Can graffiti ever be considered art?

BY: KORA H.

Graffiti should be considered art for two reasons. It takes incredible artistic ability and it could be important, when discovered in the future.

Graffiti takes an incredible amount of artistic ability. Many people have a raw talent for it and others have to take classes. One of the most famous street artists, Banksy, spent many years as a freehand graffiti artist in 1990-1994. He was in an art group called DryBreadZ that included two other artists with the names Kato and Tes. He spent years practicing and developing his art because he wanted to become a street artist. However, people don’t consider unique figures on the sides of buildings as art because its “destruction of property” or “vandalizing”. If one of the most famous had to work hard from age fourteen, after getting kicked out of school, then, graffiti isn’t something that just happens without the artist having the ability to make art.

Graffiti could be an important discovery in the future. If a graffiti artist leaves their art on the side of a building, then it could potentially become a landmark. There was an artist, Johnny Rotten, who made a “self portrait” of himself on the side of a building in London, England, made that building a national landmark. According to Smithonian.com “thanks to some 40-something-year-old graffiti drawn by the Sex Pistols’ Johnny Rotten, two buildings on the street have been granted historic protection by the United Kingdom’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport.” Many of London’s musical artists have filmed music videos including that very wall in them, making it famous.

Opposing arguments may state that graffiti art is damaging property of building owners. According to New York Times, “There is nothing “progressive” about allowing public amenities to be defaced by graffiti; anyone who can avoid a graffiti-bombed park or commercial thoroughfare will do so, since tagging shows that an area is dominated by vandals who may be involved in other crimes as well.”

Graffiti is more than just an art. It’s an expression and people need to be more open and accepting about this form of art.