The Art Emerges

History is important to understand any movement, including graffiti art.

Modern graffiti culture is embedded in a underground movement of artists, hip-hop musicians, and break dancers. New York City commenced the movement in the 1960s.

The city subways were immersed in colorful, intricate, and impressive art. The New York City subways worked as moving murals of these artists through the city.

A PBS film called “Style Wars” (there's a clip at the end of this entry) documented the coming out of graffiti, hip hop, and break-dancing. “Bombing” was a term used by artist to describe their work as being displayed on trains rolling from one side of the city to the next.

During this time, emerged some infamous graffiti artists, including: Phase 2, Dondi, Min One and Zephyr.

A famous artist in the 1980s was Jean-Michel Basquiat who rose to fame through his signature SAMO graffiti but then left the streets for canvases. He died tragically at age 27 from a drug overdose.

And the graffiti art exploded under the hip-hop movement.

This is a clip of the movie "Style Wars"