Week 7: Graffiti Is Art

    In Charles “Chaz” Bojórquez’s “Graffiti Is Art” from Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology

, he explores the intent and meaning behind graffiti art through his own experience as a graffiti artist in Los Angeles beginning in 1969. Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in California, my parents echoed the two extreme attitudes towards graffiti that Bojórquez addresses. My mother perceived graffiti artists as criminals that had no respect for our community and my father enjoyed seeing graffiti throughout the streets of Los Angeles because he believed it is was an outlet for artists to freely express themselves. Through Bojórquez’s comparison between graffiti and advertising because they both claim a space and grab our attention, I began to understand his claim that “everyone does some form of graffiti” (121). Although graffiti exists in many forms, in Los Angeles, graffiti was heavily criticized because it was an “official albeit temporary history of the Mexican American presence” at a time when the city was segregated and discriminatory towards people of color. Borjórquez details the intricacy and origins of graffiti artwork in order to demonstrate that graffiti artists are highly skilled and intentional. The piece above grabbed my attention years ago as I was walking through Downtown Los Angeles because there's representation of many styles and colors, and therefore I'm assuming that many artists contributed to this wall. 

    One controversial aspect of graffiti that Borjórquez addresses is whether graffiti belongs in museums or if by placing graffiti in museums it loses its power. I agree with the author when he says that placing graffiti inside museums exposes it to non-traditional viewers, expands their mindsets, and claims a space for graffiti artists to be taken seriously. I believe that the reasoning behind the historical exclusion of graffiti throughout museums and exhibitions is to maintain that divide between “high” and “low” art, although today those categories are shifting. The growing presence of graffiti in magazines, museums, television, and other mediums does not lessen its rawness and authenticity, instead it pushes for wider acceptance and appreciation of graffiti as an art form.