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The most innovative forms of contemporary visual culture are found not in museums or galleries but on the streets.
Indeed, some of the most revered and influential artists of our time—Banksy, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Shepard Fairey, JR and Invader—are street artists.
Street art, with its bold aesthetics, vibrant colors and socially charged messages, has its roots in the 1960s and early 1970s, when graffiti, the Chicano muralist tradition and the psychedelic poster art of the ’60s became platforms for those who were unrepresented in traditional art venues.
Graffiti art evolved from tagging—when pioneers like Cornbread and Cool Earl in Philadelphia and Taki 183 in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan wrote their names on city walls to gain recognition and make their presence known. As a form of rebellion and self-expression among urban youth, tagging was a way to claim space, gain recognition and challenge authority in environments where traditional avenues for expression were limited. The proliferation of graffiti on public surfaces and buses and subway cars gave this mode of expression widespread visibility.
As graffiti evolved, it moved beyond simple tags to more elaborate pieces, including “throw-ups” and “pieces” (masterpieces), which made use of shading, color blending and 3-D effects. The creation of large, intricate murals requires planning, design and execution akin to traditional artistic processes.
Meanwhile, artists like Victor Moscoso, Wes Wilson and Rick Griffin made psychedelic posters emblematic of the 1960s. With their vivid neon colors, swirling patterns and surreal imagery, including mushrooms, fractals and kaleidoscopic patterns, psychedelic art gave visual representation of the inner experiences and altered states of consciousness induced by hallucinogenic drugs like LSD. These visual elements were meant to evoke the sensory overload and visual distortions experienced during a psychedelic trip.
Record album covers, too, became canvases for psychedelic art, visually representing the music’s themes and enhancing the overall sensory experience.
In Hispanic neighborhoods from Miami and East Harlem to East Los Angeles, murals have become a major form of cultural, artistic and historical expression, with roots planted in Indigenous and colonial art and the Mexican Muralist Movement, spearheaded by artists like Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Often depicting historical events, leaders and significant cultural milestones, these murals gave vivid expression to the surrounding community’s cultural heritage, pride and identity. They served as visual narratives of the collective experiences, struggles and triumphs of the community and as powerful tools for raising awareness. They functioned as open-air classrooms that preserved and communicated history to future generations.
At first, artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, leading figures in the Pop Art movement, incorporated elements of street art and commercial art into their works. In the process, they bridged the gap between high and low culture, challenging older notions of art and aesthetics.
Through his appropriation of commercial art and his repeated use of the same image, Warhol mimicked mass-production techniques, reinforcing the concept of art as a commodity. This method also reflected the pervasive presence of consumer culture in contemporary life.
Lichtenstein, at the same time, appropriated the visual language of comic strips, using Ben-Day dots, bold lines and primary colors to create works that closely resembled printed comics. By including elements of parody and irony in his works, Lichtenstein questioned the nature of art and the role of the artist. His meticulous hand-painted dots, mimicking mechanical printing, highlighted the tension between handcrafted and mass-produced imagery.
Warhol’s and Lichtenstein’s work, including their appropriation of commercial art forms and their implicit commentary on mass media, paved the way for future artists to explore the intersections of high and low culture, commercial and fine art.
Unlike works like Warhol’s or Lichtenstein’s, street art was inherently public, accessible to anyone who passed it by. It transforms everyday urban spaces into galleries, making art an integral part of the cityscape.
Also, unlike more traditional works of art, street art was often ephemeral. It was frequently painted over or erased. Even works that survived became weathered.
Most important of all, street art is unsanctioned, created without any permission from public authorities or property owners. It offers a form of political and social commentary and speaks to political, social and economic issues, raises awareness and inspires action.
Banksy, an anonymous England-based street artist, political activist and film director, is best known for the use of spray paint and distinctive stencil graffiti art to create satirical and politically charged imagines that critique consumerism, war and social injustices. Banksy often comments on the commercialization and commodification of art. The piece “Love Is in the Bin,” which self-destructed after being auctioned for over a million pounds, is a famous example of this critique.
Basquiat, of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent, first gained attention in the late 1970s as SAMO© (Same Old Shit), using graffiti in Lower Manhattan to convey cryptic and provocative social commentary. Before his untimely death at 27, he created art that fused African, Caribbean, Aztec and Maya imagery with the symbols of his urban environment, blending street art with abstract expressionism and bringing the raw voice of the streets into the elite art world.
Fairey, best known for his “HOPE” poster, created for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, appropriates and remixes existing images and icons and uses stenciling, screen-printing techniques and bold imagery and typography to create works that address social justice and environmental issues.
JR, an anonymous French street artist and photographer, is best known for pasting large black-and-white photographic images in public spaces, which address social and political issues involving immigration, conflict and identity.
Invader, another French street artist whose real name is Franck Slama, creates his art using small, square mosaic tiles arranged into pixelated images resembling characters from eight-bit video games. Typically working at night to avoid detection and maintain the guerrilla nature of his art, Invader attempts with his work to bridge the gap between the digital and physical worlds, reflecting the growing influence of digital culture in contemporary society. Fans and followers are encouraged to locate, photograph and share their discoveries of Invader’s work.
In his classic study of Democracy in America, the astute early-19th-century French observer of the new U.S. republic, Alexis de Tocqueville, asked whether democratic societies were capable of producing great works of art.
In aristocratic societies, patronage by the elite and the church led to the creation of enduring works of high art, but democracies, he feared, favored the practical, the entertaining and the commercial over art forms of aesthetic, abstract or avant-garde interest. A democratic public favored art that provided immediate pleasure or that served some nonartistic purpose, like promoting patriotism or uplifting society’s moral values.
While access to the arts in the United States would be democratized, the emphasis on commercial success would inevitably lead to a general mediocrity in artistic achievements.
Street art is truly democratic art. It provides a platform for artists to showcase their work to a broad audience without the constraints of traditional galleries. Free from gatekeepers, street art encourages innovation, experimentation and diversity in artistic expression, while promoting social and political awareness in a direct, unmediated manner. Murals, graffiti and installations transform blank walls, buildings and public structures into canvases.
But street art does raise a worrisome question: How can such artists earn a living? In a book released in 2020 during the pandemic’s depths, entitled The Death of the Artist, William Deresiewicz challenged the techno-optimist view that the internet’s rise meant that everyone with a laptop and a cellphone could now become an artist, since producing art was cheap and distributing art was free.
In reality, however, artistry is a craft requiring years of dedication, training and practice, and in today’s winner-take-all society, few artists, authors, composers and performers are able to break through and make a living from their art. That certainly the case among many of the creatives I know, like the historic flautist and the mezzo-soprano who juggle part-time teaching jobs with intermittent opportunities to perform for very low pay.
Street art makes art accessible to everyone, breaking down the walls that sequestered artworks in museums and bringing artistry to people who typically do not engage with art. It has also enlivened and revitalized staid urban landscapes. But with very few exceptions, it hasn’t solved a crucial problem: how to create an environment that encourages the production and patronage of serious artistic works. In the contemporary United States, the kinds of art that Americans consume has become a class marker.
You may recall the National Endowment for the Arts slogan “A great nation deserves great art.” As a nation, we may pay lip service to the value of the arts, but the reality is something else.
When President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the 1965 act establishing the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, he said,
“Art is a nation’s most precious heritage. For it is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others, the inner vision which guides us as a nation. And where there is no vision, the people perish.”
I wholeheartedly agree. President Johnson had it right: The arts should be accessible to all.
As a nation, we may pay lip service to the value of the arts, but the reality is something else. Last year, the federal government spent $207 billion on the NEA. The NEA’s 1992 budget, if adjusted for inflation, would have been $320.7 billion.
Academics may have only the most indirect influence on government spending priorities, but we are in a position to do more to promote arts education on our own campuses. Here are some simple steps:
- Introduce classes that combine visits to museums and performances with a seminar in which students can critically discuss what they have witnessed.
- Offer interdisciplinary courses that combine the arts with other fields such as history; literature; the social, psychological and natural sciences; and technology.
- Award extra credit to students who attend art exhibitions, performances and cultural festivals on or off campus.
- Host art competitions to encourage students to create and showcase their work.
- Stage performances and exhibit student and faculty artworks in areas where students congregate, including student centers and classroom buildings.
- Provide stipends to arts, musical and theater students to integrate artistic performance into existing courses.
We need to do more to democratize access to the arts. Transform your campus’s public spaces with artworks and performances. Bring artworks out of the campus museums into the campus classrooms. Make your university a people’s gallery.
By integrating art into public spaces and campus programs, we can bridge the gap between high culture and our student body and ensure that art becomes an integral part of everyday life.
