Street art is an umbrella term for art and acts of art in public spaces, usually illegally produced. With roots in both New York City's 1970s graffiti culture and the gently anarchic theory of France's Situationist International movement, the art form developed as a political gesture of subversion, a rejection of institutionalized art, and an aesthetic reclaiming of the streets. While it developed out of graffiti, however, it is generally understood to be distinct from territorial "tagging" and run-of-the-mill vandalism, instead encompassing a wide range of techniques that includes stenciling, … (read more)

Street art is an umbrella term for art and acts of art in public spaces, usually illegally produced. With roots in both New York City's 1970s graffiti culture and the gently anarchic theory of France's Situationist International movement, the art form developed as a political gesture of subversion, a rejection of institutionalized art, and an aesthetic reclaiming of the streets. While it developed out of graffiti, however, it is generally understood to be distinct from territorial "tagging" and run-of-the-mill vandalism, instead encompassing a wide range of techniques that includes stenciling, sticker art, wheat-pasting, and installation. Ideologically, street art seeks to bring art to the masses, countering ubiquitous corporate art and advertisements by appropriating their propagandistic methods of presentation to reflect urban culture and bring light to social and political issues.

Graffiti first came to the notice of the art world in the 1970s when various galleries, including the venerable Sidney Janis gallery, began to show work by some of the city's more accomplished taggers, such as Crash, Fab Five Freddy, Daze, and Lady Pink. Perhaps the pre-eminent graffiti dealer at the time was Tony Shafrazi, an Iranian-born former artist who had gained notoriety in 1974 for spray-painting Picasso's Guernica with an anti-war slogan. (He got off lightly when curators were able to easily clean the masterpiece). Soon artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat (a former tagger who went by SAMO) and Keith Haring transitioned from street art to showing work in galleries and museums around the world, becoming market darlings in the process. At the same time foreign artists, like the French stencil master Blek le Rat, transported the New York zeitgeist to cities around the world, particularly Paris, Berlin, and Melbourne.

Today as such street artists as Banksy and Shephard Fairey have become ubiquitous figures in the art world, the commercial interest in street art has become the source of much antagonism and tension within the street art community--while at the same time expanding its audience and granting it increasing legitimacy as "fine" art. Some artists deliberately use street art as a springboard for mainstream success, looking to pioneers like Basquiat and Haring.

As an art form, street art remains a provocative presence in the urban landscape and continues to be largely driven by anonymous artists, many of whom shamelessly copy the styles of the form's more famous practitioners. However, recently artists have been experimenting with new strategies, including cut-and-paste pastiche (New York City's Poster Boy) and LED "throwies" (James Powderly).

Click here to explore a Web site devoted to Tate Modern's 2008 "Street Art" show

Click here to visit the Wooster Collective, a Web site devoted to New York City street art

Watch a video of Blek le Rat at work:

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