Week 7 Presentations on Public Art & Painters: Graffiti, Ornamentation, Murals

     

    The essays this week were so fascinating and empowering. I was most excited about the essays that spoke about Graffiti, Ornamentation, and Chicanx Murals. These three art styles have one important thing in common: they claim space. These art styles are incredibly radical because they essentially demand respect. Even after the person is gone, the materials are still present unless someone actively tries to take them down. These art styles say something about how Chicanx individuals don’t try to fit into the art world, but instead create their own. It is important to acknowledge that these artworks inherently reject the established art world that was built for white people. Graffiti, Ornamentation, and Chicanx Murals exist best outside of galleries and actually in the communities that the artists are from. These art styles don’t fit neatly into established art styles or fine art settings, which is what I love about them. The fact that these art styles are more commonly found in the streets makes them accessible to people who otherwise are not able to access art in museums or other places. The sad thing about these art styles is that they are often temporary because they are not actively preserved. This can also be a beautiful thing because the art evolves in the same way that the community evolves, which can also be bad if there is gentrification and then the disposal of the art also contributes to the erasure of the community. I like to think about Graffiti, Ornamentation, and Chicanx Murals as a type of branding or mark-making that proves that someone existed in that place at some point.