GRAFFITI: URBAN SCRAWL OR ARTISTIC FREEDOM? | COMMONWEALTH CLUB TUESDAY NIGHT

tuesday night...

GRAFFITI: URBAN SCRAWL OR ARTISTIC FREEDOM? | AUGUST 16

From its contemporary origins in the late 1960s, graffiti has spread globally, from the city and boroughs of New York to walls around the world. Some see the proliferation of graffiti as a veritable modern plague, an urban blight that clearly diminishes quality of life. Others would argue that today's graffiti is an historically significant art form, providing a unique means of creative expression to the disenfranchised and marginalized.

Are the words of the prophets truly written on subway walls and tenement halls, or is graffiti nothing more than mindless vandalism that is directly linked to a host of societal ills?

YOU be the judge.

The evening's discussion opens with a slide show presentation by Jim Prigoff, an internationally known historian + documenter of murals, spraycan art and popular street culture. He co-authored the book "Spraycan Art" with Henry Chalfant, a seminal work which has sold over 200,000 copies worldwide. He has lectured in Museums, Universities and other venues around the world. Jim's personally photographed documentation is considered the largest of its kind and it is said that he has seen more street art than any other individual. His other co-authored books cover the murals of California and the History of African American Murals in the U.S. The art show from this book opened at the Smithsonian, Anacostia on July 11th .