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First Use of Graffiti
The word graffiti was first referenced in 1851. Although the graffiti art itself dates back to the beginning of time. -
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20th Century Communication
There were a lot of homeless people who would just crash at places anywhere. They would also crash in freight trains. Graffiti was their way of communicating where the safe spots are and where the dangerous spots are. They would use coded messages that the outsides wouldn't understand. They would write/draw in chalk or coal, so that way they can erase and write different stuff. -
Modern Graffiti is Born
It wasn't until 1965 that modern graffiti was born. Darryl "Cornbread" McCray is considered the first modern graffiti artist. He was a troublemaker at the Philadelphia Youth Development Center (YDC) at just the age of 12. At the YDC, he loved to eat cornbread, hence why he was nicknamed cornbread. He felt like he needed to share his name to the world by writing "Cornbread" where ever he can. -
Early 1970's
By the 70's, graffiti art had hit New York. Philadelphia and New York had something in common, they were creative, unique, young, and mostly poor. It was to help young kids stay away from gangs and help them express their skills. Graffiti was popular on trains as their art would make it into different cities to show off their skills. -
Mid 1970's
As more and more graffiti was being sprayed around, it came to a point where it became a political target. New York mayors vowed to crack down on graffiti artists as they thought it was an "urban problem". They thought that cleaning up the graffiti would show that the politicians were back in control. This started a "war" as the artists would send messages to tell other artist where it was safe and where the areas were "too hot". -
1980's - More Innovative Styles
Lonny Wood, aka Phase 2, created a new style that would change the graffiti game. It was the bubbly, thick, marshmallow like letters, also known as softies. He also pioneered different techniques that also saw interlocking graffiti, using icons such as spike eyes and stars, and arrow headed letters. His work would also be connected to the emerging Hip-Hop scene as well. -
21st Century
Into the 21st century scene, graffiti art exploded, as people hold auctions to sell off their work for profit, graffiti festivals where people admire other artist's work, companies such Obey started. A whole culture was being accepted into society. There are massive street murals and the use of social media has helped artists spread their work around. Everything just seems fast paced and its just the new age of art, as there are many more to come.
