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?
Graffiti, graffiti, or graffiti is called a mode of painting or street visual art, usually illegal or paralegal, which is generally performed on large areas 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, usually in stencil or aerosol.
The term graffiti comes from Italian and in turn from the name given to satirical inscriptions in public spaces made during the Roman Empire, known asgraFphyto, and that 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 expression.
However, the protest graffiti has been part of the political imagination of the nations contemporary for a long time. It is often said that what the media is silent 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 contamination, especially the less harmonious and less visually elaborate writings.
Graffiti is usually carried out on high or highly visible walls, sometimes as a means of territorial marking or of competence for conquering the most audacious spaces, in the face of the possible interruption of the drawing by the police.
Also, 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 their elaboration:
- 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 days to finish.
- Public graffiti. The public “slogans” that appear in a town and they reiterate political slogans or messages, more or less satirical or rude, trying to get a message out to the masses. Protest graffiti also fall into this category.
- Latrinalia. This is the name given to the little elaborate, rude and generally low-profile graffiti that predominates in public restrooms and transit spaces, such as doors, elevators, trains, etc. They can be from confessions of love, threats, complaints to attempts to poetry or story.
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, nor does it have an explicit connection with its aforementioned Roman antecedents. The walls have been filled with anonymous messages on various occasions and before different processes social or political.
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 apron. It was made with blood and read: "The Juwes arethe men That Will not beBlamed for nothing"(" The Jews are the men who will not be accused of anything "), a cryptic message whose literal meaning was never deciphered, since it was erased before dawn.
Another famous case is that of the message “Killroy was here!"(" Killroy was here! ") Accompanied by a puppet leaning over a wall, which the allied troops encountered on their way to the liberation of Europe of the Nazis in the WWII. The message began in Tunisia, then it was in Italy and France, without ever knowing its author.
The appearance of aerosol paint in the mid-twentieth century, allowed graffiti to take a greater body in cities, and from then on it became a common tool in the expression and tribal marking of gang territories, later gaining enhancement as a form of anonymous but harmonious street expression, through landscapes, figures and original designs, which could sometimes be repeated throughout various cities of the country or even the world.
By the 1990s, the art graffiti movement had gained enough strength to reinvent itself in methods (stencil, billboard, wallpaper and other graphic design techniques and advertising) and gain a certain sociological and even artistic interest, thus giving rise to Street Art, of which more or less known artists such as Bansky, Shepard Fairey, Jean Michel-Basquiat, Mr. Brainwash and a huge etcetera are exhibitors.