Modern graffiti originated in Philadelphia during the 1960s. However, people have been leaving a mark and their name on walls and buildings since the early ages of human civilization. In France in 1968, a student revolt occurred in Paris and the working class joined in on the protest. Political graffiti was put up all over the city. One of the original graffiti artists was Corn Bread in Philadelphia during the beginning. He originally started writing his name on walls to make a mark and the idea spread rapidly once it reached the news. The next big place is spread was New York City. During the 1970s, hip hop was forming and graffiti was becoming a major art form. Taki 183 was a graffiti artist that popularized name graffiti when an article in the NYC newspaper made him go viral. T Kid is another graffiti artist during this time period. Much of the graffiti was found in the Bronx because this was where hip hop originated and also the poorest area of NYC. However, the idea spread to other parts of NYC when artists would write their name and words in the trains going back and forth to different areas during the mid 1970s. Just writing your signature on anything is calling “bombing.” In the 1980s, a more detailed and elaborate lettering for the signature become popularized. The graffiti group Wild Style was very good at this form of graffiti. One of the members, Pink, talks about being a women graffiti artist in the 1980s in an art form dominated by men. She has been degraded for her work but she continues to keep pushing forward. This continued into the 1980s until politicians voted to clean the subways in the late 1980s. People were using the subway less because they felt unsafe. Politicians blamed the crime going on in the subway on graffiti and claimed it was a gateway crime for bigger violent crimes. Politicians have been against graffiti for a long time. They believe it destroys their clean city, especially in NYC. They try to make policies that stop people from making art. However, people are not going to stop making art just because graffiti is criminalized. They just go to more secretive spots like the underground subway walls, like Fuckin Reus. He starting writing paragraphs on walls because he didn’t want to work a blue collared job like his dad did. People have different reasons for making art, some of them being, political, rebellious, or just for fun. When this American graffiti spread to the rest of the world, different countries formed their own version of it. In Paris, French artist Blek Le Rat wanted to write his name like in American graffiti but that did not fit the architecture of France. So he decided to start painting small rats everywhere. Rats are animals found all over France. He also starting painting beautiful paintings of the memories of people and about the poverty crisis. In Amsterdam/Holland, female artist Mickey paints murals of eyeballs and aliens to enforce the idea that they are watching the world. She works as an elementary school teacher at night and is a very strong influence on the kids she works with. Her work in interesting because her day job and night activities are very contradictory. Scage is another artist but instead of normal graffiti, he uses his work as a graphic designer to create beautiful abstract paintings. In Hamburg, Paim created one of the tallest works of graffiti on a building. Different countries have created their own forms of graffiti because of they were inspired by Philadelphia and NYC.
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