View allAll Photos Tagged pathos
Johann Heinrich Füssli
Johann Heinrich Füssli (Zurigo, 7 febbraio 1741 – Putney Hill, 16 aprile 1825) è stato un letterato e pittore svizzero, che esercitò la sua attività principalmente in Gran Bretagna, dove è conosciuto come Henry Fuseli.
Abilissimo disegnatore, trasse ispirazione dai suoi studi sull'antico e sui neoclassici, ma scelse soggetti di ispirazione romantica, ricchi di pathos e di immaginazione, di gesti violenti e atmosfere magiche, spesso tratti dagli episodi più visionari delle grandi opere poetiche, precorrendo alcuni temi dell'Espressionismo e del Surrealismo.
Johann Heinrich Füssli nacque a Zurigo nel 1741 da Elisabeth Waser e Johann Caspar Füssli. Il padre, un disinvolto antiquario e pittore dilettante, scrisse una storia della pittura svizzera (Geschichte und Abbildung der besten Maler in der Schweiz) ed era un intimo del critico neoclassico Johann Joachim Winckelmann; il fratello Johann Kaspar era anch'egli versato nelle arti, nonché appassionato entomologo.
Il padre, tuttavia, non era interessato ad introdurre il figlio all'esercizio della pittura, sicché lo avviò alla carriera ecclesiastica, facendolo studiare al Collegio Carolino di Zurigo: qui Füssli sviluppò una spiccata avversione verso la dogmatica, risentendo dell'influenza dell'empirismo dei pensatori inglesi Hobbes e Locke. Il suo amore per la letteratura ebbe invece impulso da Johann Jakob Bodmer, un amico del padre con un gusto contagioso per la letteratura: fu lui ad introdurlo agli scritti di Omero, di Dante, di Milton, e all'epos nibelungico, opere dalle quali apprendeva ad ampliare gli orizzonti del suo mondo poetico e figurativo.
Parallela all'attività letteraria, l'attività artistica: il giovane Johann, basandosi su una preparazione tecnica in gran parte di natura autodidatta, raffigurò soggetti esplicitamente desunti da quei testi che stava studiando in quegli anni, fitti di allegorie, guerre e violenza. In questi anni, inoltre, Füssli cominciò pure ad informare personali orientamenti di gusto, mostrandosi assai sensibile al manierismo di Albrecht Dürer e alle prime istanze dello Sturm und Drang, in una fusione di stili che combinava sia l'espressività che il realismo: queste caratteristiche, fuse con un sentimento pessimista che respirò nel periodo in cui egli fu pastore zwingliano, saranno peculiari di tutte le sue opere, anche quelle della maturità.
Nel 1761 Füssli prese gli ordini nella chiesa evangelica riformata, intraprendendo la carriera di ministro zwingliano a soli venti anni. Pronunciò diversi sermoni, tutti improntati sia alla nuova teologia del sentimento che alla critica biblica dell'Illuminismo. Ben presto si schierò politicamente, assumendo una netta posizione in opposizione al landfogto di Grünigen Conrad Grebel, che giudicò corrotto e inidoneo per amministrare Zurigo: questi dissapori culminarono con la pubblicazione di un libello contro il governo della città, firmato anche da Johann Kaspar Lavater e Felix Hess. Fu proprio in seguito a queste beghe politiche che Füssli fu costretto nel 1762 ad allontanarsi dalla Svizzera e a rifugiarsi in Germania.
L'artista giunse a Roma alla fine del maggio 1770, dopo aver fatto affrettatamente sosta a Genova e Firenze. Le piene potenzialità della sua vocazione artistica si realizzarono proprio in seguito al trasferimento nell'Urbe; la città suscitò una viva impressione nell'animo dell'artista, che rimase colpito - come, al tempo, Reynolds - dalla grandiosità delle sue antichità e dai forti contrasti che la caratterizzavano. Ma ad incantarlo non fu la statuaria classica, che Winckelmann celebrava per la sua «nobile semplicità e quieta grandezza», bensì le opere cariche di drammaticità e di pathos, soprattutto il ciclo di affreschi della cappella Sistina realizzato da Michelangelo Buonarroti, considerato negativamente dai teorici del Neoclassicismo ma che invece più di ogni altra opera sentì congeniale al proprio temperamento inquieto.
Füssli rivelò il proprio approccio nei confronti delle antichità classica nel 1778-80, in un disegno a seppia e sanguigna denominato La disperazione dell'artista davanti alle rovine, raffigurante un personaggio sopraffatto emotivamente e fisicamente da due frammenti (una mano ed un piede) del Colosso di Costantino, ormai inevitabilmente perduto in quanto sottoposto all'azione distruttrice del tempo. Con questo disegno, Füssli ci comunica che le opere antiche non suscitano serenità e quiete, come teorizzato da Winckelmann, bensì emozioni forti e vere, investendo l'artista di un senso di inadeguatezza e di smarrimento.
Ma se forte fu il suo interesse verso gli affreschi di Michelangelo ed il rapporto tra il pittore e l'antico, Füssli non mancò di ritrarre anche episodi contemporanei, pure questi densi di espressioni tragiche e patetiche: è il caso di un disegno del 1772 raffigurante una scena alla quale presenziò egli stesso all'ospedale di Santo Spirito in Saxia, dove un «fuggitivo» (questo è il titolo dell'opera) in fin di vita rifiuta di lasciarsi curare, dandosi alla fuga da alcuni uomini che gli stanno puntando un crocifisso. Questo eclettismo lo fece emergere dai pittori suoi contemporanei, guadagnandosi la stima di Johann Wolfgang von Goethe che scrisse, in una lettera del 25 marzo 1775 indirizzata a Herder: «Quale ardore e quale corruccio c'è in quest'uomo!».
Füssli lasciò l'Italia nel 1779, facendo tappa a Bologna, Parma, Mantova e Milano e spingendosi fino alla natia Zurigo, dove nel 1780 realizzò il Giuramento dei tre confederati sul Rütli su commissione di un influente cittadino svizzero. Il soggetto si riferisce al patto stretto tra i cantoni Uri, Schwitz e Unterwalden per opporsi al dominio degli Asburgo; il tema del giuramento, che verrà trattato anche da Jacques-Louis David ne Il giuramento degli Orazi, è qui declinato da Füssli di fronte alla poetica del sublime, restituendo un effetto viscerale, ben distante dalla pacata solennità della tela del maestro francese. Sempre a Zurigo, nell'ottobre 1778, l'artista ebbe licenziose avventure, prima con Magdalena Schweizer-Hess, moglie dell'amico Johann Caspar Schweizer, e poi con Anna Landolt von Rech, della quale si innamorò perdutamente. Johann e Anna intrecciarono una breve relazione sentimentale, fortemente ostacolata dal padre di lei: per questo motivo, l'artista si allontanò da Zurigo per recarsi nuovamente a Londra, dove arrivò nell'aprile del 1779.
Nel segno della Royal Academy
Nel contempo, Füssli venne eletto membro a pieno diritto della Royal Academy (1790), per la quale eseguì La lotta di Thor con il serpente del Midgard. Stimolato da questo traguardo, decise di contrapporre alla Shakespeare Gallery una propria Milton Gallery, ottenendo l'aiuto finanziario dell'editore Johnson e del banchiere Roscoe. L'artista non lesinò tempo ed energie per valorizzare il proprio progetto: eseguì ben quaranta dipinti ispirati alle opere di Milton e li espose, il 20 maggio 1799, in una mostra nella sala d'esposizione londinese della Christie's, riscuotendo il plauso dei colleghi ma l'indifferenza del pubblico. Nello stesso anno, concorse per avere la cattedra di pittura alla Royal Academy, ottenendola finalmente il 19 giugno. La sua attività educativa ebbe inizio l'anno successivo, con un ciclo di tre lezioni incentrate sull'arte moderna, sull'arte classica e sull'invenzione: ne seguirono altre nove, riportate nel paragrafo § Attività letteraria.
«È importante distinguere tra il materiale e lo spirito dell’espressione. A questo proposito dobbiamo conoscere a fondo le forme e i toni di colore di cui si rivestono. Senza verità nel disegno non può esserci verità nell'espressione Per far parlare un volto in modo chiaro e appropriato, esso non deve solo essere ben azzeccato, ma deve anche avere il proprio carattere particolare ed esclusivo. Se gli elementi della passione possono essere uguali per tutti, essi tuttavia non parlano in tutti con la medesima forza, né si lasciano circoscrivere negli stessi limiti. Se la gioia è sempre gioia, e l'ira è sempre ira, la gioia di un sanguigno non è la stessa di un flemmatico, e l'ira di un malinconico non è quella di un carattere ardente, e le differenze, come dipendono dai temperamenti, dipendono anche, in modo sorprendentemente simile, dal clima, dalla stirpe, dall'educazione e dalla posizione sociale»
Nel 1805 venne eletto keeper dell'Accademia, con lo scopo di vigilare sul regolare svolgimento delle lezioni; siccome i due uffici non potevano essere ricoperti contemporaneamente, l'artista nel 1805 dovette abbandonare l'insegnamento. Ritornò a ricoprire la cattedra cinque anni dopo, quando date le sue doti eccezionali si decise di modificare gli statuti della Royal Academy. A questi incarichi, si affiancò l'adesione all'accademia di San Luca, a Roma, su nomina dello stesso Antonio Canova, che ne era il sovrintendente.
Nell'ultimo decennio di vita, Füssli esaurì lentamente le sue energie creative, per poi spegnersi, il 16 aprile 1825, a Putney Hill nella villa di campagna della Contessa di Guildford, che gli stette vicino insieme al marito, a Susan e Georgina North, e a Knowles. Sinceramente pianto dai suoi contemporanei, Füssli fu sepolto nella cattedrale di San Paolo, tra le tombe di John Opie e del Reynolds.
Stile
L'originalità dello stile pittorico di Johann Heinrich Füssli, artista oscuro nel secolo dei lumi, deriva dalla sua formazione di autodidatta, in grado di agire al di là delle mode del momento. Alle prime opere tipicamente neoclassiche, contraddistinte dalla purezza di forma e dal disegno propri di quell'indirizzo artistico, seguirono tele dominate da ombre sinistre, spazi cupi e colori improbabili, in una dimensione fantastica alimentata dalla grandiosità degli affreschi di Michelangelo.
L'intera produzione grafica füssliana nasce dall'immaginazione, dove tutto può accadere e tutto è lecito, senza censure di alcun genere; anche il mistero, il bizzarro e la fantasia, oltre all'inventiva, erano forze operanti nell'animo di Füssli. «Maledetta realtà, non smette mai di disturbarmi» diceva spesso agli amici, conscio della propria inclinazione per il fantastico, che consacrava quale la parte nobile dell'uomo in grado di esaltare l'anima, in un'esplosione di sublime. Come sottolineò egli stesso nell'Aforisma 231, la soluzione stava nel vivere la realtà oniricamente
«Una delle regioni meno esplorate dell’arte sono i sogni e ciò che possiamo chiamare la personificazione del sentimento: i Profeti, le Sibille, gli Antenati di Michelangelo sono tanti aspetti di un solo grande sentimento. Il sogno di Raffaello è la caratteristica rappresentazione di un sogno, il sogno di Michelangelo è un’ispirazione morale, un sentimento sublime»
Füssli ebbe il dono di creare con rara potenza espressiva immagini oniriche, allucinanti, magiche irripetibili per il loro surrealismo (è considerato infatti precursore del simbolismo), sapendole pure declinare ad un'attenta scelta dei mezzi espressivi. Come sottolineò egli stesso ai suoi studenti della Royal Academy, Füssli considerava la «composizione» un requisito fondamentale per un buon dipinto; in questo modo, nelle sue opere egli esaltò esclusivamente il fulcro dell'azione, opportunamente messo in rilievo con il gioco di luci e colori. Gli altri elementi, quali lo sfondo e l'ambientazione, li considerava accessori e marginali e, pertanto, li eliminò del tutto, facendoli inghiottire dall'oscurità, oppure li accennò a stento. Füssli sviluppò questa sobrietà pittorica anche riassumendo e semplificando le forme dei singoli personaggi, che risultano essere notevolmente stilizzati e privi di qualsiasi forma di caratterizzazione individuale.
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera
More images on Facebook I recommend to view it with lights out. Sometimes we forget how small we are... yeah that sentiment may has too much pathos :D Hope you like this one! via 500px ift.tt/1KG4TSk
Atkinson Art Gallery, Lord Street, Southport, Merseyside.
Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow, c1890.
By Lady Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933).
Watercolour and Gouache over pencil.
Lady Butler enjoyed huge acclaim for the complex battle scenes she specialised in. Although thrillingly lifelike, they were posed by models and usually painted years after the event. This lone figure of Napoleon after his defeat in 1812 was probably a study for a larger composition.
From 1862 Lady Elizabeth Butler began her studies of art in Italy, then in 1866 she went to South Kensington, London where she enrolled at the Female School of Art. Moving to Florence in 1869 where she studied under Giuseppe Bellucci and attended the Accademia di Belle Arti. She often signed her works as Mimi Thompson.
Famous for her paintings of battle scenes, Lady Elizabeth Butler was a remarkable artist, being one of only a few 19th century women to acquire fame for their historic paintings. Prior to her fame as a battle scene artists she had focussed on religious subjects, but in 1870 she was inspired by the works of Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier and Edouard Detaille, from then on she changed her focus to depicting heroic actions of soldiers of the ranks. In her 1922 autobiography she wrote about her military paintings: "I never painted for the glory of war, but to portray its pathos and heroism."
Born at Villa Claremont in Lausanne, Switzerland, her other works include the Crimean War and the Battle of Waterloo, The Roll Call (purchased by Queen Victoria) and The Defence of Rorke's Drift.
Her marriage to the distinguished British Army Lieutenant-General Sir William Francis Butler in 1877 resulted in six children, and a new era in her life as she travelled the British Empire. During their empire travels both she and her husband started to believe that the empire rulers of Britain and Europe may not provide the most positive experience for those whose land they ruled over. Even so, she continued to paint scenes showing the valour of the ordinary British soldier. Although she herself never witnessed war, she achieved more than any woman before or during her time in this field of art.
On her husband's retirement from the army, they moved to Bansha Castle, County Tipperary, Ireland. During the Irish Civil War a collection of watercolours she had created from their time in Palestine were moved to Gormanston Castle for safe keeping, later they were moved to London. Ironically they were almost all destroyed during the German Blitz of London.
Lady Butler was widowed in 1910, passing away herself in 1933.
The slogan at the bottom is from the National Association of Ice Industries ad in The American Home. Doomed technologies and their last gasps for relevance have a pathos all their own. See following pitch.
Buy Prints | Blog | Google+ | China Photo Book
My previous attempt to make it up to Jin Mao Tower by sunset was foiled when our driver took a wrong turn and deposited us into the 9th circle of Shanghai-traffic hell. We were nearing the end of our stay in China and I still had not gotten any “I am looking down on you mere mortals”, shots so I was extra determined to get here. On this day, I had already dragged my family to Suzhou and back and we were dangerously low on fun-happy-sparkles-energy because our last meal had been over fourteen hours ago (except for the baby, she eats a man-sized meal every two hours). The baby gave me an annoyed look as I used her as an excuse to bypass the huge line to the elevator that took us to the observation deck. A quick ride up to the top and the doors opened up to reveal pandemonium.
There were droves of Chinese tour groups, school kids and guides with megaphones waving those silly flags around. It was a photographer’s nightmare. I found a place for my family to sit down while I squeezed through hot, sweaty masses of people to finally find this spot. I waited for the light to be just right, fired off a few shots and got the heck out of there. Even as we were in the elevator just about to escape the craziness, an old man decided to jump out as the doors were closing. Oh man …
I wish I could say the rest of the evening went any better, but we ended up spending over $100 dollars on crappy food at a fancy restaurant and having to make a quick exit as the baby’s good will finally ran out and she let us have it. My poor family endured a lot to get this shot, but now that a few weeks have gone by and emotions are no longer raw, they saw the final product and begrudgingly decided it was worth it. Thanks for your patience ladies. Enjoy the view of Shanghai’s sprawling megalopolis at your leisure. =P
… this photo looks awesome on a big screen … you can almost see the big boss through the window, yelling at his employees in the building 30 miles away.
A partnership between man and animal, which has lasted more than a millennium. A fisherman needs to catch enough fish to sell and feed himself and his family. Sometimes, this means that he needs an assistant. Along the rivers of China that assistance came from a member of the order pelicaniformes bird - the bird that we call the Cormorant.
Cormorants are treated with the utmost care and attention and become accustomed to living with their new friends in a surprisingly fast way. The training period only lasts about two weeks and soon they are fully ready for your new lifestyle.
Cormorant fishing is considered an ancestral survival craft. The customs in rural China are conserved in such a way that leaving the big cities in areas of Guangxi province, we can observe the traditional fishermen with cormorão walking through the city with their birds balanced on a bamboo.
Cormorants are by nature experienced fishermen and so accompany their owners on a fishing trip tied to a hemp cord. The fisherman moves to the fishing area on a bamboo boat or raft, and once in place, lights his lantern or lantern to feed the fish and places the bird in the water.
The bird dives up to 10 meters, picks up a fish with its beak and when it comes to the surface its owner removes the fish from his mouth and gives a loaf of fish fillet to the bird as a positive reinforcement. And the cycle repeats itself. We may think it is an exploration - and we would not necessarily be wrong. However, what relationship between man and any animal is not so? Once the journey is completed, the fisherman releases the cormorant so that it can fish by itself.
If you have heard about this before, then there is great chance that you will associate fishing with cormorants with the Chinese. Although the activity predominates in this part of Asia, it has also once been very common in Japan. In fact, fishing with cormorants has already been done even in Macedonia.
Of course, today there are much more efficient methods of catching a fish. Cormorants are now maintained more to attract tourists than as subsistence. However, this ritual can be enjoyed by a magnificent walk along the Li River, one of the most majestic in China.
"Pathos. La tragedia delle Troiane" da Euripide e Seneca per la regia di Micha van Hoeck a Giardini Naxos con la presenza di un mimo ironico e giocoso, Lindsay Kemp.
The torment of Marsyas illustrates the taste for pathos in Hellenistic art. Marsyas was a silenus, or companion of Dionysos; a celebrated pipe-player, he boasted that he was a better musician than Apollo. Beaten in a musical contest with the god, Marsyas was condemned to be flayed alive by a Scythian slave. Suspended from the trunk of a tree, he awaits his terrible punishment. The scene is based on an original Hellentistic group from the late third century BC.
A silenus in torment
This large statue portrays a silenus, a member of Dionysos's retinue, whose animal nature is indicated by his pointed ears, wild mane of hair and tail emerging from the small of his back. His arms, lashed to a tree trunk at the wrists, bear the weight of his body, which is stretched and pulled, elongating the stomach and causing the ribs to stick out. The silenus's aged face is taut - racked with fear and pain.
The punishment of Marsyas
The statue is clearly a depiction of the torment of Marsyas. After learning to play a flute discarded by the goddess Athena, Marysas arrogantly challenged Apollo to a musical contest. The Muses declared Apollo the victor, and the god punished Marysas for his pride (or hubris) by condemning him to be flayed alive by a Scythian slave.
A number of copies and reliefs attest to the existence and popularity of the original statuary group depicting the legend. Thanks to these, the original composition may be reconstructed as follows: Marsyas, hanging from the tree, would have been flanked on the left by a crouching slave, sharpening his knife and raising his head towards the silenus, who returns his gaze. The figure of Apollo was probably standing to the right.
Pathétique pergaménien
The work is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original created at Pergamon in Asia Minor, in the second half of the third century BC. The legend of Marsyas was a favorite subject among artists as early as the fifth century BC, as seen in the early sculptural group by Myron, represented in the Louvre by a figure of Athena (inventory number Ma 2208). The Myron group illustrates the preceding episode in the story, namely the musical contest and its tragic ending. Here, the Hellenistic artist has chosen to represent the instant before punishment - the moment when victim and torturer exchange one last look, and the tension is at its peak.
This dramatic atmosphere corresponds perfectly to the Pergamene school's taste for pathos. The subject is a pretext for a study of the face and the human body; the theatricality and emotionality of the scene are heightened by the play of light across the uneven surfaces of Marsyas's body, distorted by pain.
This statue is also a formidable counterpoint to the history of Greek sculptural experimentation. From the frontal static pose of the early kouroi, to the contrapposto of the fifth century BC, Greek sculptors sought to place the human body upright, and to study the resulting musculature. Here, by depicting a suspended body, the sculptor has freed Marsyas from the weight of his own body and circumvented the problem of contrapposto. The statue represents an entirely new approach to the representation of the male nude: no longer a study of musculature and human strength in action, but an exploration of heightened muscular tension as a result of external duress.
Bibliography
Borbein (A. H.), "Die Statue des hängenden Marsyas", in Verlag des Kunstgeschichtlichen seminars, Hans Herter zum 75. Geburtstag, 1974, p. 37-52, fig. 9-12
Weis (A.), The Hanging Marsyas and its copies, Rome, 1992, p. 185-187, n 32, fig. 17, 19 et 32
Sismondo-Ridgway (B.), Hellenistic Sculpture, t. II, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2000, pp. 283-285
"Make a picture that is funny and sad at the same time. A photograph that simultaneously evokes pathos, irony and humour." - Jeff Mermelstein
Bust of Belisarius, 1785-91
Jean-Baptiste Stouf
French, 1752-1826
Marble
The Getty Center in Los Angeles, California
Carnival of Venice 2010
Nikon D700 FX
Nikkor 70-300 4,5-5,6 VR IF-ED
LightMirror © 2010 All Rights Reserved
The thing I like about this beach is watching the breakers, as Barracuda swim out of them, to catch Flying Fish.
Instruction #46
"Make a picture that is funny and sad at the same time. A photograph that simultaneously evokes pathos, irony and humour." - Jeff Mermelstein
Family outing. There are two dogs in the chair, annoyed I didn't get a better angle.
Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered one of the film industry's most important figures. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.
Chaplin's childhood in London was one of poverty and hardship. His father was absent and his mother struggled financially—he was sent to a workhouse twice before age nine. When he was 14, his mother was committed to a mental asylum. Chaplin began performing at an early age, touring music halls and later working as a stage actor and comedian. At 19, he was signed to the Fred Karno company, which took him to the United States. He was scouted for the film industry and began appearing in 1914 for Keystone Studios. He soon developed the Tramp persona and attracted a large fanbase. He directed his own films and continued to hone his craft as he moved to the Essanay, Mutual, and First National corporations. By 1918, he was one of the world's best-known figures.
In 1919, Chaplin co-founded the distribution company United Artists, which gave him complete control over his films. His first feature-length film was The Kid (1921), followed by A Woman of Paris (1923), The Gold Rush (1925), and The Circus (1928). He initially refused to move to sound films in the 1930s, instead producing City Lights (1931) and Modern Times (1936) without dialogue. His first sound film was The Great Dictator (1940), which satirised Adolf Hitler. The 1940s were marked with controversy for Chaplin, and his popularity declined rapidly. He was accused of communist sympathies, and some members of the press and public were scandalised by his involvement in a paternity suit and marriages to much younger women. An FBI investigation was opened, and Chaplin was forced to leave the U.S. and settle in Switzerland. He abandoned the Tramp in his later films, which include Monsieur Verdoux (1947), Limelight (1952), A King in New York (1957), and A Countess from Hong Kong (1967).
Chaplin wrote, directed, produced, edited, starred in, and composed the music for most of his films. He was a perfectionist, and his financial independence enabled him to spend years on the development and production of a picture. His films are characterised by slapstick combined with pathos, typified in the Tramp's struggles against adversity. Many contain social and political themes, as well as autobiographical elements. He received an Honorary Academy Award for "the incalculable effect he has had in making motion pictures the art form of this century" in 1972, as part of a renewed appreciation for his work. He continues to be held in high regard, with The Gold Rush, City Lights, Modern Times, and The Great Dictator often ranked on lists of the greatest films.
Graffiti (plural; singular graffiti or graffito, the latter rarely used except in archeology) is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire (see also mural).
Graffiti is a controversial subject. In most countries, marking or painting property without permission is considered by property owners and civic authorities as defacement and vandalism, which is a punishable crime, citing the use of graffiti by street gangs to mark territory or to serve as an indicator of gang-related activities. Graffiti has become visualized as a growing urban "problem" for many cities in industrialized nations, spreading from the New York City subway system and Philadelphia in the early 1970s to the rest of the United States and Europe and other world regions
"Graffiti" (usually both singular and plural) and the rare singular form "graffito" are from the Italian word graffiato ("scratched"). The term "graffiti" is used in art history for works of art produced by scratching a design into a surface. A related term is "sgraffito", which involves scratching through one layer of pigment to reveal another beneath it. This technique was primarily used by potters who would glaze their wares and then scratch a design into them. In ancient times graffiti were carved on walls with a sharp object, although sometimes chalk or coal were used. The word originates from Greek γράφειν—graphein—meaning "to write".
The term graffiti originally referred to the inscriptions, figure drawings, and such, found on the walls of ancient sepulchres or ruins, as in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii. Historically, these writings were not considered vanadlism, which today is considered part of the definition of graffiti.
The only known source of the Safaitic language, an ancient form of Arabic, is from graffiti: inscriptions scratched on to the surface of rocks and boulders in the predominantly basalt desert of southern Syria, eastern Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Safaitic dates from the first century BC to the fourth century AD.
Some of the oldest cave paintings in the world are 40,000 year old ones found in Australia. The oldest written graffiti was found in ancient Rome around 2500 years ago. Most graffiti from the time was boasts about sexual experiences Graffiti in Ancient Rome was a form of communication, and was not considered vandalism.
Ancient tourists visiting the 5th-century citadel at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka write their names and commentary over the "mirror wall", adding up to over 1800 individual graffiti produced there between the 6th and 18th centuries. Most of the graffiti refer to the frescoes of semi-nude females found there. One reads:
Wet with cool dew drops
fragrant with perfume from the flowers
came the gentle breeze
jasmine and water lily
dance in the spring sunshine
side-long glances
of the golden-hued ladies
stab into my thoughts
heaven itself cannot take my mind
as it has been captivated by one lass
among the five hundred I have seen here.
Among the ancient political graffiti examples were Arab satirist poems. Yazid al-Himyari, an Umayyad Arab and Persian poet, was most known for writing his political poetry on the walls between Sajistan and Basra, manifesting a strong hatred towards the Umayyad regime and its walis, and people used to read and circulate them very widely.
Graffiti, known as Tacherons, were frequently scratched on Romanesque Scandinavian church walls. When Renaissance artists such as Pinturicchio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio, or Filippino Lippi descended into the ruins of Nero's Domus Aurea, they carved or painted their names and returned to initiate the grottesche style of decoration.
There are also examples of graffiti occurring in American history, such as Independence Rock, a national landmark along the Oregon Trail.
Later, French soldiers carved their names on monuments during the Napoleonic campaign of Egypt in the 1790s. Lord Byron's survives on one of the columns of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion in Attica, Greece.
The oldest known example of graffiti "monikers" found on traincars created by hobos and railworkers since the late 1800s. The Bozo Texino monikers were documented by filmmaker Bill Daniel in his 2005 film, Who is Bozo Texino?.
In World War II, an inscription on a wall at the fortress of Verdun was seen as an illustration of the US response twice in a generation to the wrongs of the Old World:
During World War II and for decades after, the phrase "Kilroy was here" with an accompanying illustration was widespread throughout the world, due to its use by American troops and ultimately filtering into American popular culture. Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker (nicknamed "Yardbird" or "Bird"), graffiti began appearing around New York with the words "Bird Lives".
Modern graffiti art has its origins with young people in 1960s and 70s in New York City and Philadelphia. Tags were the first form of stylised contemporary graffiti. Eventually, throw-ups and pieces evolved with the desire to create larger art. Writers used spray paint and other kind of materials to leave tags or to create images on the sides subway trains. and eventually moved into the city after the NYC metro began to buy new trains and paint over graffiti.
While the art had many advocates and appreciators—including the cultural critic Norman Mailer—others, including New York City mayor Ed Koch, considered it to be defacement of public property, and saw it as a form of public blight. The ‘taggers’ called what they did ‘writing’—though an important 1974 essay by Mailer referred to it using the term ‘graffiti.’
Contemporary graffiti style has been heavily influenced by hip hop culture and the myriad international styles derived from Philadelphia and New York City Subway graffiti; however, there are many other traditions of notable graffiti in the twentieth century. Graffiti have long appeared on building walls, in latrines, railroad boxcars, subways, and bridges.
An early graffito outside of New York or Philadelphia was the inscription in London reading "Clapton is God" in reference to the guitarist Eric Clapton. Creating the cult of the guitar hero, the phrase was spray-painted by an admirer on a wall in an Islington, north London in the autumn of 1967. The graffito was captured in a photograph, in which a dog is urinating on the wall.
Films like Style Wars in the 80s depicting famous writers such as Skeme, Dondi, MinOne, and ZEPHYR reinforced graffiti's role within New York's emerging hip-hop culture. Although many officers of the New York City Police Department found this film to be controversial, Style Wars is still recognized as the most prolific film representation of what was going on within the young hip hop culture of the early 1980s. Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000 took hip hop graffiti to Paris and London as part of the New York City Rap Tour in 1983
Commercialization and entrance into mainstream pop culture
Main article: Commercial graffiti
With the popularity and legitimization of graffiti has come a level of commercialization. In 2001, computer giant IBM launched an advertising campaign in Chicago and San Francisco which involved people spray painting on sidewalks a peace symbol, a heart, and a penguin (Linux mascot), to represent "Peace, Love, and Linux." IBM paid Chicago and San Francisco collectively US$120,000 for punitive damages and clean-up costs.
In 2005, a similar ad campaign was launched by Sony and executed by its advertising agency in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami, to market its handheld PSP gaming system. In this campaign, taking notice of the legal problems of the IBM campaign, Sony paid building owners for the rights to paint on their buildings "a collection of dizzy-eyed urban kids playing with the PSP as if it were a skateboard, a paddle, or a rocking horse".
Tristan Manco wrote that Brazil "boasts a unique and particularly rich, graffiti scene ... [earning] it an international reputation as the place to go for artistic inspiration". Graffiti "flourishes in every conceivable space in Brazil's cities". Artistic parallels "are often drawn between the energy of São Paulo today and 1970s New York". The "sprawling metropolis", of São Paulo has "become the new shrine to graffiti"; Manco alludes to "poverty and unemployment ... [and] the epic struggles and conditions of the country's marginalised peoples", and to "Brazil's chronic poverty", as the main engines that "have fuelled a vibrant graffiti culture". In world terms, Brazil has "one of the most uneven distributions of income. Laws and taxes change frequently". Such factors, Manco argues, contribute to a very fluid society, riven with those economic divisions and social tensions that underpin and feed the "folkloric vandalism and an urban sport for the disenfranchised", that is South American graffiti art.
Prominent Brazilian writers include Os Gêmeos, Boleta, Nunca, Nina, Speto, Tikka, and T.Freak. Their artistic success and involvement in commercial design ventures has highlighted divisions within the Brazilian graffiti community between adherents of the cruder transgressive form of pichação and the more conventionally artistic values of the practitioners of grafite.
Graffiti in the Middle East has emerged slowly, with taggers operating in Egypt, Lebanon, the Gulf countries like Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates, Israel, and in Iran. The major Iranian newspaper Hamshahri has published two articles on illegal writers in the city with photographic coverage of Iranian artist A1one's works on Tehran walls. Tokyo-based design magazine, PingMag, has interviewed A1one and featured photographs of his work. The Israeli West Bank barrier has become a site for graffiti, reminiscent in this sense of the Berlin Wall. Many writers in Israel come from other places around the globe, such as JUIF from Los Angeles and DEVIONE from London. The religious reference "נ נח נחמ נחמן מאומן" ("Na Nach Nachma Nachman Meuman") is commonly seen in graffiti around Israel.
Graffiti has played an important role within the street art scene in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), especially following the events of the Arab Spring of 2011 or the Sudanese Revolution of 2018/19. Graffiti is a tool of expression in the context of conflict in the region, allowing people to raise their voices politically and socially. Famous street artist Banksy has had an important effect in the street art scene in the MENA area, especially in Palestine where some of his works are located in the West Bank barrier and Bethlehem.
There are also a large number of graffiti influences in Southeast Asian countries that mostly come from modern Western culture, such as Malaysia, where graffiti have long been a common sight in Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Since 2010, the country has begun hosting a street festival to encourage all generations and people from all walks of life to enjoy and encourage Malaysian street culture.
The modern-day graffitists can be found with an arsenal of various materials that allow for a successful production of a piece. This includes such techniques as scribing. However, spray paint in aerosol cans is the number one medium for graffiti. From this commodity comes different styles, technique, and abilities to form master works of graffiti. Spray paint can be found at hardware and art stores and comes in virtually every color.
Stencil graffiti is created by cutting out shapes and designs in a stiff material (such as cardboard or subject folders) to form an overall design or image. The stencil is then placed on the "canvas" gently and with quick, easy strokes of the aerosol can, the image begins to appear on the intended surface.
Some of the first examples were created in 1981 by artists Blek le Rat in Paris, in 1982 by Jef Aerosol in Tours (France); by 1985 stencils had appeared in other cities including New York City, Sydney, and Melbourne, where they were documented by American photographer Charles Gatewood and Australian photographer Rennie Ellis
Tagging is the practice of someone spray-painting "their name, initial or logo onto a public surface" in a handstyle unique to the writer. Tags were the first form of modern graffiti.
Modern graffiti art often incorporates additional arts and technologies. For example, Graffiti Research Lab has encouraged the use of projected images and magnetic light-emitting diodes (throwies) as new media for graffitists. yarnbombing is another recent form of graffiti. Yarnbombers occasionally target previous graffiti for modification, which had been avoided among the majority of graffitists.
Theories on the use of graffiti by avant-garde artists have a history dating back at least to the Asger Jorn, who in 1962 painting declared in a graffiti-like gesture "the avant-garde won't give up"
Many contemporary analysts and even art critics have begun to see artistic value in some graffiti and to recognize it as a form of public art. According to many art researchers, particularly in the Netherlands and in Los Angeles, that type of public art is, in fact an effective tool of social emancipation or, in the achievement of a political goal
In times of conflict, such murals have offered a means of communication and self-expression for members of these socially, ethnically, or racially divided communities, and have proven themselves as effective tools in establishing dialog and thus, of addressing cleavages in the long run. The Berlin Wall was also extensively covered by graffiti reflecting social pressures relating to the oppressive Soviet rule over the GDR.
Many artists involved with graffiti are also concerned with the similar activity of stenciling. Essentially, this entails stenciling a print of one or more colors using spray-paint. Recognized while exhibiting and publishing several of her coloured stencils and paintings portraying the Sri Lankan Civil War and urban Britain in the early 2000s, graffitists Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka M.I.A., has also become known for integrating her imagery of political violence into her music videos for singles "Galang" and "Bucky Done Gun", and her cover art. Stickers of her artwork also often appear around places such as London in Brick Lane, stuck to lamp posts and street signs, she having become a muse for other graffitists and painters worldwide in cities including Seville.
Graffitist believes that art should be on display for everyone in the public eye or in plain sight, not hidden away in a museum or a gallery. Art should color the streets, not the inside of some building. Graffiti is a form of art that cannot be owned or bought. It does not last forever, it is temporary, yet one of a kind. It is a form of self promotion for the artist that can be displayed anywhere form sidewalks, roofs, subways, building wall, etc. Art to them is for everyone and should be showed to everyone for free.
Graffiti is a way of communicating and a way of expressing what one feels in the moment. It is both art and a functional thing that can warn people of something or inform people of something. However, graffiti is to some people a form of art, but to some a form of vandalism. And many graffitists choose to protect their identities and remain anonymous or to hinder prosecution.
With the commercialization of graffiti (and hip hop in general), in most cases, even with legally painted "graffiti" art, graffitists tend to choose anonymity. This may be attributed to various reasons or a combination of reasons. Graffiti still remains the one of four hip hop elements that is not considered "performance art" despite the image of the "singing and dancing star" that sells hip hop culture to the mainstream. Being a graphic form of art, it might also be said that many graffitists still fall in the category of the introverted archetypal artist.
Banksy is one of the world's most notorious and popular street artists who continues to remain faceless in today's society. He is known for his political, anti-war stencil art mainly in Bristol, England, but his work may be seen anywhere from Los Angeles to Palestine. In the UK, Banksy is the most recognizable icon for this cultural artistic movement and keeps his identity a secret to avoid arrest. Much of Banksy's artwork may be seen around the streets of London and surrounding suburbs, although he has painted pictures throughout the world, including the Middle East, where he has painted on Israel's controversial West Bank barrier with satirical images of life on the other side. One depicted a hole in the wall with an idyllic beach, while another shows a mountain landscape on the other side. A number of exhibitions also have taken place since 2000, and recent works of art have fetched vast sums of money. Banksy's art is a prime example of the classic controversy: vandalism vs. art. Art supporters endorse his work distributed in urban areas as pieces of art and some councils, such as Bristol and Islington, have officially protected them, while officials of other areas have deemed his work to be vandalism and have removed it.
Pixnit is another artist who chooses to keep her identity from the general public. Her work focuses on beauty and design aspects of graffiti as opposed to Banksy's anti-government shock value. Her paintings are often of flower designs above shops and stores in her local urban area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some store owners endorse her work and encourage others to do similar work as well. "One of the pieces was left up above Steve's Kitchen, because it looks pretty awesome"- Erin Scott, the manager of New England Comics in Allston, Massachusetts.
Graffiti artists may become offended if photographs of their art are published in a commercial context without their permission. In March 2020, the Finnish graffiti artist Psyke expressed his displeasure at the newspaper Ilta-Sanomat publishing a photograph of a Peugeot 208 in an article about new cars, with his graffiti prominently shown on the background. The artist claims he does not want his art being used in commercial context, not even if he were to receive compensation.
Territorial graffiti marks urban neighborhoods with tags and logos to differentiate certain groups from others. These images are meant to show outsiders a stern look at whose turf is whose. The subject matter of gang-related graffiti consists of cryptic symbols and initials strictly fashioned with unique calligraphies. Gang members use graffiti to designate membership throughout the gang, to differentiate rivals and associates and, most commonly, to mark borders which are both territorial and ideological.
Graffiti has been used as a means of advertising both legally and illegally. Bronx-based TATS CRU has made a name for themselves doing legal advertising campaigns for companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Toyota, and MTV. In the UK, Covent Garden's Boxfresh used stencil images of a Zapatista revolutionary in the hopes that cross referencing would promote their store.
Smirnoff hired artists to use reverse graffiti (the use of high pressure hoses to clean dirty surfaces to leave a clean image in the surrounding dirt) to increase awareness of their product.
Graffiti often has a reputation as part of a subculture that rebels against authority, although the considerations of the practitioners often diverge and can relate to a wide range of attitudes. It can express a political practice and can form just one tool in an array of resistance techniques. One early example includes the anarcho-punk band Crass, who conducted a campaign of stenciling anti-war, anarchist, feminist, and anti-consumerist messages throughout the London Underground system during the late 1970s and early 1980s. In Amsterdam graffiti was a major part of the punk scene. The city was covered with names such as "De Zoot", "Vendex", and "Dr Rat". To document the graffiti a punk magazine was started that was called Gallery Anus. So when hip hop came to Europe in the early 1980s there was already a vibrant graffiti culture.
The student protests and general strike of May 1968 saw Paris bedecked in revolutionary, anarchistic, and situationist slogans such as L'ennui est contre-révolutionnaire ("Boredom is counterrevolutionary") and Lisez moins, vivez plus ("Read less, live more"). While not exhaustive, the graffiti gave a sense of the 'millenarian' and rebellious spirit, tempered with a good deal of verbal wit, of the strikers.
I think graffiti writing is a way of defining what our generation is like. Excuse the French, we're not a bunch of p---- artists. Traditionally artists have been considered soft and mellow people, a little bit kooky. Maybe we're a little bit more like pirates that way. We defend our territory, whatever space we steal to paint on, we defend it fiercely.
The developments of graffiti art which took place in art galleries and colleges as well as "on the street" or "underground", contributed to the resurfacing in the 1990s of a far more overtly politicized art form in the subvertising, culture jamming, or tactical media movements. These movements or styles tend to classify the artists by their relationship to their social and economic contexts, since, in most countries, graffiti art remains illegal in many forms except when using non-permanent paint. Since the 1990s with the rise of Street Art, a growing number of artists are switching to non-permanent paints and non-traditional forms of painting.
Contemporary practitioners, accordingly, have varied and often conflicting practices. Some individuals, such as Alexander Brener, have used the medium to politicize other art forms, and have used the prison sentences enforced on them as a means of further protest. The practices of anonymous groups and individuals also vary widely, and practitioners by no means always agree with each other's practices. For example, the anti-capitalist art group the Space Hijackers did a piece in 2004 about the contradiction between the capitalistic elements of Banksy and his use of political imagery.
Berlin human rights activist Irmela Mensah-Schramm has received global media attention and numerous awards for her 35-year campaign of effacing neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist graffiti throughout Germany, often by altering hate speech in humorous ways.
In Serbian capital, Belgrade, the graffiti depicting a uniformed former general of Serb army and war criminal, convicted at ICTY for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide and ethnic cleansing in Bosnian War, Ratko Mladić, appeared in a military salute alongside the words "General, thank to your mother". Aleks Eror, Berlin-based journalist, explains how "veneration of historical and wartime figures" through street art is not a new phenomenon in the region of former Yugoslavia, and that "in most cases is firmly focused on the future, rather than retelling the past". Eror is not only analyst pointing to danger of such an expressions for the region's future. In a long expose on the subject of Bosnian genocide denial, at Balkan Diskurs magazine and multimedia platform website, Kristina Gadže and Taylor Whitsell referred to these experiences as a young generations' "cultural heritage", in which young are being exposed to celebration and affirmation of war-criminals as part of their "formal education" and "inheritance".
There are numerous examples of genocide denial through celebration and affirmation of war criminals throughout the region of Western Balkans inhabited by Serbs using this form of artistic expression. Several more of these graffiti are found in Serbian capital, and many more across Serbia and Bosnian and Herzegovinian administrative entity, Republika Srpska, which is the ethnic Serbian majority enclave. Critics point that Serbia as a state, is willing to defend the mural of convicted war criminal, and have no intention to react on cases of genocide denial, noting that Interior Minister of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin decision to ban any gathering with an intent to remove the mural, with the deployment of riot police, sends the message of "tacit endorsement". Consequently, on 9 November 2021, Serbian heavy police in riot gear, with graffiti creators and their supporters, blocked the access to the mural to prevent human rights groups and other activists to paint over it and mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism in that way, and even arrested two civic activist for throwing eggs at the graffiti.
Graffiti may also be used as an offensive expression. This form of graffiti may be difficult to identify, as it is mostly removed by the local authority (as councils which have adopted strategies of criminalization also strive to remove graffiti quickly). Therefore, existing racist graffiti is mostly more subtle and at first sight, not easily recognized as "racist". It can then be understood only if one knows the relevant "local code" (social, historical, political, temporal, and spatial), which is seen as heteroglot and thus a 'unique set of conditions' in a cultural context.
A spatial code for example, could be that there is a certain youth group in an area that is engaging heavily in racist activities. So, for residents (knowing the local code), a graffiti containing only the name or abbreviation of this gang already is a racist expression, reminding the offended people of their gang activities. Also a graffiti is in most cases, the herald of more serious criminal activity to come. A person who does not know these gang activities would not be able to recognize the meaning of this graffiti. Also if a tag of this youth group or gang is placed on a building occupied by asylum seekers, for example, its racist character is even stronger.
By making the graffiti less explicit (as adapted to social and legal constraints), these drawings are less likely to be removed, but do not lose their threatening and offensive character.
Elsewhere, activists in Russia have used painted caricatures of local officials with their mouths as potholes, to show their anger about the poor state of the roads. In Manchester, England, a graffitists painted obscene images around potholes, which often resulted in them being repaired within 48 hours.
In the early 1980s, the first art galleries to show graffitists to the public were Fashion Moda in the Bronx, Now Gallery and Fun Gallery, both in the East Village, Manhattan.
A 2006 exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum displayed graffiti as an art form that began in New York's outer boroughs and reached great heights in the early 1980s with the work of Crash, Lee, Daze, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. It displayed 22 works by New York graffitists, including Crash, Daze, and Lady Pink. In an article about the exhibition in the magazine Time Out, curator Charlotta Kotik said that she hoped the exhibition would cause viewers to rethink their assumptions about graffiti.
From the 1970s onwards, Burhan Doğançay photographed urban walls all over the world; these he then archived for use as sources of inspiration for his painterly works. The project today known as "Walls of the World" grew beyond even his own expectations and comprises about 30,000 individual images. It spans a period of 40 years across five continents and 114 countries. In 1982, photographs from this project comprised a one-man exhibition titled "Les murs murmurent, ils crient, ils chantent ..." (The walls whisper, shout and sing ...) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
In Australia, art historians have judged some local graffiti of sufficient creative merit to rank them firmly within the arts. Oxford University Press's art history text Australian Painting 1788–2000 concludes with a long discussion of graffiti's key place within contemporary visual culture, including the work of several Australian practitioners.
Between March and April 2009, 150 artists exhibited 300 pieces of graffiti at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Spray paint has many negative environmental effects. The paint contains toxic chemicals, and the can uses volatile hydrocarbon gases to spray the paint onto a surface.
Volatile organic compound (VOC) leads to ground level ozone formation and most of graffiti related emissions are VOCs. A 2010 paper estimates 4,862 tons of VOCs were released in the United States in activities related to graffiti.
In China, Mao Zedong in the 1920s used revolutionary slogans and paintings in public places to galvanize the country's communist movement.
Based on different national conditions, many people believe that China's attitude towards Graffiti is fierce, but in fact, according to Lance Crayon in his film Spray Paint Beijing: Graffiti in the Capital of China, Graffiti is generally accepted in Beijing, with artists not seeing much police interference. Political and religiously sensitive graffiti, however, is not allowed.
In Hong Kong, Tsang Tsou Choi was known as the King of Kowloon for his calligraphy graffiti over many years, in which he claimed ownership of the area. Now some of his work is preserved officially.
In Taiwan, the government has made some concessions to graffitists. Since 2005 they have been allowed to freely display their work along some sections of riverside retaining walls in designated "Graffiti Zones". From 2007, Taipei's department of cultural affairs also began permitting graffiti on fences around major public construction sites. Department head Yong-ping Lee (李永萍) stated, "We will promote graffiti starting with the public sector, and then later in the private sector too. It's our goal to beautify the city with graffiti". The government later helped organize a graffiti contest in Ximending, a popular shopping district. graffitists caught working outside of these designated areas still face fines up to NT$6,000 under a department of environmental protection regulation. However, Taiwanese authorities can be relatively lenient, one veteran police officer stating anonymously, "Unless someone complains about vandalism, we won't get involved. We don't go after it proactively."
In 1993, after several expensive cars in Singapore were spray-painted, the police arrested a student from the Singapore American School, Michael P. Fay, questioned him, and subsequently charged him with vandalism. Fay pleaded guilty to vandalizing a car in addition to stealing road signs. Under the 1966 Vandalism Act of Singapore, originally passed to curb the spread of communist graffiti in Singapore, the court sentenced him to four months in jail, a fine of S$3,500 (US$2,233), and a caning. The New York Times ran several editorials and op-eds that condemned the punishment and called on the American public to flood the Singaporean embassy with protests. Although the Singapore government received many calls for clemency, Fay's caning took place in Singapore on 5 May 1994. Fay had originally received a sentence of six strokes of the cane, but the presiding president of Singapore, Ong Teng Cheong, agreed to reduce his caning sentence to four lashes.
In South Korea, Park Jung-soo was fined two million South Korean won by the Seoul Central District Court for spray-painting a rat on posters of the G-20 Summit a few days before the event in November 2011. Park alleged that the initial in "G-20" sounds like the Korean word for "rat", but Korean government prosecutors alleged that Park was making a derogatory statement about the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, the host of the summit. This case led to public outcry and debate on the lack of government tolerance and in support of freedom of expression. The court ruled that the painting, "an ominous creature like a rat" amounts to "an organized criminal activity" and upheld the fine while denying the prosecution's request for imprisonment for Park.
In Europe, community cleaning squads have responded to graffiti, in some cases with reckless abandon, as when in 1992 in France a local Scout group, attempting to remove modern graffiti, damaged two prehistoric paintings of bison in the Cave of Mayrière supérieure near the French village of Bruniquel in Tarn-et-Garonne, earning them the 1992 Ig Nobel Prize in archeology.
In September 2006, the European Parliament directed the European Commission to create urban environment policies to prevent and eliminate dirt, litter, graffiti, animal excrement, and excessive noise from domestic and vehicular music systems in European cities, along with other concerns over urban life.
In Budapest, Hungary, both a city-backed movement called I Love Budapest and a special police division tackle the problem, including the provision of approved areas.
The Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 became Britain's latest anti-graffiti legislation. In August 2004, the Keep Britain Tidy campaign issued a press release calling for zero tolerance of graffiti and supporting proposals such as issuing "on the spot" fines to graffiti offenders and banning the sale of aerosol paint to anyone under the age of 16. The press release also condemned the use of graffiti images in advertising and in music videos, arguing that real-world experience of graffiti stood far removed from its often-portrayed "cool" or "edgy'" image.
To back the campaign, 123 Members of Parliament (MPs) (including then Prime Minister Tony Blair), signed a charter which stated: "Graffiti is not art, it's crime. On behalf of my constituents, I will do all I can to rid our community of this problem."
In the UK, city councils have the power to take action against the owner of any property that has been defaced under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (as amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) or, in certain cases, the Highways Act. This is often used against owners of property that are complacent in allowing protective boards to be defaced so long as the property is not damaged.
In July 2008, a conspiracy charge was used to convict graffitists for the first time. After a three-month police surveillance operation, nine members of the DPM crew were convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage costing at least £1 million. Five of them received prison sentences, ranging from eighteen months to two years. The unprecedented scale of the investigation and the severity of the sentences rekindled public debate over whether graffiti should be considered art or crime.
Some councils, like those of Stroud and Loerrach, provide approved areas in the town where graffitists can showcase their talents, including underpasses, car parks, and walls that might otherwise prove a target for the "spray and run".
Graffiti Tunnel, University of Sydney at Camperdown (2009)
In an effort to reduce vandalism, many cities in Australia have designated walls or areas exclusively for use by graffitists. One early example is the "Graffiti Tunnel" located at the Camperdown Campus of the University of Sydney, which is available for use by any student at the university to tag, advertise, poster, and paint. Advocates of this idea suggest that this discourages petty vandalism yet encourages artists to take their time and produce great art, without worry of being caught or arrested for vandalism or trespassing.[108][109] Others disagree with this approach, arguing that the presence of legal graffiti walls does not demonstrably reduce illegal graffiti elsewhere. Some local government areas throughout Australia have introduced "anti-graffiti squads", who clean graffiti in the area, and such crews as BCW (Buffers Can't Win) have taken steps to keep one step ahead of local graffiti cleaners.
Many state governments have banned the sale or possession of spray paint to those under the age of 18 (age of majority). However, a number of local governments in Victoria have taken steps to recognize the cultural heritage value of some examples of graffiti, such as prominent political graffiti. Tough new graffiti laws have been introduced in Australia with fines of up to A$26,000 and two years in prison.
Melbourne is a prominent graffiti city of Australia with many of its lanes being tourist attractions, such as Hosier Lane in particular, a popular destination for photographers, wedding photography, and backdrops for corporate print advertising. The Lonely Planet travel guide cites Melbourne's street as a major attraction. All forms of graffiti, including sticker art, poster, stencil art, and wheatpasting, can be found in many places throughout the city. Prominent street art precincts include; Fitzroy, Collingwood, Northcote, Brunswick, St. Kilda, and the CBD, where stencil and sticker art is prominent. As one moves farther away from the city, mostly along suburban train lines, graffiti tags become more prominent. Many international artists such as Banksy have left their work in Melbourne and in early 2008 a perspex screen was installed to prevent a Banksy stencil art piece from being destroyed, it has survived since 2003 through the respect of local street artists avoiding posting over it, although it has recently had paint tipped over it.
In February 2008 Helen Clark, the New Zealand prime minister at that time, announced a government crackdown on tagging and other forms of graffiti vandalism, describing it as a destructive crime representing an invasion of public and private property. New legislation subsequently adopted included a ban on the sale of paint spray cans to persons under 18 and increases in maximum fines for the offence from NZ$200 to NZ$2,000 or extended community service. The issue of tagging become a widely debated one following an incident in Auckland during January 2008 in which a middle-aged property owner stabbed one of two teenage taggers to death and was subsequently convicted of manslaughter.
Graffiti databases have increased in the past decade because they allow vandalism incidents to be fully documented against an offender and help the police and prosecution charge and prosecute offenders for multiple counts of vandalism. They also provide law enforcement the ability to rapidly search for an offender's moniker or tag in a simple, effective, and comprehensive way. These systems can also help track costs of damage to a city to help allocate an anti-graffiti budget. The theory is that when an offender is caught putting up graffiti, they are not just charged with one count of vandalism; they can be held accountable for all the other damage for which they are responsible. This has two main benefits for law enforcement. One, it sends a signal to the offenders that their vandalism is being tracked. Two, a city can seek restitution from offenders for all the damage that they have committed, not merely a single incident. These systems give law enforcement personnel real-time, street-level intelligence that allows them not only to focus on the worst graffiti offenders and their damage, but also to monitor potential gang violence that is associated with the graffiti.
Many restrictions of civil gang injunctions are designed to help address and protect the physical environment and limit graffiti. Provisions of gang injunctions include things such as restricting the possession of marker pens, spray paint cans, or other sharp objects capable of defacing private or public property; spray painting, or marking with marker pens, scratching, applying stickers, or otherwise applying graffiti on any public or private property, including, but not limited to the street, alley, residences, block walls, and fences, vehicles or any other real or personal property. Some injunctions contain wording that restricts damaging or vandalizing both public and private property, including but not limited to any vehicle, light fixture, door, fence, wall, gate, window, building, street sign, utility box, telephone box, tree, or power pole.
To help address many of these issues, many local jurisdictions have set up graffiti abatement hotlines, where citizens can call in and report vandalism and have it removed. San Diego's hotline receives more than 5,000 calls per year, in addition to reporting the graffiti, callers can learn more about prevention. One of the complaints about these hotlines is the response time; there is often a lag time between a property owner calling about the graffiti and its removal. The length of delay should be a consideration for any jurisdiction planning on operating a hotline. Local jurisdictions must convince the callers that their complaint of vandalism will be a priority and cleaned off right away. If the jurisdiction does not have the resources to respond to complaints in a timely manner, the value of the hotline diminishes. Crews must be able to respond to individual service calls made to the graffiti hotline as well as focus on cleanup near schools, parks, and major intersections and transit routes to have the biggest impact. Some cities offer a reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of suspects for tagging or graffiti related vandalism. The amount of the reward is based on the information provided, and the action taken.
When police obtain search warrants in connection with a vandalism investigation, they are often seeking judicial approval to look for items such as cans of spray paint and nozzles from other kinds of aerosol sprays; etching tools, or other sharp or pointed objects, which could be used to etch or scratch glass and other hard surfaces; permanent marking pens, markers, or paint sticks; evidence of membership or affiliation with any gang or tagging crew; paraphernalia including any reference to "(tagger's name)"; any drawings, writing, objects, or graffiti depicting taggers' names, initials, logos, monikers, slogans, or any mention of tagging crew membership; and any newspaper clippings relating to graffiti crime.
*Angel's Designs* No Angel (Applilers & Classic Fit)
!!BHB!!Aneta Ankle Boots Custom Maitreya
.ploom. Tina (small) - Candy
7 Deadly s{K}ins -Steptember 2015 GIRLS skin v1 NOcleavage (marshmallow)
*C:K* Passionate Lover Eyes - Pink
Essences - Hangover Lipstick 07 (put on 1st)
**NOYA** Face Make Up Combination (smokey+lipgloss1)
Pathos Maitreya Lucie Nails