Street Art, guerrilla art, and graffiti, some of the most hybrid forms of artistic expression in our modern world, an essential part of a city where artwork is displayed in public, on buildings, on streets, on trains, etc...
It is through art that artists get to communicate their ideas, express their emotions, and effectively connect with others. However, most artists nowadays draw to oppose various political and social themes. They try to express their opinion in their work, protest against firms and corporations. Others like to do things that are forbidden and hope they don't get caught. Although they might get caught, they mark their place in society.
Here are five artists who marked society or is it society that made them “Artists” ?
1. Cornbread
Born Darryl McCray from Philadelphia, better known by his tagging name “Cornbread” is generally acknowledged to be the first modern graffiti writer, who got his start tagging in Philadelphia during the late 1960s. The practice spread to New York, where taggers were known for targeting subway cars.
At age 17, he jumped a fence at the Philadelphia Zoo and spray-painted “Cornbread Lives” on the side of an elephant. The stunt landed him in jail. But even there, Cornbread claims, his reputation followed him. He relates how the jail’s guards would ask for his autograph, noting with pride: “My name rang like Jesus Christ.”
He is a public speaker and a youth advocate who sure marked the History of street art!
2. Dondi White
Donald Joseph White, was an American graffiti artist born in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York in 1961. His urge to create coupled with his incredible talent made him one of the most great graffiti artists in the 20th century. He started with subway graffiti and for years, he painted trains and subway walls.
His style was bold and bright, developing a style of elaborate lettering mixed with pop-culture imagery. Dondi always used clear and defined writing, because he wanted his work to be recognized and shared. He was the first graffiti artist to show in Europe, where his work is in the collection of several museums.
Though he died of AIDS in 1998, his work continues to inspire street artists today.
"I never had to compromise myself. It was always me, doing what was comfortable, and relaying the message that I didn't have to be taught to be creative and do good things. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm here and I want to be heard. I come from the streets, I painted on subways, and I feel my work is important. I want people to see it —I want to influence others."
-Dondi White (aka DONDI - RIP)
3. Keith Haring
Another art superstar who started in the streets, Keith Haring was born in Reading, PA, but grew up in nearby Kutztown. Unlike most graffiti artists, Haring went to art school, moving to New York to study at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). He was inspired by his dad’s job, an engineer and amateur cartoonist. Shortly after, he started working in the subways, proofing the possibilities of using
public sites that were not usually dedicated to art to share artistic and political messages to multiple audiences.
Haring's simple imagery and text provided poignant and cutting cultural commentary on issues including AIDS, drug addiction, and illicit love. As both an artist and an activist he established that depicting serious issues could be fun or at least lively when communicated through highly cartoony images and fresh and vivid choices of colors presenting pop iconography, radiant babies, dancing figures, flying saucers.
Unfortunately he died of AIDS in 1990 at the age of 31.
4. Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey, an American and skateboarding enthusiast from the Rhode Island School of Design started to post stickers featuring the face of the famed professional wrestler, André the Giant around NYC in 1989. “André the Giant Has a Posse,” a move that he thought "democratized art". He wanted to make art accessible and show that there was room in the public space for more than advertising. The message was soon simplified to “Obey Giant,” which ended up on t-shirts and posters, later he became the founder of the brand Obey.
Thus began the career of one of the most famous and successful street artists in the world.
Fairey has since created something of a street art empire, with a fashion line for murals in the United States and abroad. Known for eye-grabbing imagery and typography, Fairey’s work is often political, delivering his antiwar, pro-environment, and pro-human rights agenda in a style that deliberately evokes propaganda.
One of his most enduring claims to fame, the Barack Obama “Hope” created during the 2008 Presidential campaign.
However he is no ordinary artist, he was arrested in Detroit and accused of two counts of malicious destruction of property, each punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, where he was found guilty.
“Street art, of course, is political, because it's illegal, so the very act of doing it is an act of defiance.”
-Shepard Fairey
5. Banksy
An anonymous British artist, political activist, and filmmaker emerged in Bristol as part of an underground art and music scene during the early- to mid-1990s. Toward the end of the decade, he began to spray paint stenciled images that mixed pop-cultural references and subversive political themes on walls and bridges around Bristol and London (he has since gone worldwide).
In 2010, he directed the film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, the story of a French emigré obsessed with street art.
His graffitis combines dark humor with a strong political message in a unique stencil technique.
However, Banksy's primary reason is to create art to express his opinions and emotions to the public with the use of different kinds of techniques, such as humor, satire, sarcasm, irony, grotesque, and hyperbole. Banksy fights against war, harmful ideologies, greed, hypocrisy, the absurdity of life, and many other painful and sensitive issues.
“The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It's people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages.”
-Banksy, Wall and Piece
Cornbread, Dondi White, Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey and Banksy.
Five different famous street artists known for their art, actions and quotes.
They are known also for their strong political
opinion and the way they show it. However which one really marked society with their art. And which “Artist” was made by society. Though it might be all of them, it surely can be no one.
Comment your answer below and let us know what you think !
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