Posted on 09/05/2009 1:39:42 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Comfortably seated in a $30,000 Louis XV-style armchair, in a luxurious room reminiscent of an 18th Century French salon, Sharp stares coolly at his latest piece of art, hung on the opposite wall.
The canvas depicts a porn star's bottom encircled by flashy pink, blue and purple sprays of paint recreating the letters of the alphabet.
"I am rethinking the traditional alphabet," he explains.
Nearly 30 years after spraying his first graffiti in the subway, Sharp now sees his work on display in major galleries.
In June, an exhibition in New York called "Whole in the Wall" displayed his work, and that of dozens of other big names of the street art scene, including Lee Quinones, Blade, Banksy and Blek Le Rat.
Despite graffiti's bad reputation, the exhibition's blending of street art and French extravagant furniture showed how graffiti has spread across the world since the 1980s.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
I saw some beautiful graffiti in NYC back in the 1970’s.
Yeah, grafitti this, you little punks. And get a job.
“I saw some beautiful graffiti in NYC back in the 1970’s.”
There was some in Santa Monica in the late 1990s as well.
I don’t know what sort of deal the city made with the graffitti sprayers,
but it seemed to be well restricted to the windowless walls of a
few small business buildings.
I’m pretty conservative, definitely lean to Thomas Hart Benton murals
and Maxfield Parrish paintings...
and run LIKE H-LL away from the droppings of Jackson Pollock
(a student of Benton’s!!!...believe it or not!)
I guess I can say that the more abstract and colorful the “bombing”
of the graffitti, the more I like it. But I do go nuts when they splatter
some innocent’s office, home or some public space without prior permission.
Post 6 image could easily be titled:
“Peter Maxx, You didn’t go far enough!”
For the youngsters of FR, here are some links to educate them about
an artistic pop icon of The Sixties (and into The Seventies):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Max
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=Peter+Max&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
It’s all groovy, baby!
JoeProBono,
I like (my naming) “The Pressure Washer of Lascaux”.
Could you share the title and the artist/creator?
Thanks in advance
BANKSY GRAFFITI REMOVAL
In a way though, you gotta concede that these kids had skills. Some of that stuff is eye-catching. If only they would have put this energy in the classroom or in Art school or something instead of doing it on the streets. I grew up in the Milwaukee area and you’d be surprised at how much talent inner-city kids had.
I actually like those pieces posted.
I don’t care how much talent they have. They need to get a job. Custom painting harleys or pickups or something. Graffiti is just plain dumb. and it’s vandalism.
I’m not condoning graffiti, but if these kids had strong families or role models who pushed them in school, they could have used their talents for better purposes.
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