the feeling of a ‘bad neighborhood’. Graffiti also decreased the value of nearby property because the street art used to be seen as a gang sign, and gave it an ‘unwelcome vibe’. But nowadays, people are seeing the beauty in it’s use and it is now seen as a new form of “Post-Modernistic Art”. Art is defined as an expression or application of human skill and imagination, therefore the street art you see on the side of an abandoned building using abstraction of letter forms with both color and composition should
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Over the years of Art Prizes existence, there have been countless graffiti entries created by “Anonymous artists” who have brought up the debate over the distinction between street art and vandalism. “Odd Job”, one of the graffiti artists presented in artprize who refuses to identify himself, has made three artprize entries featuring street paintings. His first, on the side of the B.O.B., features Gerald R. Ford and his wife Betty accepting his Republican nomination. The second, a picture of Ford in a bathing suit and towel on the side of the Devos place. And the third, featuring two Ford paintings on a wall facing Mary’s Catholic Church (Ellison). Odd Job has helped us in the debate against graffiti to determine what really is art. When someone is excoriating a potential art form, they are forgetting the American ideal of beauty, which means just because you think something is “ugly” does not mean it isn’t art or that is doesn’t have beauty. It just means you don’t see it like the artist did. When people denounce graffiti because it has an unwelcome tone or is seen as “dirty” and “ugly”, that is a biased opinion. We don’t think Banksy is a criminal for his artistic talents, yet we put so many people behind bars for committing “vandalism” when they are really just trying to express themselves. Banksy has said so himself that he was not taken seriously as an artist, that he was often castigated by society like all the other street artists in our country. We need to stop depreciating graffiti because it is an art, and artists should not be punished for creating
Over the years of Art Prizes existence, there have been countless graffiti entries created by “Anonymous artists” who have brought up the debate over the distinction between street art and vandalism. “Odd Job”, one of the graffiti artists presented in artprize who refuses to identify himself, has made three artprize entries featuring street paintings. His first, on the side of the B.O.B., features Gerald R. Ford and his wife Betty accepting his Republican nomination. The second, a picture of Ford in a bathing suit and towel on the side of the Devos place. And the third, featuring two Ford paintings on a wall facing Mary’s Catholic Church (Ellison). Odd Job has helped us in the debate against graffiti to determine what really is art. When someone is excoriating a potential art form, they are forgetting the American ideal of beauty, which means just because you think something is “ugly” does not mean it isn’t art or that is doesn’t have beauty. It just means you don’t see it like the artist did. When people denounce graffiti because it has an unwelcome tone or is seen as “dirty” and “ugly”, that is a biased opinion. We don’t think Banksy is a criminal for his artistic talents, yet we put so many people behind bars for committing “vandalism” when they are really just trying to express themselves. Banksy has said so himself that he was not taken seriously as an artist, that he was often castigated by society like all the other street artists in our country. We need to stop depreciating graffiti because it is an art, and artists should not be punished for creating