By Lanita Brooks Colbert, an Observant
Heritage, Myths and Wisdom
Public Art affects how cities and towns remember their histories, reflect their heritage, foster social cohesion, and can inspire social change. Urban landscapes portray the environments of cities and their inhabitants, often expressed in graffiti and street art. Observing these works from trains or public transit provides a unique perspective on artistic expression within urban spaces and offers a view to a large and diverse audience.
As I often journey on the Northeast Regional train from Washington, DC, to the urban cities of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, and Boston, I am always captivated by the graffiti and street art embellishing the walls, tunnels, platforms, and overpasses. This urban canvas of artistic repertoire can be loud and clear, yet at other times, it requires careful and deep thinking to hear the voices and messages of its creators, who hope to provide a platform for social commentary, self-expression, dissent, and rebellion. Often, I am left to ponder the intent behind the creator of graffiti and street art. Is it a vocal outburst intended simply to signal presence, a desire to be acknowledged, or is it meant as a clear message? Graffiti often speaks volumes without uttering a word. It is not subtle but direct and usually confrontational, using symbolism, slogans, and stark contrasts to engage viewers in a silent dialogue. Could graffiti be considered a form of visual poetry? It certainly possesses the power to redefine the spaces it inhabits, inviting us to contemplate and discern its meaning.
In 1974, the memorable “Surrender Dorothy” attained local fame as graffiti hung on the CSX railroad bridge over Route 1-495 in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The motivation? The architectural symmetry of the newly completed Mormon Temple in Kensington, Maryland is reminiscent of the Emerald City of Oz, with its six golden spires. What began as a prank by a group of students from the Connelly School of the Holy Child performing the musical ” The Wizard of Oz” continued to inspire several copycats throughout the late 1970s. On August 24, 2018, Claude Taylor and his MadDog PAC changed the sign to “Surrender Donald”, amid the tension of the presidential election campaigns of Trump and Biden. This historical context of graffiti’s roots and evolution connects us to its cultural significance, making us feel a part of its narrative.
Graffiti often serves as a political tool, with its message loud and unapologetic, using slogans and imagery that scream justice and change. Graffiti, whether expressed through emotional outpourings or communicative statements, has a profound impact, leaving enduring impressions on both physical surfaces and individuals worldwide. This dual nature underscores graffiti’s compelling status as an art form and serves as a significant testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
Graffiti art or Vandalism?
In recent travels to Lisbon, Portugal, and Athens, Greece, no space was left unscathed by graffiti. Some were rooted in communication; others were a blight on public property. Graffiti in Athens is as old as the city itself. In ancient times, graffiti was carved into buildings, with the word graffiti coming from the Greek word “garphi, ” meaning to write. Political graffiti played a key role during the Nazi occupation in Athens, the 1944–1949 Civil War, and the 1967 Junta. In 2022, Athens experienced a graffiti epidemic driven by social inequities, high youth unemployment and underemployment, a general sense of unrest, and the city becoming increasingly unaffordable. This resulted in dissent and a rebellious artistic free-for-all in venues throughout the urban landscape.
Graffiti in Lisbon, Portugal, related to the 1974 Carnation Revolution reflected the social, economic, and political changes that occurred during that period. Lisbon’s graffiti and street art flourished in the new social order, becoming a form of expression for marginalized voices, sparking a profusion of politically charged street art. This cultural fabric was encouraged, embraced, and recognized as a legitimate form of creative and artistic expression. This acceptance became a significant arbiter of whether graffiti is considered an art form, determined by public opinion and governmental edict. The audience of the new order ultimately interacts with the graffiti, interpreting its value and meaning, which gives meaning to Art as subjective. In the 1980s, cities like Berlin, São Paulo, Melbourne, New York, Paris, Barcelona, and London saw artists use urban spaces to share personal, political, or satirical messages, influenced by hip-hop and social activism. Over time, graffiti developed and evolved from basic tags such as “Surrender Dorothy” into influential street art and large-scale mural installations. Many cities now recognize graffiti as a form of Art and as a means of expression for groups that have historically had limited visibility or representation, breaking the silence and pushing boundaries to challenge the norm, advocate for change, beautify neglected areas, and often create dialogue among city dwellers and visitors.
Marginalized graffiti artists faced significant systemic obstacles in establishing themselves as reputable professionals. To gain recognition, they challenged prevailing conventions, developed independent platforms, and sought public art support within a traditionally exclusive art community. When traditional institutions shut out graffiti and public art creatives, these artists built their own platforms to share their cultural identities and political beliefs. This succession of talent, cultural perspectives, and institutional reform has become and remains a powerful social movement. The blank canvases of urban spaces provide public art and graffiti artists with a broad platform to challenge the flawed criteria for why Art is an advocacy from within, making Art an activism.
An Emergent Change
Graffiti plays a significant role in urban culture, functioning as a medium for conveying social and political messages, sparking conversations and shaping urban cultures worldwide as a form of protest, self-expression, and storytelling. Graffiti served as a pivotal influence in propelling artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat to prominence within the contemporary art sphere. Before Basquiat transitioned to gallery exhibitions, his visual art form was graffiti, created with co-artist Al Diaz, that conveyed thought-provoking messages across New York City. Basquiat’s roots lie undeniably in graffiti. With acceptance in the collectible art space, he expanded into broader themes, including race, identity, and historical narratives. He is more accurately described as a neo-expressionist artist whose work was deeply informed by graffiti’s aesthetics and ethos. He merged graffiti visual language with a broader artistic narrative, as shown in 1986’s Self-Portrait. In contrast with Basquiat, Rashid Johnson is not commonly categorized as a graffiti artist but is known for his conceptual approach to art. Though Johnson doesn’t include graffiti in his repertoire, its impact is evident in his 2018 work Untitled (Anxious Man).
Women have always contributed to graffiti and street art, despite its male-dominated reputation; some even believe early cave art was primarily created by women. Early New York subway train female graffiti artist Lady Pink, born Sandra Fabara, an Ecuadorian-born American graffiti and mural artist, created the artwork 1982 The Death of Graffiti, in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York. Lady Pink blended figurative and visual elements with graffiti artist tags, trains, and nude female figures holding paint cans to visualize the empowerment of women, embodying realistic images of the street scene in New York City’s urban landscapes. Internationally, Miss Van, born Vanessa Alice in 1973 in Toulouse, France, currently residing in Barcelona, Spain, is regarded as one of the most prominent female street and graffiti artists worldwide. Miss Van is recognized as a leading figure in early 21st-century street art. Thematically, her work has provoked an adverse reaction from some feminists due to portrayals of women in her wall art and paintings. Miss Van explained her motivation succinctly: “Painting walls was my way of boycotting the conventional art world.” In her gauzy romantic compositions, the women carry a surreal quality of burlesque, resonating with a beautiful synergy of rawness, softness, and emotions. Her latest mural on a wall in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, incorporates elements of both street art and fine art, merging aspects of each style. Her style constantly blurs the financial and artistic lines in both worlds.
In 2023, I went to Cuba and discovered that their culture and history were expressed through art. There was no graffiti; protest art is forbidden in the communist dictatorship. Instead, public art resembled a graphic novel depicting the preservation efforts of exceptionally generous individuals. In the town of Matanzas, the wall murals tell stories of the African diaspora hidden under the disguise of Catholicism. The wall murals, everywhere throughout the island, are Cubans ‘ visual storytelling.
The city commissioners of Miami, Florida, in 2016 voted unanimously to designate Little Haiti as “Little Haiti”. A governmental edict was created and enforced for Little Haiti to disrupt the onset of gentrification and the impending threat of neighborhood-wide whitewashing. The same area in the mid-19th century was called Lemon City, when the area was populated primarily by Bahamians and African Americans. Miami’s public spaces have long served as a platform to celebrate and recognize the culture and artistic expressions of its immigrant communities. Serge Toussaint, a muralist and artist originally from Haiti, has been a resident and the visual voice of Little Haiti for more than twenty years. His Stand Up, Lil Haiti wall mural is a direct, in-your-face statement that acknowledges the neighborhood’s presence and identity, expressed graphically, loudly and angrily. Not all the artists mentioned above began their careers as graffiti artists, but as they expressed their perspectives and beliefs in a public setting, their work, like their later graffiti was designed to be visible to a broad audience and not easily removed.
Profit vs Preservation
Art institutions and public spaces hold substantial authority in defining graffiti and giving public art a place in the traditional art world. Museums frequently curate graffiti-based exhibits, elevating their cultural and artistic significance, and galleries provide the urban canvas art scene legitimacy in the art world. Whether subversive or celebratory, these urban art forms give voice to communities, reflect cultural diversity, and inspire dialogue. Graffiti has existed for millennia, tracing its roots back to ancient civilizations with etched inscriptions on Roman walls and the vibrant murals of Mayan temples. Previously overlooked, the urban landscape now transforms walls, trains, overpasses, and tunnels—anywhere a blank space invites purpose—into vehicles of cultural and creative expression. These elements reflect the character of their environments for all who view them and are captivated in a personal experience.