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Tuesday 9 December 2014

History of Graffiti: The origin of the word Graffiti

What is Graffiti?
 
Artemesia restauro, Firenze, Italia


After hours of researching the origin of graffiti, I found that according to the Global Brittanica, the word graffiti derives from the Italian word sgraffito.

Because I speak Italian I know that the Global Brittanica gives a bad translation and because I am an artist I know their examples, in part, are lame.  Whoever wrote the definition says that in panel painting and illuminated manuscripts the ground was gold leaf.  That is not true.  For panel painting the ground was, and still is bolo.  I'm not sure about illuminated manuscripts but in both cases, sgraffito technique is not involved.  The Global Brittanica states that graffito technique was especially used during the middle ages but if you go to Florence or Venice you know that those buildings were decorated during the Renaissance.  That's a couple hundred years difference.

So what is Graffiti?

Here is a better definition:

According to the online Italian dictionary Treccani, graffito is a type of decoration used in architecture.  The graffer (my word from the commonly used French word graffeur) inscribes the wet stucco of a façade to reveal an under-layer.  The technique was (yes) used on medieval palaces but mostly done between 1400 and 1500.  In the 1700s there was a revival.  Following a design, the graffer removed the top layer of stucco and a exposed the colored underlayer.

Check out Artemesia Restauro's website. This image shows her doing a graffito.
Artemesia Restauro, Florence

Graffito.

Got it?


Treccani states:
Graffito is done through using a point to incise a surface - stone, metal, plaster, a wall, a vase, you name it.
  • It is a drawing or inscription on a surface or object, more often a wall.  In prehistoric times, documents were incised on rocks and clay tablets.  It seems banking records were incised on stone, thus the colloquial saying: written in stone. 
    Cuniform, courtesy of Iranicaonline
     Paleolithc caves,  catacombs, and  walls  are witness to graffiti.
In Mesopotamia over 5000 years ago scribes recorded information in stone. Saki Mafundikwa gives a wonderful TED talk about ancient African writing.
photo courtesy of mesopotamio.co.uk

In Pompei, Italy, phallus where commonly exposed outside a house to signify, Hic habitat felicitas  happiness lives here.
foto courtesy of Giovannidellorto
See, you did not invent this dick painting.  Some anonymous artist over 2000 years ago wrote it in stone.

Modern day graffiti seems to have all started in the toilet. Here is an excellent article on the Hiphop-Network:

Looking at the Writing on the Wall: A Critical Review and Taxonomy of Graffiti Texts © copyright 1995 Jane M. Gadsby

According to Gadsby's extensive bilbiography, over sixty years ago men and women  wrote on  bathroom walls.  Could this be the beginning of what we consider graffiti in modern times? She writes that "The 1970s were halcyon days of graffiti research".    

She writes that there are nine different approaches in graffiti writing. "As expected, each researcher chooses the approach which lends itself to fulfilling his/her needs. This has led to a wide array of approaches: cultural, gendered, linguistic, folkloric, quantitative, aesthetic, motivational, preventative and popularisation  

The Treccani dicitonary states that by analogy, graffiti as we know it today, started in NYC in the 1970's.  It states also that the film American Graffiti by G. Lucas in 1973, seems to have ignited the explosion.  Treccani's definition states that the film refers to the documentary value of prehistoric graffiti, a sign of the past.  And it was a revival of taste, fashion, clothing, music of the 1950's.



What is the definition of graffiti today?

Harvard University hosted a reception for the calligraffiti artist el Seed

Listen to what eL Seed says in this video:









Monday 8 December 2014

History of Graffiti - Documentary: Writers 20 ans de Graffiti a Paris

This 90 minute documentary explains the rise and change of graffiti in Paris starting from the great NYC influence to the newest generation.  It's in French.

Graffiti is a term that derives from the two words, writing and calligraphy.

Graffers did not say, "Hey, let's go grafffiting." They said they were going writing.

A tag is a linear drawing of a name or pseudonym. A graffiti is the stylization of letters.  A graffiti gives form and volume to the letters.  It is personalized.

Wild style was developed in Paris, then freestyle came along, then throwups.

According to the photographer, Henry Chaftan, who documented the book Spraycan Art, Parisian graffers style was "art school" compared to the energetic New York City graffers. 

Street art fascinates me.  I don't condone it or condem it.

Street art is on the street, not in galleries.

Friday 5 December 2014

ONO’U Festival: International Tahiti Graffiti contest 2015 - applications close 31 Jan 2015

Last year's first prize was 10,000$



courtesy of ONO'U

What are you waiting for?

Haven't sent your application yet?

If your over 18 years old and younger than 40 you can apply to enter the International Festival of Graffiti in its second annual edition that was held for the first time last year on May 10th and 11th.

Too bad I'm over the hill and canvas is my wall.

And competition is, like, overwhelming...
ASKEW
Here is the link: ONO'U


Get it up Global.




Thursday 4 December 2014

The History of Grafitti: Style Wars(1983)

This ninety minute documentary from 1983, thirty-one years ago, about writers in NYC, influenced the entire planet earth.