/Street Art/ Street art is visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues. The term gained popularity during the graffiti art boom of the early 1980s and continues to be applied to subsequent incarnations. Stencil graffiti, wheatpasted poster art or sticker art, and street installation or sculpture are common forms of modern street art. Video projection, yarn bombing and Lock On sculpture became popularized at the turn of the 21st century. The terms urban art, guerrilla art, post-graffiti and neo-graffiti are also sometimes used when referring to artwork created in these contexts. Traditional spray-painted graffiti artwork itself is often included in this category, excluding territorial graffiti or pure vandalism. Artists who choose the streets as their gallery are often doing so from a preference to communicate directly with the public at large, free from perceived confines of the formal art world. Street artists sometimes present socially relevant content infused with esthetic value, to attract attention to a cause or as a form of art provocation. Street artists often travel between countries to spread their designs. Some artists have gained cult-followings, media and art world attention, and have gone on to work commercially in the styles which made their work known on the streets. Background Artists have challenged art by situating it in non-art contexts. Street artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language. The motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. ‘Street’ artists attempt to have their work communicate with everyday people about socially relevant themes in ways that are informed by esthetic values without being imprisoned by them. There is a strong current of activism and subversion in urban art. Street art can be a powerful platform for reaching the public and a potent form of political expression for the oppressed, or people with little resources to create change. Common variants include adbusting, subvertising and other culture jamming, the abolishment of private property and reclaiming the streets. Germanys Berlin Wall (shown 1986) was a target of artists during its existence (1961–1989). Some street artists use smart vandalism as a way to raise awareness of social and political issues.[5] Other street artists simply see urban space as an untapped format for personal artwork, while others may appreciate the challenges and risks that are associated with installing illicit artwork in public places. A universal motive of most, if not all street art, is that adapting visual artwork into a format which utilizes public space allows artists who may otherwise feel disenfranchised to reach a much broader audience than traditional artwork and galleries normally allow. Whereas traditional graffiti artists have primarily used free-hand aerosol paints to produce their works, street art encompasses many other media and techniques, including: LED art, mosaic tiling, murals, stencil art, sticker art, Lock On street sculptures, street installations, wheatpasting, woodblocking, and yarn bombing. New media forms such as projection onto large city buildings are an increasingly popular tool for street artists—and the availability of cheap hardware and software allows street artists to become more competitive with corporate advertisements. Much like open source software, artists are able to create art for the public realm from their personal computers, similarly creating things for free which compete with companies making things for profit. Street art is a topical issue. Some people consider it a crime, others consider it a form of art. Street artists may be charged with vandalism, malicious mischief, intentional destruction of property, criminal trespass, or antisocial behavior. Legal definitions vary between jurisdictions.In some cities, it is unlawful for landowners to allow any graffiti on their property if it’s visible from any other public or private property. Origins Slogans of protest and political or social commentary graffitied onto public walls are the precursor to modern graffiti and street art, and continue as one aspect of the genre. Street art in the form of text or simple iconic graphics in the vein of corporate icons become well-known yet enigmatic symbols of an area or an era. Some credit the Kilroy Was Here graffiti of the World War II era as one such early example; a simple line-drawing of a long-nosed man peering from behind a ledge. Author Charles Panati indirectly touched upon the general appeal of street art in his description of the Kilroy graffiti as outrageous not for what it said, but where it turned up. Much of what can now be defined as modern street art has well-documented origins dating from New York Citys graffiti boom, with its infancy in the 1960s, maturation in the 1970s, and peaking with the spraypainted full-car subway train murals of the 1980s centered in the Bronx. As the 1980s progressed, a shift occurred from text-based works of early in the decade to visually conceptual street art such as Richard Hambletons shadow figures (pictured above).These years coincide with Keith Harings subway advertisement subversions and Jean-Michel Basquiats SAMO tags. What is now recognized as street art had yet to become a realistic career consideration, and offshoots such as stencil graffiti were in their infancy. Wheatpasted poster art used to promote bands and the clubs where they performed evolved into actual artwork or copy-art and became a common sight during the 1980s in cities worldwide.[citation needed] The group working collectively as AVANT were also active in New York during this period. Punk rock musics subversive ideologies were also instrumental to street arts evolution as an art form during the 1980s Early iconic works The 2010 recreation of Keith Harings original 1982 mural; New York Citys Bowery Mural wall at Houston Street and the Bowery. The northwest wall of the intersection at Houston Street and the Bowery in New York City has been a target of artists since the 1970s. The site, now sometimes referred to as the Bowery Mural, originated as a derelict wall which graffiti artists used freely. Keith Haring once commandeered the wall for his own use in 1982. After Haring, a stream of well-known street artists followed, until the wall had gradually taken on prestigious status. By 2008, the wall became privately managed and made available to artists by commission or invitation only. A series of I AM THE BEST ARTIST René murals painted by René Moncada began appearing on the streets of SoHo in the late 1970s. René has described the murals as a thumb in the nose to the art community he felt hed helped pioneer but by which he later felt ignored. Recognized as an early act of art provocation, they were a topic of conversation and debate at the time, and related legal conflicts raised discussion about intellectual property, artists rights, and the First Amendment. The ubiquitous murals (pictured above) also became a popular backdrop to photographs taken by tourists and art students, and for advertising layouts and Hollywood films. IATBA murals were often defaced, only to be repainted by René. Groundbreaking exhibitions In 1981, Washington Project for the Arts held an exhibition entitled Street Works, which included urban art pioneers such as John Fekner, Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quinones working directly on the streets. Fekner, who once defined street art as all art on the street that’s not graffiti, is included in Cedar Lewisohn’s book Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution, which accompanied the 2008 Street Art exhibition at the Tate Modern in England, of which Lewisohn was the curator. Commercial crossover Some street artists have earned international attention for their work and have made a full transition from street art into the mainstream art world — some while continuing to produce art on the streets. Keith Haring was among the earliest wave of street artists in the 1980s to do so. Traditional graffiti and street art motifs have also increasingly been incorporated into mainstream advertising, with many instances of artists contracted to work as graphic designers for corporations. Graffiti artist Haze has provided font and graphic designs for music acts such as the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy. Shepard Faireys street posters of then-presidential candidate Barack Obama were reworked by special commission for use in the presidential campaign. A version of the artwork also appeared on the cover of Time magazine. It is also not uncommon for street artists to start their own merchandising lines. Around the globe Street art exists worldwide. Large cities and regional towns of the world are home to some form of street art community, from which pioneering artists or forerunners of particular mediums or techniques emerge. Internationally known street artists travel between such locations to promote and exhibit their artwork North and South America New York City continues to be a street art mecca, attracting artists from around the world. In Manhattan, post-graffiti street art grew in the 1980s from the then largely vacant neighborhoods of SoHo and the Lower East Side. The Chelsea art district became another locale, with area galleries also hosting formal exhibitions of street artists work. In Brooklyn, the Williamsburg and Dumbo neighborhoods — especially near the waterfront — are recognized street art sites. Programs in the Pennsylvania cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh provide funding to agencies who employ street artists to decorate city walls. The award-winning Mural Arts Program established in 1984 has helped Philadelphia earn praise as the City of Murals. The project was initiated to encourage graffiti artists toward a more constructive use of their talents. Murals backed by The Sprout Fund in Pittsburgh were named the Best Public Art by the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2006. Atlanta, Georgia and Miami, Florida are among southern cities with active street art communities. Street art in Atlanta centers around the Old Fourth Ward and Reynoldstown neighborhoods, the Krog Street Tunnel, and along the 22-mile BeltLine railway corridor which circles the inner city. Atlanta established a Graffiti Task Force in 2011. Although the city selected a number of murals which would not be targeted by the task force, the selection process overlooked street art of the popular Krug Street Tunnel site. Art created in conjunction with the Living Walls street art conference, which Atlanta hosts annually, were spared. Some actions taken by the unit, including arrests of artists deemed vandals, caused community opposition; some considered the citys efforts as misdirected or futile. Miamis Wynwood neighborhood art district is the setting of Wynwood Walls street art mural series, which attracts artists from around the world, especially during Art Basel Miami. Sarasota, Florida, also hosts an annual street art event, the Sarasota Chalk Festival, founded in 2007. An independent offshoot known as Going Vertical sponsors works by renowned street artists, but some have been removed as controversial. California cities Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego are all hubs of street art activity. LAB ART Los Angeles, opened in 2011, devotes its 6,500 square feet of gallery space to street art. Artwork by locals such as Alec Monopoly, Smear and Morley are among the collection. The Los Angeles neighborhood of Hollywood and streets such as Sunset Boulevard, La Brea, Beverly Boulevard, La Cienega, and Melrose Avenue are among key locations. San Franciscos Mission District is renowned for its densely packed street art along Mission Street, and along both Clarion and Balmy Alleys.[35] Streets of Hayes Valley, SoMa, Bayview-Hunters Point and the Tenderloin have also become known for street art.[36] San Diegos East Village, Little Italy, North Park, and South Park neighborhoods contain street artwork of VHILS, Shepard Fairey, MADSTEEZ, Space Invader, Os Gêmeos, among others. Murals by various Mexican artists can be seen at Chicano Park in the Barrio Logan neighborhood. Toronto, Canada, has a significant graffiti scene. South American cities of Buenos Aires (Argentina) and São Paulo (Brazil) have become prominent centers of contemporary street art. Buenos Aires street artist Ever gained recognition through participation in events such as the Living Walls conference in Atlanta, Georgia, and Art Basel Miami. São Paulo is also home to an internationally recognized street art scene. An abundance of buildings slated for demolition provide blank canvases to a multitude of artists, and the authorities cannot keep up with removing artists output. Population density and urban anxiety are common motifs expressed by Grafiteiros in their street art and pichação, rune-like black graffiti, said to convey feelings of class conflict. Influential Brazilian street artists include Claudio Ethos, Os Gêmeos, Vitche, Onesto, and Herbert Baglione.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 14:32:33 +0000
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