Is Graffiti Art

Graffiti can be art. Graffiti is everywhere you go, you may not notice it, but it’s there no matter how small or how big. It may be more common in big cities such as New York or LA, but if you look around you will find it on signs, rocks, or even light posts, you will find graffiti.

There’s been a big question for a long time, is graffiti art. I think it’s all about how you look at it because there are different types of graffiti, like tagging, stencil, throw ups, blockbuster. There are many different types, and some can be beautiful but some can also just be plain stupid. For example in a video called “Graffiti: Art or Vandalism” by CBS they interviewed a store owner and he said “it may in fact be art, but they shouldn’t be putting it on other peoples buildings”. I do agree, I think that graffiti is art, but you should really get permission from the owner of the building that you plan to paint on. Because you never know, they could say yes.

There are types of graffiti that are undoubtably art, like the giant murals you see on big walls. They are complex in design and are multicolored like it say in the article “Is Graffiti Art” by Steven Dolan, he says “These are often muticolored and complex in design, and so they start to push the boundery if they should be defined as graffiti art.” I think he really does have a point, but in my opinion I think that these types of art are 100% a form of art.

On the other hand graffiti is still vandalism if you do not get permission from the owner as it says in this article called “Graffiti as Vandalism” they say ” although its artistic merits can’t be denied, it’s in fact still a form of vandalism”. They are right it is a form of vandalism you are defacing someones property without getting permission first. The bad kinds of graffiti can also be seen as a quality of life issue, as it says in the article “Graffiti as Vandalism” they say, “When an area has extensive graffiti, people and to view it as a “bad neighborhood”. Nearby property value may decrease and crime may increase” this can make a lot of sense because the world we live in a lot of people assume things before they get to know what it or they are about and so people will make a stereotype about that person or thing and stick with it and those stereotypes can spread, and then everyone else will associate that thing as bad. That brings us back to the graffiti because that’s what people do is they think that because there is graffiti that it is a bad neighborhood and so they shouldn’t live or go there.

My opinion is that I think it depends on the type of graffiti. For example big murals that are beautiful and complex are types of art, but the small drawings people do that are just meant to be stupid are not. Although for the middle ground the tagging or the Graffiti that was showing in the “Graffiti as Art” article I think that they are art, but they just aren’t doing it as they should because they should ask for permission before they do their graffiti, because they never know, they could come across someone that is willing to let them do it.

“Graffiti Art” by Bytemarks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.