Street Art: From Rebellion to Recognition

The Origins of Street Art

It’s no secret that street art started back in the 1960s and ’70s in big cities such as New York City, where it was utilised as a protest and identity practice. Even the early street art was inspired by graffiti as an act of defiance, and usually found in disenfranchised communities and young culture.

The first graffiti artists — Taki 183, Cornbread — had already written their name on the streets. Such labels allowed to mark land and identity in the urban realm. These earliest works were minimal, but they were visual message and affirmation in a cityscape that had little time for certain populations.

Street Art: From vandalism to artThe History of Street Art — A Guide to the World of Street Art By Dana P.KeeffeThe History of Street Art From Vandalism to Art
As street art developed in the second half of the 20th century, it was also using more elaborate techniques and aesthetics. Graffito’s crude, chaotic approach was replaced by more complex pieces: artists experimented with stencils, paste-ups, murals and even sculptures on the pavement. It was also the era of Banksy, perhaps the most famous street-art artist of all time. His sardonic satirical work juxtaposed graffiti art with political sleight of hand to make works about both domestic and international topics.

In making graffiti and street art mainstream, it helped that the hip-hop movement made street art not just defiant but legitimate. Street art entered the galleries, museums and popular culture in the 1980s and ’90s without ever being understood as subversive or controversial.

Street Art and Social and Political Movements: Street Art’s Function.

What makes street art such a useful way to make social and political comment is that it can be used as a tool for social commentary. But public places are also where street artists’ works have brought to the surface poverty, inequality, war and corruption. Whether they’re Banksy’s "Girl with a Balloon" or Shepard Fairey’s "Obey Giant", they’re about personal as much as public issues. The fleetingness of street art, sprayed on the wall or some other public object, puts its message in an almost impossible position, asking to be heard where few are most likely to see it.

In the new millennium, the impact of street art on social movements has only increased with the emergence of social media. As a protest and articulation tool, street artists used posters, murals and more in 2011 during Occupy Wall Street to demonstrate against economic inequity and corporate greed. As a form of communication, street art took the message to the masses; everyone used their environment as an act of protest.

Street art also emerged in the Arab Spring revolutions in the Middle East, as artists took to the streets to spread revolutionary message and protest against oppressive regimes. Murals in Cairo and Tunis could speak the language of opposition and a future.

Digital Street Art: An Interactive Version of Street Art, The Third Wave of Street Art!

The advent of social media has thrust street art on to the world stage like never before. Instagram, Facebook and Twitter also brought street artists in front of an international audience in one instant. Artists now produce not only on walls, but online, and use the internet to display and be noticed.

This online shift has also replaced street art with commercial art. It was originally an underground trend, but street art has now been taken up by mainstream galleries, luxury brands and even large cities that have murals installed on their streets. From Upfest in Bristol to The Wynwood Walls in Miami, street art has become part of cultural tourism by luring global audiences and offering artists their works in organised venues.

Social media has democratised art: anybody with an internet connection can view and appreciate street art. It’s also given street artists new markets for selling their art — which results in a cross-fertilisation of street art with business.

The Popular Appreciation of Street Art What We Now Think Of Street Art?

Once street art got a foothold, formal art became its own community. At museums such as the Tate Modern in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, street art and graffiti culture have been on show. Even street artists who once painted for profit now have their art on display in galleries.

Perhaps the biggest victory for street art recognition was Banksy’s "Girl with a Balloon" in 2018, which fell to pieces after auction. This stunt made the work a crucible both of street art’s commercialisation and of its challenge to the art market. Banksy’s revolt had flipped fine art on its head The juxtaposition of street art’s subversive origins and its commercial ascendance illustrated the relationship between street art and its commercial popularity.

But then there were Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and RETNA, who also made cross between street art and fine art. Basquiat, who was a graffiti artist on New York’s Lower East Side before joining the Neo-Expressionist group, blended graffiti and fine art in ways that defied conventional expectations of what art should be. So, too, Keith Haring’s street and activism-influenced work – an icon in the 1980s that now hangs in world-class art collections — is on every continent.

The Future of Street Art

It’s still happening, and with technology and methods constantly evolving, the possibilities for street artists keep on growing. Augmented Reality (AR) and virtual street art have brought artist to viewers a whole new audience by enabling viewers to be able to engage with art in immersive ways. As the distinction between public and private space grows more porous, street art will only get more assimilated to the lives of all of us, a commentary on the changing cultural and social conditions of the world.

Street art is not so much a taboo anymore than it was once, but still a rebellion. Perhaps now universal, but the kind of resistance and cultural commentary that gave street art its earliest imprints are still present in today’s artists.

With global cities making street art their official art, we can safely assume that street art has been not just on the walls of galleries and museums but also part of global culture. Its transformation from insurrection to acclaim embodies art, society and technology in a process of ebbing away, and street art will continue to drive the contemporary art world.

Conclusion

The street has been blown apart, from street-graffiti as an art defiance to an acclaimed, moneymaking medium. Its social, political and intimate content, accessibility and interplay with technology means that street art is going to keep evolving and pushing back against the naysayers for years to come. While it continues to open up a street from the gallery, street art has shown that art isn’t constrained by distance.