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Rom Levy

Rom Levy



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The sentences and paragraphs that follow are merely my opinion as Bruno Santinho, they were written, not to provide answers but rather share ideas and raise questions… speaking of which, I’ve been asking people a question lately with the intent to quench my curiosity and analyze how certain ideas are rooted in the psyche of modern culture. The question is quite simple. Name an art movement that came to be, thanks to a technological advancement in painting mediums and used the urban landscape as its muse?

On the left: Peasantby Cezanne. On the right: mural by Roid.

No matter who the victim of this question was, gender or age, the reply is more often than not, Graffiti.

I have a certain difficulty hiding my delight and chuckling inside at the irony of it all… The reason is because the answer I was really looking for was Impressionism. At least a little over a decade ago in Art History classes the answer was clear, I guess not any more.

In fact there are certain similarities in the way these two art movements originated. In one case it was the paint tube (and its synthetic pigments that provided much more vivid colors) that gave painters the opportunity to finally leave the studio and paint outdoors, in direct contact with the urban landscape and all that came with it; the light, the movement, the energy and vibrancy of the city and these elements all translated into the artwork. The fact that they no longer had to mix each individual color but had a rich palette at the expense of a slight squeeze of the tube made them work in ways never before tempted. These spontaneous color choices, as well as quick brush strokes, were fundamental for the Impressionist aesthetic and resulted in an instinctive process, let’s not forget, they didn’t have time on their side either in order to capture the ephemeral light.

Paraphrasing Renoir’s words “Without tubes of paint, there would have been no Impressionism.”



This alone is enough to establish a comparison to Graffiti, (the vibrant colors, the outdoor painting and the use of new painting techniques and mediums) the short time periods… Never mind the fact that the Impressionists were also neglected, ignored and even rejected by the art society of their time and had to find alternative ways to expose their work. Their answer to these adversities was The Salon Of The Rejects, where they broke barriers and detached themselves further from tradition; this was 139 years ago in 1874.

This attitude paved the way for other movements and techniques that derived from their audacity and defiance of the academy.

So in many ways these same contours can be seen in the Graffiti / Urban Art movement. Simply replace the paint tube by the spray paint and advance a “few” years in history. This cylindrical object revolutionized the way artists could paint. The speed, the colors, the quick dry and permanence of the paint, and portability of the cans changed the game and propelled a whole new technique and “savoir faire” that surfaced from the walls of our metro poles.

Despite of its concept dating back to 1790, and various attempts at reaching a result that could be commercialized it wasn’t until the mid 70’s that all the elements (environment friendly propellants, clog free valves, mixing peas etc…) came together to industrialize the spray paint. It was at this same time period that the first graffiti manifestations started to appear on walls (no use in dwelling into the idea that graffiti originated in pre-historic times and so on and so on… we are talking about Graffiti as an art movement and not the isolated act of randomly scribbling on a wall). As the Hip Hop subculture grew and gained massive popularity so did Graffiti and names like Lee Quinones, Fab 5 Freddy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Harring among others started to be recognized by their peers as pioneers of a new art movement that took the world by storm and spread its tentacles from the subway trains of New York to a brick walls all over the world.



