Is graffiti art or vandalism?

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Painting and sculpture, striking installations, performances and shows of light and sound - all this is now perceived as an indisputable manifestation of art. The perception of such phenomena entirely depends on the consciousness of the beholder, the degree of his awareness of cultural issues, readiness to understand and realize something new. For some, bold steps towards beauty seem wild and useless, for some - inspiring and truly resolute, and someone is absolutely indifferent to such manifestations of art.

In every city in the world you can find walls on which all kinds of inscriptions or drawings flaunt. This is true street art, seen by some as vandalism.

From the depths of human history to today

It's hardly a secret that everything new is just well-forgotten old. By and large, the inscriptions on the surface of the walls are by no means know-how for humanity. Recall, for example, the drawings of the Paleolithic era, which representatives of the world archaeological community now and then find in various parts of the globe.

Of course, in this case, we can say that at that stage of development, such manifestationscravings for beauty had a completely different meaning, but there is no escape from the similarity in relation to physical manifestation. From this point of view, graffiti is just a small legacy of our great past.

It all depends on the interpretation

Few people know, but in the archaeological and art history this term is used quite actively, however, it has a slightly different meaning. In the mind of the average citizen, graffiti is any drawing or inscription placed on a wall, fence, and, by and large, on any horizontal or vertical surface (let's not forget about three-dimensional drawings on asph alt, which are gaining popularity around the world).

In the historiographic view, the term has a slightly different, deeper and more specific meaning. In the broadest sense, graffiti is any image or inscription applied to a surface using paint or, for example, chasing, scratching. In a narrower view, only scratched images and letters belong to this kind of archaeological finds, which is explained by the etymological origin of the term. Everything else is referred to only as dipinti.

A little historical background

For those who believe that graffiti is only a manifestation of vandalism, it should be noted once again the fact of the antiquity of such a phenomenon on the path of world development.

Gradually, primitive pictograms improved, acquired a certain meaning and were reflected in the era of Antiquity. graffiti art canmeet in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, which is located on the territory of modern Turkey, and the ancient Romans did tend to decorate not only walls, but also statues with inscriptions.

No matter how strange it may sound, but this method of fixing and transmitting information was quite common for Ancient Russia. In Novgorod, Kyiv and other cities, hundreds of wall images and inscriptions have been preserved, which are now considered full-fledged historical monuments. By the way, such phenomena tell the modern world a lot about the development of writing.

On the walls of the Egyptian pyramids you can also find the scratched names of the French soldiers who were in this area.

Today

In fairness, it should be noted that all of the above historical evidence can be described as "graffiti" in an exclusively cultural sense. All these inscriptions were scratched on the walls of temples, on statues and stones, while today such things are manifested exclusively with the help of paint. Nowadays, graffiti is the art of the streets, these are paintings painted on the walls, among which you can sometimes find truly beautiful things: replicas of Dali paintings or original works that are simply breathtaking.

The problem of society itself

In that case, you say, where does such a huge number of people come from, who consider such manipulations with paints to be purely vandalism and do not want to look at things a little differently?

Such a point of viewreally quite common at the moment, and there is no getting away from it. The thing is that the perception of beauty is, firstly, a purely individual thing, and secondly, it requires thorough cultural preparation. In order to consider that graffiti is an art, it is necessary to have a minimal understanding of aesthetics in general and its modern manifestation in particular. This concerns not only the beholder, but also the one who draws - drawing an inscription for the sake of the inscription itself, of course, can hardly be called a masterpiece. Especially if this is done carelessly and completely thoughtlessly.

The same inscription, however, if presented correctly, can become an exclusively aesthetic object.

Banksy

That's who definitely showed the world the art of graffiti. Photos of the works of this artist have spread all over the Internet and at one time became a real sensation. In particular, this was reinforced by the audacity with which the problems of modern society were revealed in street paintings. Many of this artist's works were real political satire. Others are just concept drawings to get you thinking.

Paintings continually appeared on the walls of various cities, the style became more and more recognizable, but the identity of the street artist still could not be established. Moreover, no one has succeeded to this day.

For Banksy and people like him, graffiti is something between a way of self-expression and a tool for working with mass consciousness, since not a single work,thought-provoking, simply not to be found.

Politics and the birth of street art

Oddly enough, street paintings are so popular today largely due to the activities of American political activists who sought to express their point of view by any available means.

From 1969 to 1974, graffiti developed rapidly, new styles appeared, ways of applying paint to walls, until the popularity of this art form reached its kind of apogee. Since then, not only the streets and underground passages began to be full of "tags", but also metro stations.

Political slogans gradually began to be diluted with other words, ranging from literary quotes to swear words. Perhaps it was during this period that the question: is graffiti a form of art or vandalism - was the most relevant.

Declining popularity

It is quite natural that such antics could not remain unpunished for a long time. With the "crack epidemic" breaking out and the rise of swearing on the city walls, the government had to take action, and gradually they became more and more drastic.

This naturally led to a decrease in the popularity of this art form. For a long time, it fell into a state of decline.

Commercialization and return of popularity

Despite the fact that this art form practically turned into graffiti on paper and did not find any reflection on the city walls, there have always been true fans of suchmodern "rock inscriptions". New paintings appeared in cities every now and then, which sometimes even acquired the status of a landmark.

Quite often the "victims" of graffiti were the walls of various shops and shopping centers. Entrepreneurial owners, able to appreciate the benefits of such phenomena, quickly took note of this way of attracting consumer attention, and soon the graffiti on paper turned into full-fledged custom-made paintings. For many artists, this has literally become a way to earn money, and it is not at all surprising that this phenomenon fits so well into the concept of pop art.

Modernity

Today, graffiti is mostly a non-commercial phenomenon, but in almost every city in the world you can find some kind of cafe or bookstore decorated in this style.

Paintings placed on walls and fences either acquire greater aesthetics or are replaced by inscriptions that have an exclusively political context. It depends, first of all, on the situation in a particular country, the level of stability and well-being of the population.

Despite the fact that the tendency towards aestheticization is definitely taking place, in moments of popular upheaval, the original purpose of graffiti art returns, and a forced decline follows the heyday of the culture of street paintings.

How to treat such manifestationsArt is a personal matter. Someone prefers not to notice them at all, someone writes angry posts about them on personal blogs, and someone collects and enjoys the simple contemplation of freedom of expression.

A poorly written inscription can sometimes spoil even the greatest building, considered one of the greatest architectural monuments, but sometimes just a few colored strokes can turn the most ordinary ruins into a real object of art…