Graffiti Art by Nicholas Ganz

“Graffiti World”, the new book by Nicholas Ganz, is one of those inevitable publications. Documenting what can only be described as a global trend, Ganz not only reaffirms graffiti in the eyes of its followers, but has a good swing at its detractors. But why has a book like this been so long in the making? Well, for starters, those of you who see the term “Graffiti Art” as an oxymoron in the gravest sense may have had something to do with it.

There’s two major arguments for Graffiti not being included under the heading “Art”. The first is obviously because it’s a crime. The second is that it is essentially graphic design- not hugely different from a logo or an advertisement. So while those that agree with the former figure out whether or not Modernism during Nazi Germany is not art for the same reason, Ganz sets out to roundly convince us that graphic design is not even the beginning of Graffiti culture.

As he points out, many of the artists included in the book deliberately distance themselves from the word “Graffiti”. By tradition, the word Graffiti can be applied to everything from the political statements that dissidents would scratch into stone walls in ancient Greece to humorous sketches of the human anatomy on toilet walls. An illustrious history indeed. Those who choose prefer the terms “Aerosol art” or “Post Graffiti” or even street art don’t shy away from the term because of its association with some of the more visually unappealing forms of graffiti.

Known usually as “tags”, written in marker pen or spraypaint, you can find this sort of graffiti just about any bare wall in a given city. Although the taggers themselves originally referred to the practice as “writing”, it is this practice which led newspapers to assign the term “Graffiti”. It’s the stigma related to this term, where it can often be demonized as much as drug abuse and theft that has led to this dissociation.

Ganz’s decision to stick with the outsider’s term “graffiti art” has the dual purpose of keeping us unenlightened familiar with the subject, and blanketing a practice that in actuality has gone far past aerosols. Stencils, paper cut outs, oil based chalk and marker pen, mosaic, wooden and plastic carving as well as traditional oil and acrylic brushing are all tools of the modern graffiti artist. The pieces that appear in the book are not limited to walls and the side of trains either. From canvas to cliff face, to empty cans to a painted frame snuck into the Louvre, it’s arguable that no single visual art has found so many ways into the public conscience.

Exhaustively documenting every style from the tiniest of symbols to ten storey high scaffold painted murals, Ganz presents Graffiti as at worst a little piece of expression in a dull urban landscape. As if an aspiring composer snuck into your house in the night and replaced your microwave beep with an original composition. At best, Graffiti appears as something of lasting significance, to be studied and dissected like any gallery piece.

But it’s still just a bunch of fools writing their names on everything isn’t it? Well, yes and no. You have to go back to tagging’s hip hop roots to really grasp the significance of the writing. The bragging and challenging of rivals in hip hop are reflected in the straight assertion of a tag. The use of a spray can and the use of public space as canvas reflect the process of rhyming over another artist’s music. But more importantly both forms are a protest against oppression, a reclaiming of public space. Even more so, it is art because it is engaged in for its own sake. As many artists state in the book, they write on compulsion. The signatures are drawn so impossibly complex and riddled with pictures within pictures that they become almost impossible to read. It takes a well trained eye to recognize the meanings and homages reflected in the lettering style and construction. And then there’s that often repeated quote about fleeting beauty- each piece is as temporary as the next council clean up.

Having said that, “Graffiti World” is not a book that plods around too much about cause, effect or cultural difference. As if to make a point of this exclusion, Ganz has deliberately ordered the artists alphabetically by continent, rather than country or even sex. Listing most of the artists by their writing name has the effect of further blurring these distinctions. That’s not to say these factors are not touched upon, its merely that the broad scope of the book leaves little room for in depth discussion.

But even with these loose groupings, it is possible to pick trends as you read through. New York is where Graffiti Art is recognized as beginning, therefore no where else are you likely to find such traditional letter writing rubbing shoulders with those at the cutting edge. Canada’s artists often have to paint in oil based chalk due to the low temperatures. In the poorer areas of South America, artists will create simple patchworks around each others pieces as they are unable to afford the paint for the whole area. Australia itself does not go unrecognized- in fact local artists like Atome have achieved worldwide status to a point where they can release books of their own work. Looking at even documents the fledgling scenes in Eastern Europe like Belarus and the Ukraine, spawned by the global spread of hip hop music.

As Graffiti art has spread its influence away from the USA, as have current styles spread away from traditional lettering. Artists like Banksy, Buff Monster and Thomas Baumgärtel have gained recognition for their iconic pictures rather than their lettering. Others like Dzine deal solely in abstract patterns and colours. Then of course you have artists like El Kitsch Tasso, whose style is almost photorealistic. Artists like Tasso represent the curious back and forth between Graffiti Art and Commerciality. Because his portraits are so highly detailed and time consuming, almost all of his work is legit and of a commissioned nature. But like any other artist, he learned his skills in the illegal world of street graffiti. Even though such murals are often commissioned to deter other taggers, without those taggers they would never come to exist.

High art culture has had a similar relationship with Street Graffiti. While in some circles Graffiti art has penetrated the Gallery, and there are some artists who have foregone street art to work solely in this format, there will always be those who believe it has a place in neither. If nothing else, such debates will always keep the innovators pushing for new ideas and the traditionalists, well, traditional.

Graffiti culture has now reached that curious level where its mass appeal and marketability has been recognized and taken advantage of. But even as corporations like Nike take advantage of its fringe appeal in advertising, Graffiti will always have that anti authoritarian power to annoy and spark debate. As “Graffiti World” shows, its roots now run deep in the global soil, and those languishing in community service had best not put away their paint rollers just yet.