The Art of Graffiti Part 3: Modern Graffiti Comes Into Its Own

By the start of the 21st Century graffiti had finally begun to gain public recognition as a true form of art. Graffiti had grown into a culture all its own and its influence could be seen in many mainstream aspects of public life. In 2001 IBM hired "street artists" to paint a peace sign, a heart, and a penguin to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux" on sidewalks as a promotion for their Linux program. Ultimately the company was fined over $120,000 for paint removal, but it was a sign that the powerful consumer based economy of the US was embracing graffiti in driving advertising. Four years later Sony learned from IBM's mistakes when building the campaign for the launch of their PSP gaming system. They not only hired graffiti artists, but they also paid building owners for the use of their buildings to create their graffiti inspired ad campaign.

Video games on the whole began using graffiti in a myriad of ways, some games even allowing the user to create their own "virtual graffiti". Then, true to graffiti's roots as a means for political statement, Marc Ecko's game, Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure released in 2006 featured characters fighting against a corrupt city and its oppression of free speech.

Marc Ecko has long been an advocate of graffiti as an art form and his website features not only his own collection of graffiti art, but also a slew of videos including the viral video "Still Free" which shows Ecko and a group of graffiti writer's tagging Air Force One. A video documentary in Ecko's collection called "Getting Up" gives viewers a history of graffiti through the eyes of some of the key players of the 1990's who comment on the evolution of the art. As a staunch supporter of graffiti, Ecko aided the cause of young art students and legitimate graffiti writers in suing New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2006 after the mayor attempted to make it illegal for anyone under 21 to purchase anything that could possibly used in the making of graffiti.

Along with Ecko, one of modern graffiti's most well known players is a pseudo-anonymous writer from Britain known simply as Banksy, who started as a free hand artist in 1992 but graduated to the use of stencils to produce his social and political commentary. Banksy's art was born out of the Bristol underground scene where he collaborated with anti-establishment punk musicians, producing pieces that typically centered around culture, ethics, and politics with underlying anti-war, anti-capitalist, and anti-establishment messages. In 1998 he collaborated with fellow writer Inkie to produce the "Walls on Fire" graf jam on the site of the future "@Bristol" development. Then in 2003 he held a show in a warehouse called "Turf War" where he painted animals. Banksy has also written, "This is not a photo opportunity" on certain typical photo spots and in August of 2005 he painted nine images on the Israeli Left Bank barrier which included a ladder going up and over the wall, and children digging a hole through the wall.

Banksy continued to maintain his anonymity as he turned to producing subverted paintings such as Monet's Water Lily Pond- adapted to include litter and a shopping cart floating in the water. Banksy's work was being exhibited in multiple places and being auctioned off by Sotheby's, the most prestigious of London's auction houses. His work had in fact become so valuable that in February of 2007 a family whose home had a Banksy mural on the side of it decided to sell their home not through a realtor but through an art gallery. They listed it as a "Banksy mural with a house attached".

Unfortunately, even as Banksy's public popularity grew, many relatively powerful voices, such as representatives from Keep Britain Tidy continued to view Banksy's work as "simple vandalism". A few of his pieces have been removed from the walls of London on the pretense that the "graffiti" (used as a pejorative term in this case) created an atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn would presumably encourage in increase in crime. Apparently the rest of the country disagreed and on May 21, 2007 Banksy received the award for Art's Greatest Living Briton, but of course in true Banksy fashion, he did not show up to collect his award and his art continued to sell at auction, breaking multiple auction house records.

Also in 2007 Banksy did something unprecedented- he painted over one of his own works. An angel wearing a bullet proof vest holding a skull appeared where Banksy had once painted his version of the John Travolta film Pulp Fiction. The new mural was a posthumous tribute to a 19-year-old writer named Ozone who had been hit by an underground train in Barking, East London. Banksy's explanation, posted on his website, read:

"The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote, 'If it's better next time I'll leave it' in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone- rest in peace."

Graffiti in the US certainly enjoyed a resurgence since the 90's as the art began to find new generations of youths from every social and economic background becoming exposed to graffiti in video games, moves, and music. The subways however remained relatively clean of art, and though many have tried to revive subway writing, few have succeeded. "[It's] like throwing rocks at a man with a machine gun," says Chino in the "Getting Up" documentary. "You're not gonna win that battle. Not after 9/11. I think that those actions are easily misconstrued. You know Code Orange has changed the way we look at a man in a tunnel with a hood on his head and a bag in his hands." But in 2006 some writers did find a way to bring on a new wave of subway tagging. They began using acid to etch their tags into the trains' windows. Armor Etch-all, sold in most art stores, was being mixed with paint or shoe polish and used to created indelible marks that could not be removed by crews in the subway yards they way they could with painted graffiti. Worse still was the fear that passengers who touched the tags before they were dry might run the risk of getting burned by the acid.

The acid etchings appearing on the subways bore very little resemblance to the painted masterpieces of previous decades. The "designs" are crude scrawls with next to no artistic merit and it was this resurgence of true vandalism that was the impetus behind Mayor Bloomberg's attempt to ban the possession of "graffiti instruments" which included etching acid, aerosol paint, and broad-tipped indelible markers, a move that was quickly squashed by Marc Ecko's lawsuit.

"People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible, and childish...but that's only if it's done right." -Banksy

The Internet Age has created a new type of community meeting place for graffiti artists. While their work may not last long in the streets, the ability to post photos of their work on one of the many websites devoted to the art, allows the world to see it, share it, and comment on it. A new, technologically savvy generation of writers is fighting to resurrect their art.

"It seems to me the only way to wake people up from this kind of numbness is to destroy what they know," said Coda, a writer from Philadelphia in an interview. "...to make people realize that culture isn't lost and that, at the very least, a small group of kids is fighting to keep it alive."

In late August of 2008 Banksy appeared in the US, leaving murals on some of the derelict houses that had been decimated by Hurricane Katrina. Marc Ecko's clothing lines (Ecko, Ecko Red, Zoo York) and their graf inspired styles have reached epic heights in popularity. DC, Etnies, and Fox have all produced lines with graffiti designs, including sneakers, hats, and other accessories. It is clear that, in spite of the laws and restrictions on graffiti, the art is still alive and well.