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The most significant among these was the 1983 Style Wars, directed by Tony Silver and produced with Henry Chalfant. Style Wars: Emerging in a world before the Internet and Instagram, Street Art grew its audience the old fashioned way - through a series of rambunctious and gritty documentary films. Keith Haring, famous for his ‘radiant baby’ tag, had his first solo exhibition at Tony Shafrazi Gallery in 1982, and while already famed in art circles Basquiat gained widespread public acclaim through a series of collaborations with his close friend Warhol.ĥ. Art World Wingmen: Though graffiti artists were included in exhibitions in Lower Manhattan as early as the 1970s, these artists gained increased acceptance into the art world throughout the 1980s in part due to their friendships with contemporary artists such as Andy Warhol and Kenny Scharf.
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Fab Five Freddy similarly released hit songs while a member of the Brooklyn based graffiti crew the Fabulous 5 and also curating groundbreaking exhibitions of Basquiat, Haring and Rammellzee.īANKSY, GIRL WITH BALLOON, Estimate £60,000–80,000Ĥ. Artist Phase 2 perfected graffiti’s emblematic bubble lettering style in early 1970s while simultaneously rising to prominence in the South Bronx hip-hop scene. In Rhythm: Hip-hop culture and Street Art worlds emerged together and often overlapped with many artists crossing back and forth between the two.
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5 Pointz, a cluster of factory buildings in Long Island City, Queens, became a well-known hotspot for graffiti murals until its demolition in 2013, while the lower Manhattan street corner of Houston Street and Bowery has been home to murals by giants of Street Art including Keith Haring, Os Gêmeos, Swoon, JR and most recently Banksy, whose “Free Zehra Doğan” mural appeared at the location on 15 March.ģ. Runaway Trains and Dizzying Heights: During the early 1970s, graffiti art exploded across New York City with artists showcasing their daring by tagging both prominent intersections and inaccessible locations from watertowers to bridges as well as the city’s many subway trains.
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