[junctionist]

That piece on the RT could very well be commissioned - the amount of work that went into it tells me that it is likely so. It's quite good - I'd even say it has merit.

There was one behind the Midas shop near Keele Station that wasn't half-bad either.

It's still there if you haven't been in the area recently. But the rest of the graffiti on the neighbouring buildings was whitewashed, and is now full of tags. The owner of that Midas shop likes graffiti from what I've heard, and has refused the city and the BIA's requests to paint it over.

 

[adma]

Care to explain? Or did you just want to spit in my face?

Libertarianism is political kitsch.

 

[TKTKTK]

In a world that celebrates excellence, art and design are judged by the best that is produced.

As long as those who produce this stuff insist that the word "art" must automatically follow the word "graffiti" in describing it, in order to elevate what they do, they will remain shut out from positive critical opinion. They've tried to append the word "art" to what they do in order to distance themselves from "taggers" but it'll get them nowhere.

Gosh, the audacity of Keith Haring and Basquiat. Surely they should have known their place.

 

[TKTKTK]

Libertarianism is political kitsch.

Maybe, but it beats social masochism.

 

[adma]

Gosh, the audacity of Keith Haring and Basquiat. Surely they should have known their place.

Yeah, but they wouldn't be such goofs as to advocate the unauthorized graffiti'ng of museum subway cars...

 

[paraone]

There's only one place on the TTC where graffiti is a welcome change of scenery, just beyond Lawrence East Stn .

I know the artist that did that piece very well, it wasn't commisioned, it was out of his pocket. He was allowed to use the space as long as he included the "mobility depot" logo somewhere in the piece. I was 15 and Sady showed me how it was done, I even helped him out a bit with the little black stick men in the piece. Sady is an amazing artist and also painted the mural on the brick works, he is currently a very sought after illustrator living in kensington market. His cousin Duro3 is one of the most famous graffiti artists in the world, if you frequent clubs downtown chances are he's taken your photo many times, think of a "blue tongue" and you'll know the guy. both are very established artists. I'm not defending what happened to the rail cars, I think it is vandalism. however to cast all artists with a background in graffiti into one catagory is very close minded and ignorant. True that if it is done on a wall without permission it is vandalism, but to say that they are wanna-be art school idiots is just dumb, and shows that some people have no idea what "art" means.

I also find it funny when graphic designers go off on some self-righteous rant about how shit graffiti is.... graffiti was the best thing to happen to marketing, advertisers and designers. without it the industry would be reduced to silly little plaques with boring copy. think out side the box people.


I was for a long time a graffiti artist and now I'm a broadcast designer, without my background I would have never been accepted to art school or have the career I have now. Again I'm not saying people should be able to paint wherever they want, when I was 14 I got permission to paint the wall outside the mighty dollar at Logan/Danforth I painted there for many years and many many people stopped to say how much more they appreciated my work over the crappy tags that were there. now it's forever incased in the stucco that Tim horton's put up, you know the one now covered in tags.

now lets hear those whitty retorts that always come up when this topic does...


ps, anyone here know the work of Banksy? he gets hundreds of thousands for his original pieces, if he's not a successful graffiti artist then i don't know what is!

 

[Urban Shocker]

TKTKTK: In both Haring and Basquiat's short careers their audacity lay in their talent, which guaranteed that their place was the art world. Otherwise they'd no doubt be doing supergraphics in laneways as marketing and advertising gimmicks for the rest of their lives.

 

[paraone]

US, I know your a graphic designer, but may I ask what type of design you specialize in?

 

[TKTKTK]

TKTKTK: In both Haring and Basquiat's short careers their audacity lay in their talent, which guaranteed that their place was the art world. Otherwise they'd no doubt be doing supergraphics in laneways as marketing and advertising gimmicks for the rest of their lives.

Just pointing out that it's a community that's spawned superstars before, to say it won't happen again is a bit rich.

 

[Urban Shocker]

And I've never said that it won't happen again.

 

[TKTKTK]

And I've never said that it won't happen again.

Sorry, based on your two posts:

Like TKTKTK, I'm a graphic designer and my entire career is visual. I've seen how graffiti was optimistically brought into professional art galleries in the '80s and then quickly dropped. I've seen how mannered, derivative and technique-based it remains in the hands of the mostly none-too-bright art school wannabees who produce it. Just look at the poverty of imagination in that last example - the word "art" will never be added to the word "graffiti" to describe it. At least "tagging" is more honest, less pretentious.

Instead of being art that delivers a message, such examples are macrame for the 21st century.

But David Hockney can come over and spraypaint the outside of my house any day!

In a world that celebrates excellence, art and design are judged by the best that is produced.

As long as those who produce this stuff insist that the word "art" must automatically follow the word "graffiti" in describing it, in order to elevate what they do, they will remain shut out from positive critical opinion. They've tried to append the word "art" to what they do in order to distance themselves from "taggers" but it'll get them nowhere.

I understood you to mean that you didn't think the graffiti world still had the potential to produce "Artists".

 

[Urban Shocker]

Oh no, artists can pop up anywhere, anytime. What I object to is appropriating the word "art" to describe supergraphics on the side of buildings that clearly aren't art, and adding the word "art" to the end of the word "graffiti" in order to try and elevate such supergraphics in the public imagination beyond what it actually is. I have the greatest sympathy for anyone who put tons of energy into producing anything that is worthy, yet culturally unimportant, and who think they're misunderstood geniuses - self-delusion is one of the saddest things, really.

 

[adma]

Remember: stuff like that nr Lawrence East and Dundas West--those are blank walls, i.e. blank canvases. They're banal backsides. They're the perfect place for graffiti expression.

Vintage subway cars in transit museums aren't. Just as other things like old painted wall advertisements (which I've seen numbskull-tagged) aren't. In cases like that, graffiti is truly an act of philistinism under the delusion that it's "art"...

 

[paraone]

Oh no, artists can pop up anywhere, anytime. What I object to is appropriating the word "art" to describe supergraphics on the side of buildings that clearly aren't art, and adding the word "art" to the end of the word "graffiti" in order to try and elevate such supergraphics in the public imagination beyond what it actually is. I have the greatest sympathy for anyone who put tons of energy into producing anything that is worthy, yet culturally unimportant, and who think they're misunderstood geniuses - self-delusion is one of the saddest things, really.

name me one other "art" form that has truly started on the streets? not a one, the word art has been added by mainstream media, no writer would ever say "I do graffiti art" it's a sub-culture that you obviously will never understand, nor will you ever see that a lot of your peers come from this sub-culture. you can climb off your high horse anytime, you're pretentiousness is unbelievable.

and again I really want to know what type of graphic design you specialize in.
To spew rhetorical crap you must be a master of the industry. Or do you, like most "designers" sit in a dark office thinking up boring compositions of office supplies and fruit drinks in order to pay the rent.

"self-delusion is one of the saddest things, really"

so is delusions of grandeur and self importance.

 

[doady]

Graffiti is a sub-culture now? That's even worse than saying it is art.