Is Graffiti Art?

Is Graffiti Art?

Maysen Andersen, Staff Writer

   Graffiti isn’t always seen as art. Some people call all forms of graffiti defacement of property. Which is true if the graffiti is on a surface where it doesn’t have permission to be, but otherwise it can be amazing.

   Graffiti first appeared as drawings on cave walls thousands of years ago. “Cueva de las Manos” (The Cave of Hands), located in Santa Cruz, Argentina, is one of the first forms of graffiti. It is absolutely amazing and awe inspiring. The painting dates from 13,000 to 9,000 BCE.

   Graffiti is also seen in ancient Greece as well.

   Another early form of graffiti was found in the Hagia Sophia and is a sentence was written by a Viking mercenary and it says “Halvdan was here”.

  The style seen nowadays with spray paint didn’t start till the 1960’s in Philadelphia. This form was used for tagging and was normally on done on trains, but once people started getting in trouble they moved to walls.

   With the larger canvas they were able to get more colorful and even more creative. People would use stencils or just freehand it. These can be very artistic and meaningful.

  With such a long history, Graffiti can seen as good, okay, or bad.

   So what should happen if bad form of graffiti are found where it isn’t wanted? If someone put graffiti on my wall and it was a bad form of graffiti, I would want the person who did it have to clean it off.

    I get that it can be bad in certain forms so i see both sides. All in all it can be harmful or Amazing it all depends on what it is and where it is.

   Do you or don’t you think is Graffiti is Art?

 

Photos Credit:

https://unsplash.com/search/photos/graffiti

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