Justin G. Bautista
Writer
September 03, 2012
Graffiti is Art, is Not.
Some are pleasing to see, while many are appropriated as vandalism.
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A modern city, with clear cut architecture, black and white picturesque, is lacking color. Art is a wonderful output of humans, yet less space is allotted to it.

 

You cannot hang a painting on the streets – it’ll get stolen in a heartbeat. People can’t perform on the wall as if in a theater – it’ll increase the crowd. So in what form can art be in the city? Graffiti is a debate.

 

Is Art.

 

Colorful street Graffiti, art, street art, vandalism, cartoon faces, cool wall, woman in yellow shirt

Have you seen a wall? It’s as boring as it gets. It’s a blank vertical, too simple to insinuate anything other than set a boundary. It’s like a canvas; the purpose is served in the event of art creation. Graffiti makes a wall interesting, deserving a longer glance. Even appreciation.

 

Is Not.

 

dirty and messy graffiti on streets and hallway, graffiti vandalism, lettering, writing on a wall street, cool rat on the wall, signature publicly

See the Graffiti above? Our perceptions may differ; but for me, this looks dirty. There is even more intense drawing than that, which I chose not to coalesce in this post to maintain decency. Kyla Brooke asked if Graffiti is really an art, or vandalism. I think it is vandalism when people mess up with a wall that is not their property. Yet, if it is your property and you put up a design that’s funky and overwhelming, would we accept it as a “design”?

 

Art, vandalism, design, where would you put Graffiti in?

 

  • http://tchistorygal.wordpress.com tchistorygal

    What a great question, and like most of your readers I think it depends. Some walls are decorative just by themselves. In that case I don’t appreciate graffiti. I like clean and simple as a look, and graffiti messes that up. But I also like abstract and colorful, and sometimes graffiti brings that dimension. So it depends, and I applaud your ability to write a thoughtful question.

  • http://commuterrant.wordpress.com CommuterRant

    There is a difference between tagging and graffiti.

    I also think that tagging has no place anywhere whereas graffiti is great in the right place. For example I would never want to see graffiti on the Royal Albert Hall or on St Pancras station, but in drab urban areas, yes, some graffiti can make an area seem much more lively.

  • http://sedge808.wordpress.com sedge808

    It’s ALL good for me, in all it’s many forms.

  • http://gravatar.com/hirundine608 hirundine608

    I’m not a lover of graffiti, yet I find artistic merit in the above graphic. I have travelled frequently on the london underground system and seen the urban scrawl. Scrawl over everything, inside the carriage. Yet, there is much, probably vandalism? Outside the carriage that still brightens an otherwise dull and lifeless corner. At least, is does; or did, for me. …. does any of that, make sense?

    “Yanks go home” was always a personal fave!

  • http://mishaburnett.wordpress.com MishaBurnett

    When property is painted without the consent of the owner of the property, it is vandalism and is a crime. The artistic merit is irrelevant. A pretty, well executed crime is still a crime.

    I believe that something can be both art and a crime. There have been a lot of writers over the years who have written works that the governments under which they lived consider criminal, and prosecuted them.

    I think defacing another person’s property should be prosecuted. It may be a work of art, it may be deep and meaningful and expressive, but that doesn’t change the fact that the artist does not have the right to use another person’s property as a canvas.

    If you own a building, then you have the right to decide how that building looks, within the strictures of the building codes of your municipality.

  • http://blindedchains.wordpress.com abbyisarenegade

    Personally, I think Graffiti IS art. However, in the second picture you posted I’d call it vandalism, not because it looks “dirty” but because to me it seems like someone just decided to kinda randomly graffiti a wall. I suppose Graffiti is a form of art since people are expressing themselves and when it’s done properly, effort and feelings are put into it…that’s art!( just like in the first picture you showed us or this one.

  • http://fromthepews.org From The Pews

    It IS Art…A form of expression…

    It is in its Base form and can be called vandalism when there is not Creative process in creating it. Forgive the repetition ;)

    IMHO :)

  • http://storyimpact.org Grace Wolbrink

    Is this art? Or is this story? Storytellers in Ghana used beads to capture an image of a story and the parts of the story they were going to tell. The Egyptians used images to tell the stories and share the knowledge to all people in the tombs. The Catholic Church used stain glass windows to keep the stories of their sacred teachings alive to the people, a time and place when literacy was a well guarded luxury.

    What is art? It is through art that we are touched by the humanity within us all!!!!!!

    Too cool! Powerful – Colorful – Expressive – Thought Provoking – Universal! Thank you!

  • http://lifewithblondie.wordpress.com Tiffany (lifewithblondie)

    I love graffiti. We have this ugly old van, and I always tell my hubby I would love to graffiti it, but he just shakes his head. But hey, it’s already old and ugly! Why not turn it into a work of art???

  • http://prideinmadness.wordpress.com prideinmadness

    Our mayor posed this question and came up with what most of us in Toronto feel is the wrong answer. I get very excited when I see advertisements on walls telling artists to call id they want to make a mural! I have seen a lot of amazing graffiti/art in this city! Even if its the silly tags they help make the city the city!

  • http://petearmetta.wordpress.com Pete Armetta

    To me it’s absolutely art. Even the dirty one, it makes you think if in this case even repulsed. Nice post, great subject.

  • http://kittensolar.wordpress.com kittensolar

    I really think that Graffiti is an art form and I saw some beautiful proof, however what I see in the second picture is simple vandalism.

    • 1girl4adamwest

      If they didn’t spend the money building that wall its vandalism. Just my humble 2 cent opinion.

  • http://www.grandmothermusings.com bigsmileu1

    Random graffiti is an eyesore. Artists who intentionally paint a wall make it beautiful and a joy to view.

  • http://teeceecounsel.wordpress.com teeceecounsel

    It is good to observe and think about the things that happen around us, yet sometimes, it is also good to just enjoy them. Whether art or vandalism, I enjoy some wall paintings but could still make a move to get the right thing done about it, afterwards.

  • http://livingsimplyfree.wordpress.com livingsimplyfree

    I don’t like tagging with graffiti, but love when a blank wall has art on it done nicely. We have one building in our town that has professional images of life in our town over the generations, it’s beautiful. Another a small business has an image of the Pittsburgh Steelers as an homage to the charity work players have given to our town. It’s also beautifully done and something I and most people take a moment to appreciate.

  • http://gravatar.com/newsferret newsferret

    Can decorative, but unfortunately in most cases it is vandalism.

  • http://gravatar.com/pusspudding Viveka

    I think it’s art when it’s done well .. it gone that far over here in the county where I live that the public transportation company don’t remove the good art from their trains they keep it, witch I think is a brilliant idea.

    Also my landlord had a naked wall to his environment room where we separate our waste for recycling and he invited kids from the school over the road to fill it with their art and it came out very good. So I wouldn’t say all graffiti is art, but a lot are. But it’s the same with painting not everything I see I would call art.

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