“The city had the opportunity to protect its homegrown cultural vanguard, but chose not to.” These words, spoken by the graffiti artist Rammellzee, echo the complex history of street art in New York City, a history intimately connected with the artwork we are about to explore called Obra1.
Obra1 represents a vibrant subculture of young creators. These artists transitioned from illegally writing on subway cars to creating paintings on canvas. They then exhibited in galleries and museums.
New York’s age of graffiti began on the city streets in the early 1970s. This new movement was often consciously artistic. It came of age over the next 20 years. Graffiti permeated into broader consciousness. It significantly influenced global culture.
The subway became an ideal creative hub for an entire generation of artists. Figures like Rammellzee, Keith Haring, and Lee Quiñones used the subway. They created tags to spectacularly elaborate ten-car pieces. Rammellzee described the subway as the biggest gallery ever devised for distribution. The subway disseminated the work of graffiti artists unfiltered. It left an indelible mark on the city and art history.
Mayor Ed Koch launched a crusade to clean the trains and criminalize the artists. He stationed dogs and razor-wire around subway yards to deter the young artists. But the graffiti writers continued their work. They often used the tag ART VS TRANSIT to demonstrate their resilience.
Despite the city’s efforts, street artists gained wider recognition. In 1980, Fashion Moda and Collab staged The Times Square Show. It was the first exhibition to showcase graffiti writers alongside the Downtown avant-garde. Patti Astor opened the Fun Gallery. She invited graffiti writers to paint on canvases. This brought the art of the streets into the context of the traditional gallery world.
Fab Five Freddy introduced Debbie Harry to graffiti and hip-hop culture. In Blondie’s single Rapture, Harry featured Fab 5 and Lee Quiñones tagging a wall in the video. Fab Five Freddy and Lee Quiñones created the legendary Campbell’s Soup train. This asserted that graffiti could engage with mainstream art.
The ubiquitous subway tags and colorful compositions broke through the monotony of the concrete jungle. Obra1 embodies this evolution. It reflects the passions of artists transitioning from the street to prominent galleries. It captures a significant moment in art history. It shows the shift from vandalism to recognized art form.