Does graffiti still have the power to turn our heads? We might check out a new design or a bold stroke of color--but not because we're shocked.
Since early artists first sprayed their frustrations across the subway cars and city walls of 1960's Philadelphia and New York, graffiti has gone from the street to the elite, from the public to the private, from vandalism to fine art, as likely to be in a gallery as on the side of a garage...but it hasn't always been that way.
Modern graffiti started when guys with names like TOPCAT126 and MICO sprayed their way across public spaces in cities with poverty, racial tension, and youth looking to make their mark on this world--literally-- who ignited a decades-long debate that still raising uncomfortable conversations around the use of public space, art and commerce, race, class, and tolerance for the public expression of views different from one's own.
Caleb Neelon, co-author of The History of American Graffiti, and local guests, Hartford Courant photojournalist Rick Hartford, and Real Art Ways, Diana Rosen, join The Colin McEnroe Show Wednesday, June 19, to talk graffiti: where it started, where it went, and where it's at now.