The 1980's were the years of rediscovery of painting in modern art. As a reaction to the boring conceptual art movement of the 60's and 70's, paint flooded richly and spray cans bursted out expressing the intense desire for individuality. Artists were Gods, stars, dancing on clouds. Ego was no.1. Everything was possible.
The Graffiti Art Movement came into existence in the late 1960's, at the time of the famous Martin Luther King march. After his brute assassination in 1968, young kids started to bomb trains with their tags (autographs in trains).
After that the exteriors of trains offered new opportunities and soon the beautiful sprayed graffiti trains ran through New York City like propaganda trains for the new desire for identity and recognition as an artist.
Because graffiti was strictly forbidden from 1972 onwards, it now had to take place in the middle of the night. The graffiti artists had to work at a frenzied pace, since the trains had to be up and running before dawn. Therefore, graffiti artists started to make preparatory drawings (blackbooks gaffiti) of their designs and photographed the trains.
Because the exteriors of trains have large surfaces, the graffiti makers had to work more and more in collaboration with others. Talents who have their own special graffiti styles began to stand out. They are called King or Prince of Graffiti and have their own students, Toys, to help them. The movement was like a medieval system in itself.
Only the third generation graffiti makers brought forth real artists, when by 1980 artists like Blade, Quik, Crash, Dondi, Futura 2000, Seen, NOC167 and Rammellzee started to paint on canvas. This facilitated them to work in the peace of their own studios.
The Graffiti Art Movement came into existence in the late 1960's, at the time of the famous Martin Luther King march. After his brute assassination in 1968, young kids started to bomb trains with their tags (autographs in trains).
After that the exteriors of trains offered new opportunities and soon the beautiful sprayed graffiti trains ran through New York City like propaganda trains for the new desire for identity and recognition as an artist.
Because graffiti was strictly forbidden from 1972 onwards, it now had to take place in the middle of the night. The graffiti artists had to work at a frenzied pace, since the trains had to be up and running before dawn. Therefore, graffiti artists started to make preparatory drawings (blackbooks gaffiti) of their designs and photographed the trains.
Because the exteriors of trains have large surfaces, the graffiti makers had to work more and more in collaboration with others. Talents who have their own special graffiti styles began to stand out. They are called King or Prince of Graffiti and have their own students, Toys, to help them. The movement was like a medieval system in itself.
Only the third generation graffiti makers brought forth real artists, when by 1980 artists like Blade, Quik, Crash, Dondi, Futura 2000, Seen, NOC167 and Rammellzee started to paint on canvas. This facilitated them to work in the peace of their own studios.
The former Kings of Graffiti became very successful with large and crowded exhibitions, mainly in European Museums and Galleries. Graffiti developed into a rich and diverse art movement with great social concerns, in which rap music, hip hop, break dance, fashion and skating formed a total art movement, all expressing the new identity and freedom of young colored people in the big cities.
The movement was of importance as a revolution against the establishment, as a worldwide fight for freedom of minorities. Graffiti is not a movement of vandals trying to make people's lives impossible. It is an outburst of creative culture that spread as a 'Gesamtkunstwerk' through the history of art. It is a statement for the right to be a free artist, accepted by the High Art World; a right to be a Graffiti Creator.
As such it was symbolic for the worldwide liberation movement of the 1980's in both arts and in politics.
