If there is a company that provides graffiti for a fee, to sell products, work in schools, make event banners, does this mean that graffiti art is mainstream? No longer on the margins? This art form is over 30 years old, does that make it a dated stereotype? Banksy sells his work from galleries, hopeful investors buy walls that Banksy has sprayed. Can street art make the transition from the urban underground to the commercial art market and remain raw and honest?
Graffiti4hire are a company that use a team of artists to make customised graffiti art. The link shows a time lapse of how they paint the image "Making Money". The final image is brilliant, the way it was filmed and cut is also interesting
Frame from the 1981 Debby Harry video "Rapture" showing the graffiti artists Jean Michael Basqiuat and Lee Quinones. Sadly this video, brilliant at the time, has not matured well.
Painting of Debbie Harry by Lee Quinones
Andy Warhol mentored Jean Michael Basquiet moving him from street wall art to gallery canvas art, making him world famous and rich almost over night.
Jean Michael Basqiuat with one of his paintings, I see his work as Outsider Art, a term that could be applied to most graffiti art.
"Honest George" is a contemporary piece by Lee Quinones. The leaves in the foreground are made from cut out dollar bills, which is illegal. He is still breaking the law for his art.
Lee Quinones was one of the first Hip Hop culture graffiti artists.
In 1976 he produced ‘Doomsday’ covering two full subway cars. It showed images of tenement buildings, flames, and a horned monster, his “signature”. His best works are political, for example stopping the arms race. Lee became famous for being one of a few graffiti artists to successfully bomb an entire subway train. He covered ten cars with his images. Lee abandoned working on subway cars, transferring to canvas to develop his mural work. Lee is better known for his mural pieces, rather than tagging.
His CV is varied and extensive, working behind the scenes on film projects, installations, collaborations with Adidas, Nike and many other blue chip companies. He describes his painting and mural work and the changes to it since he started, in this You Tube clip.
The answer is, grown up graffiti artists continue doing what they do best, keep spraying!
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