We explain what graffiti is and the origin of the term. Also, the types of graffiti and the history of this artistic technique.
What is graffiti?
It is called graffiti, graffiti or graffiti a mode of painting or visual street art generally illegal or paralegal, which is generally carried out on large surfaces of urban spaces: walls, gates, walls, etc.
It usually ranges from more or less abstract illustrations to written messages and other forms of intervention through painting, generally in stencil or aerosol.
He term graffiti comes from Italian and in turn from the name given to the satirical inscriptions in public spaces made during the Roman Empire, known as graFphytoand which are its most remote antecedent.
This term, however, became enormously popular after its incorporation into American street culture, as well as the more or less countercultural movements of hip-hop and different urban tribes, which used this type of form of expression.
However, protest graffiti has long been part of the political imagination of contemporary nations. It is often said that what the media is silent about is shouted by the walls, meaning that in the face of repressive regimes that censor the press, graffiti is imposed as a means of protest.
In other areas, however, it can be considered a form of visual pollution, especially less harmonious and less visually elaborate writings.
Generally graffiti takes place on high or highly visible walls sometimes as a way of territorial marking or competition to conquer the most daring spaces, in the face of possible interruption of the drawing by the police.
Furthermore, the illustrations are usually not very durable, as public spaces are repainted.
There are three main types of graffiti, although there is no formal study of them nor too strict rules for its preparation:
- Art graffiti Associated with the hip-hop culture of the 70s and 80s in the United States, it tends to represent more or less abstract motifs, names (“tags” or labels: code names) or recurring messages, always through a display of colors and in ways that sometimes take several days to complete.
- Public graffiti Public “slogans” that appear in a city and reiterate political slogans or messages, more or less satirical or rude, trying to give a message to the masses. Protest graffiti also falls into this category.
- Latrinalia This is the name given to poorly elaborate, rude and generally low-level graffiti that predominates in public bathrooms and transit spaces, such as doors, elevators, trains, etc. They can range from confessions of love, threats, denunciations to attempts at poetry or stories.
More elaborate expressions of graffiti are valued today as a form of artistic intervention in urban space, becoming world famous despite their ephemeral nature, such as the designs of the anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy.
history of graffiti
The contemporary history of graffiti does not have a clear beginning as well as no explicit connection with its already mentioned Roman antecedents. The walls have been filled with anonymous messages on various occasions and in the face of different social or political processes.
For example, the case of graffiti attributed to the famous murderer Jack the Ripper in London in 1888 is famous, which appeared on a wall next to a bloody piece of an apron. It was made of blood and said: “The Juwes are the menu That Will not be blamed for nothing” (“The Jews are the men who will not be accused of anything”), a cryptic message whose literal meaning was never deciphered, as it was erased before dawn.
Another famous case is that of the message “Killroy was here!” (“Killroy was here!”) accompanied by a puppet leaning out on a wall, which the Allied troops found on their way to the liberation of Europe from the Nazis in World War II. The message began in Tunisia, then it was in Italy and France, without its author ever being known.
The appearance of spray paint in the mid-20th century allowed graffiti to take on a greater scope in cities, and from then on became one common tool in expression and the tribal marking of gang territories, later gaining prominence as a form of anonymous but harmonious street expression, through landscapes, figures and original designs, which could sometimes be repeated throughout various cities in the country or even the world.
By the 1990s, the artistic graffiti movement had gained enough strength to reinvent itself in methods (stenciling, gigantography, wallpaper and other graphic and advertising design techniques) and gain a certain sociological and even artistic interest, thus giving rise to Street Art, from which More or less well-known artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Jean Michel-Basquiat, Mr. Brainwash and a huge etcetera are exhibitors.
