By Felix Lehmann

Who would have thought that the day would come when graffiti would be considered an art form and not just a nuisance on inner city walls? Graffiti is the term given to drawings or paintings done on walls, mostly with the use of spray paint. Graffiti became famous as a way of anti establishment groups to express their dissatisfaction with society, sometime in the 1960s and 1970s. However, it has been around for very long before that. There are examples of graffiti that were done by ancient Romans and Greeks on walls and buildings that manage to survive to this day.

Modern graffiti became famous during the Second World War, when American soldiers popularized the phrase “Kilroy was here’ on the walls of various countries where they were fighting. Later on, it became synonymous with the hip hop culture, and subways in many American cities had their walls covered with it. While graffiti is mostly associated with cities in the United States, it is also found in other cities around the world.

Graffiti has always been associated with youth culture. For the longest time it was considered to be nothing but vandalism because the paintings were done on public property. Many people found the bright colors and striking patterns very offensive. There was a drive by public authorities to clean up the walls on which graffiti was done and young people caught doing it were punished. As a matter of fact, teenagers caught with an aerosol paint can in their hands were targeted by civic authorities. Many graffiti artists even gave up doing their artwork as a result of transit authorities constantly removing the pieces they had produced on subway walls.

Over time, especially as a result of being associated with hip hop music, graffiti has entered the mainstream. This happened during the mid 1980’s when many graffiti artists were also break dancers or DJs, both art forms that were an integral element of hip hop. At the same time, there was also a development of the various styles of graffiti. In the beginning, most writing was in the bubble style, but later on there were more elaborate styles created. “Wildstyle” writing became the most popular type of graffiti writing. The link between graffiti and hip hop was strengthened as a result of well known songs that mentioned graffiti directly.

At around the same time, graffiti also began to enter art galleries. This happened along with the separation of graffiti from hip hop into a genre of its own. Another reason was that artists needed a place to display their art since authorities were cleaning up cities with great vigor. The most important reason however, was that it had already entered popular culture. It began to appear in advertisements and even in movies and music videos. Even company logos began to be designed by graffiti artists. Video games, clothes and sports shoes also are decorated with graffiti designs because of their intrinsic artistic merit and their popularity with young people.

About the Author: I am basically a graduate at the University of Hamburg and you can get awesome articles and valid information from the ones which I submit specially for you to take a look at. Check out Graffiti Images, Graffiti Graphics or Graffiti Pictures.

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