Graffiti – an Infamous Art Form

Now that graffiti was popular in many different parts of the country and with many different people, graffiti art spread to a new group of people, and thanks to them whenever someone hears the word “graffiti” they think of gangs. These people were the “gangstas”. Gang members took advantage of graffiti art and used it, and are still using it today, to send gang messages or claim territory.

Now that graffiti art was so popular among much of the youth living in the U.S., graffiti artists started befriending each other and forming what they called “crews”. A crew was a group of friends who went out and painted graffiti together. Each member of a crew has there own tag and the crew as a whole also has a name. Often times the names of crews consisted of many words, so they just used initials to write their crew’s name. An example of that would be a crew called “East Side Bombers”; instead of writing out there whole name they would just write “E.S.B.”.

The urban sub-culture (hip hop, graffiti, break dancing), had gotten so big by the early 90s that people started using it to make money. Graffiti art became a huge part of graphic design, and there many clothing lines that are based around graffiti. However, subway art is not completely dead, graffiti can often be found in warehouses, on walls, on buildings and in art galleries.

Graffiti art is often used as a form of expression among the youth. Self expression has become more and more unwelcome in our modern day society, and graffiti and hip hop are a great way to be able to express ones self. When a graffiti artist steps away from a wet piece they feel proud of theme selves, the reason graffiti became so popular among the youth is because it gives them a since of personality and self expression; everyone who sees their work, will know how that person feels.

You may have noticed one phrase popping up quite frequently in this article: hip hop. Graffiti and hip hop originated in the same time period and were spread and practiced by the same people. Hip hop (often referred to as “rap”), was also a great way of self expression among the youth and is a big part f the urban sub-culture.

Graffiti has just as much right to be considered art as pottery or canvas painting. Graffiti today, is also a big art form in many parts of Europe ans some parts of Asia. It is safe to say that graffiti is one of the biggest cultural movements this planet has seen and it looks like graffiti won’t be going anytime soon.