GRAFF HISTORY AS WE KNOW IT
THE HISTORY
Since ancient times, graffiti has been a way to mark names, declare love, and write political slogans.
In ancient Maya, graffiti was incised into the stucco of walls, floors, and benches in a variety of buildings, including pyramid-temples and residences.
During WWII, U.S. soldiers would hit up "Kilroy was here" across Europe and Asia.
In the 1950s in Philadelphia and New York, inner-city youth began "tagging" their names on walls and trains for the purpose of notoriety.
Graffiti as we know it exploded in the ’60s and ’70s, particularly on subways in New York City and Philadelphia, and later becoming tied to the hip-hop movement of the ’70s, alongside rap, breakdancing, and DJing.
Writers like Cornbread in Philly and TAKI 183 in NYC—who gained fame in 1971 when The New York Times wrote about him—became famous for catching tags.
In the ’80s, styles began to evolve. TAGS developed into THROW-UPS (bubble letters), THROW-UPS into PIECES (more elaborate forms of letters), and PIECES into MASTERPIECES or BURNERS (an elaborate and aesthetically bold piece that stands out from all other pieces on the wall). At this time, artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring brought graffiti into mainstream galleries.
The late ’70s to ’80s brought graffiti to Los Angeles, where inner-city kids from the "East Side" (heavily influenced by gang writing and culture) and their counterparts on the "West Side" (influenced more by NYC-style graff) began to vandalize the city. From scribing on the RTD buses (now known as Metro) to bombing city walls, the L.A. River, freeway signs, and anything in between. The ’80s in L.A. also gave birth to one of the world’s most famous graffiti yards, "The World Famous Belmont Tunnel," an internationally recognized destination for graffiti artists. In 2004–2005 the tunnel was demolished to develop an apartment complex, but not before artist Besk captured its history by compiling a who's-who of Los Angeles graffiti artists and calling it The Time Line.
In the ’90s, graffiti went global. Cities like Mexico City, São Paulo, Paris, London, Berlin, and Tokyo developed their own scenes. The birth of the internet gave kids access to graffiti styles from around the world. Cities both cracked down on graffiti as vandalism and celebrated it with street festivals and legal murals.
Today, graffiti has become a global art movement unlike anything the art community has seen before. Galleries and corporate companies have transformed graffiti into a commodity through exhibitions, commissioned work, and marketing campaigns. Galleries regularly auction and sell graffiti-style art, attracting collectors and validating it as a high art form, transforming graffiti artists into household names. Through all this, graffiti continues to evolve, with youth today becoming more daring while keeping the old-school way of vandalizing—just for the fame and because they can.