Love it or hate it – you have to admit this image brightens up an otherwise dull environment.
So what is your take on graffiti? Do you have a favourite? Or do you think all graffiti should be removed?
Maybe you could post a comment below and let us know your feelings.
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When it comes to graffiti, it really depends on how artistic it is. For example, I think the graffiti in the above photo is great, and I would define it as art. However, I am less impressed when some 16 year-old oik gets an aerosol can and sprays ‘I love shagging’ on a wall.
One man’s art is another man’s rubbish, and for that reason alone it is better to ban graffiti.
But then we would also have to bad Picasso, Rembrandt, Monet, etc, etc!
You will never be able to ban graffiti, that will only put an edge to the doing of it, it will sort of give some derring-do to the painting, the sneaking around in the middle of the night with the utensils to do the work. I paint landscapes and I get a big buzz sitting at my art table nice and snug and watching a painting come to life. The graffiti artists get the same feeling in their work. What totally spoils the whole thing is, as Joe Stains says, the oiks or idiots that just have no talent at all and have to be smutty. True also what Geoffrey Stoner has said, some art you love some you hate. A lot of the graffiti art is really superb and the artists are very good at what they do. Wherever you go all around the world you see graffiti, on trains, bridges, barges and wherever there is a nice bare canvas that the painters are itching to get on and do their thing.
Yes of course some graffiti is superb, but if you accept that it is legitimate on this score then you presumably consider it acceptable to have your pristine newly painted wall defaced.
I suspect that there are two sorts of graffiti. One is the beautifully painted pictures on the sides of building. They demonstrate the artist’s talent and skill. Bear in mind that some of the very large ‘canvases’ involve painting very close up. I presume that the painter has to constantly run up and down a ladder to check the work in progress. I would hope that those who paint ‘beautiful’ graffiti ask permission or are commissioned to take on the work. On the other hand, of course, artists like Banksy give no notice and their work pops up overnight. Banksy, in particular, usually paints pictures that have a political message. The other sort of graffiti is that done with spray cans by people who have little or no talent. It is a case, perhaps, of ‘let’s fill this blank space’. Without being snooty, I would say that this sort of spraying is pretty artless. Perhaps there is even a third type. It is the use of spray cans to spell out names and slogans, often with elaborate and consistent fonts. I guess that most of us could not paint in this way and done well, I think it qualifies as ‘art’. And therein lies the old and tricky question of ‘what is art?’
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