User:Amdumlu/sandbox

Thesis Research Statement Museums' approach to Graffiti as a mainstream art form

Graffiti dates to the late 1960s generally said to have arisen from the Black and Latino neighborhoods of New York City alongside hip-hop music and street subcultures and catalyzed by the invention of the aerosol spray can. Early graffiti artists were commonly called "writers" or "taggers" (individuals who write simple "tags," or their stylized signatures, with the goal of tagging as many locations as possible.) Indeed, the fundamental underlying principle of graffiti practice was the intention to "get up," to have one's work seen by as many people as possible, in as many places as possible. Graffiti is mainly focused on lettering, those who create it are called “graffiti writers,” while those who have crossed over into the gallery world are called graffiti artists.

Graffiti artists often work individually, without being bound to an institution, gallery, or dealer. There are cons to it as there are pros as well. One of the main pros is that they can have the freedom for their work without being limited by an authority. And cons are that they are lacking the attention of the institutions and art platforms. Their form of art does not seem serious enough to be at a gallery. Although many media agencies and institutions as museums and galleries recently adopted graffiti as an art form as well, it is still not in the foreground as the other visual art forms. There is an opportunity to talk about the issue from a different perspective. Graffiti was not always recognized as art or high art in other words that was worthy to be in institutions. It was only the late 1980’s people started to host events for it and today, people recognize the practices as an art form yet, the enthusiasm to make it mainstream is lacking. There is a certain prejudice that graffiti has and although there is a big interest in the art form, it is far away from being a globally accessible genre of contemporary art. The way Graffiti is perceived is still lightweight to be taken seriously as well as the act still being associated with an illegal act. In addition, it is not so well-known genre within the art world, the genre itself is well known to the public, yet the institutions and scholars lack knowledge on the topic.

In this research, I want to look at institutions' or museums’ approach to graffiti and try to answer the question ‘Why museums do not treat graffiti as equal to other visual art forms?’ I want to answer this question in a specific way which is to start field research that every scholar or student can contribute to with their local museum’s approach. Therefore, this thesis will include three parts. One is addressing the general issue and look if the question has already been highlighted by other scholars and how much they come in their research. Look if there is any relevance to my question. The second step is to find out if there is anything lacking in the existing literature and find questions or issues that have not been addressed yet. From there we will be able to see how much of the issue is acknowledged as well as addressed and how much is still missing. Once we accomplished that, the second part is to talk to my local institution such as galleries and museums about the issue and get their insight with their personal reasons. When these two parts are finished the final part is to find relevance between the literature and the individual interviews with institutions.

A Kindle project released in July 2018 published interviews with several artists, curators, street artists, and institutions. Conversations over graffiti and museum's approach to street art. This project allows people to see both sides of the issue. There is a fundamental understanding that graffiti is in itself a rebellious act where they are against the white cube and the mainstream media yet in 2016, Isaac Kaplan’s paper titled ‘Street Art Has Mainstream Influence, but Does It Have Art-World Credibility?’ talk about the issue which is, even though graffiti is not acknowledged as a mainstream art form it still manages to influence happenings in the mainstream. This contradiction is mainly due to a lack of understanding of graffiti and the museum’s lack of knowledge on the topic as well as on the public opinions as an article ‘Street Art Is a Global Commercial Juggernaut with a Diverse Audience. Why Don't Museums Know What to Do with It?’ published by Rae in 2016. Rae points out the controversy between graffiti’s indirect influence of the mainstream art forms and this influence being swiped under the carpet by institutions. Museums and institutions along with graffiti artists should find a common ground on how to co-exist in a mutually supportive art circuit. Jacobson in his article “Marketing with Graffiti:” is exploring ways and methods in which graffiti can be treated as any other visual art form such as painting and sculpture.