| Art Outside the Law
What seems like modern street art is a
tradition that dates back to a time before there were
streets.
A teenager wearing a dark
hoodie scrambles up a
ladder to the top of a building. A
handkerchief covers his mouth, partly
to conceal his ___1___ from
security cameras and partly to
block out the fumes from his
spray paint. In the dark, he rapidly
begins to recreate his trademark design
on the brick wall.
Street art or vandalism? Maybe
graffiti is both. Graffiti ___2___ in
many forms, from someone
scratching a
name on a wall to an enormous spray-painted
mural. Basically, any marking, drawing, or
writing on ___3___ not belonging to
the artist can be called graffiti. This
definition might make us ___4___ before we judge
modern law-breaking spray-painters too
harshly.
In fact, graffiti can be seen as
one of the most ancient forms of art. Cave drawings can
be considered graffiti, and graffiti was common even in
ancient Greek and Roman times.
Today's graffiti has developed a culture and style
all its own. The average modern-day graffiti artist is
more ___5___ to use spray paint or
markers
than animal blood and vegetable
pigments.
Graffiti has been adopted by different cultures that
___6___ its unique
aspects: the danger
involved, and its status as
a kind of "outsider art." It is a way
for people to display their
talents—whether or not they are ___7___
talented—in a public place,
instead of trying to get a painting in a serious art
museum. Graffiti is often used for political messages
___8___.
Most commonly, though, it is ___9___ with
hip
hop. It is often done with
oversized,
distorted lettering, and many pieces
have characters and drawings that are
___10___ by comic-book art. While many graffiti designs
are nothing more than the artist's graffiti
pseudonym and do not seem especially
creative, there are undeniably
some artists who show imagination and talent. |
