How George Floyd and #BlackLivesMatter sparked a street art revival
| Boston
Street artists often paint on walls in order to tear them down.听
Following the death of George Floyd and subsequent protests, muralists have picked up aerosol cans and paintbrushes to convey a need for change. Dozens upon dozens of murals of Mr. Floyd and other victims of police violence have sprung up on walls across the United States. Street artists are taking advantage of the immediacy of this most public of art forms to beautify drab urban spaces and reach the hearts of viewers.听
They鈥檙e also continuing a rich artistic tradition of muralists who鈥檝e used outdoor canvases to convey political messages. During the New Deal, for instance, Diego Rivera鈥檚 murals highlighted the toil of industrial workers. But it was the arrival of spray cans that truly democratized street art and empowered a young generation to express itself. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the burgeoning punk and hip-hop scenes in Philadelphia and New York spurred teenagers to both deface and decorate subway trains and urban spaces with stylized slogans and signatures. Elegant forms of stylized graffiti, the progenitor of street art, started to emerge from spray paint scribbles.听
Why We Wrote This
As movements for racial justice have rocked the country, murals have become a striking part of the protest 鈥� and healing 鈥� process. Our culture writer talked to five street artists to understand what鈥檚 prompting the revival of this political art form.
鈥淭his is an art form that was started by Black and brown and Latinx teenagers in their marginalized communities because of the injustices that they鈥檙e facing and because that was their outlet and their voice,鈥� says Liza听Qui帽onez, founder of , an initiative to rebuild communities in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles with uplifting murals by Black and other minority artists.
Long before Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring hung pieces of art in ritzy galleries to decry racism and the devastation of AIDS, they were street artists. Mr. Haring鈥檚 1986 anti-drug mural, 鈥淐rack Is Wack,鈥� in East Harlem remains New York鈥檚 most famous mural. More recently, the likes of Shepard Fairey (most famous for his Barack Obama 鈥淗ope鈥� poster) and the mysterious Banksy (most famous for his playful pranks) have become global icons through their Instagram-shareable street art that advocates for social justice and other causes.听
Not all street art is political, of course. Subjects range from the prosaic (portraits, landscapes, animals) to the imaginative (surrealist trompe l鈥檕eil optical illusions whose meanings are as elliptical as Salvador Dal铆鈥檚 mustache). But the global art form remains a visible form of public protest in places such as Mexico City, Beirut, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, Santiago, and cities across America.听
鈥淎ll these different movements are quite specific in their political concerns, but I do feel that it鈥檚 fair to put them under one political umbrella, which is artists are looking for an audience, eyeballs, really, when it comes to drawing more attention to their political concerns,鈥� says Liz Munsell, co-curator of a new exhibition, 鈥淲riting the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation,鈥� at Boston鈥檚 Museum of Fine Arts. 鈥淎rtists throughout history have been at the forefront of introducing very progressive social ideas into society and paving the path towards normalizing them.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 a voice for the voiceless,鈥� adds Sami Wakim, who runs the Street Art United States website, a hub dedicated to worldwide murals that instill a sense of hope, as well as history, through creative expression.听
The Monitor reached out to five professional street artists to hear their stories. Reliant upon commissions, grants, and sponsorship from nonprofits and businesses, they approach murals from different art traditions (several of them employ graffiti nicknames). But what they share is that they鈥檙e using murals to counter racism and denounce police violence by presenting affirmative images of Black people.听
Rob 鈥淧roBlak鈥� Gibbs
He starts painting at 5 a.m., racing against the sun. From atop his forklift crane, Rob 鈥淧roBlak鈥� Gibbs 鈥� one of Boston鈥檚 foremost graffiti and street artists 鈥� resumes work on a multistory mural at the Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. As dawn glistens on nearby skyscrapers, he observes nature鈥檚 daily shift change as bats cede the sky to birds. The artist鈥檚 thoughts flit to his 2-year-old daughter as his spray cans rattle and spit. She inspired his mural of a young Black girl floating above the ground with wings on her sneakers.听
Mr. Gibbs says the message of the mural is, 鈥淭he future is in our children. Regardless of your culture. If you are a child to this world, you are contributing to a better future.鈥�
He believes that the timing of the image coincides with the Black Lives Matter protests.
鈥淚 know a higher power is playing into everything we do,鈥� the veteran graffiti artist says later, sweat beading on his forehead during a midmorning break. 鈥淚鈥檓 here to give a positive balance. Not to say I鈥檓 not hearing what鈥檚 happening or that I don鈥檛 have an opinion, but while the young people are speaking, I鈥檓 just letting them know, 鈥榊o, I hear you.鈥欌��
Mr. Gibbs,听an artist-in-residence at Boston鈥檚 Museum of Fine Arts, co-founded Artists for Humanity, a studio to mentor young artists, most of whom are minorities. Today, an art class of teens hovers near the mural as Mr. Gibbs tops up a paint canister and dons a respirator that looks like the bottom half of Darth Vader鈥檚 mask.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e giving the youth the ability to open their mouth to say something and it鈥檚 on a platform to be seen and heard? Let鈥檚 go man,鈥� says Mr. Gibbs. 鈥淟et鈥檚 lean into these conversations. Let鈥檚 see if we can do better if we just teach each other to do better.鈥�
Thomas 鈥淒etour鈥� Evans
In Denver, Thomas 鈥淒etour鈥� Evans sees canvases where ordinary people see impassive hunks of stone, brick, and concrete.听
鈥淚 saw a wall and it spoke to me and said it needs a George Floyd on there,鈥� says Mr. Evans, who branched out from ambitious art museum exhibitions built around his paintings to street art in 2015.听
Once he鈥檇 received permission to paint the surface from the building鈥檚 owner, his friend Hiero Veiga came over to help. Mr. Evans created the lower part of Mr. Floyd鈥檚 face, rendering it with impressionistic color. Mr. Veiga, a distinguished graffiti writer, muralist, and fine artist, painted a more realistic skin tone. The effect was to make it seem as if life was being breathed back into the body.听
Soon after, the pair were offered spaces to memorialize two other people who died recently from police violence, Breonna Taylor and Elijah McClain. Mr. Evans calls the series a 鈥淪pray Their Name鈥� campaign. Like all street artists, he shares his work on Instagram.
鈥淲e are visual historians of what is happening today,鈥� says the artist, who is the subject of the documentary 鈥淒etour,鈥� on Amazon Prime. 鈥淎s many of the marches die down and there鈥檚 more distraction for people as things open up ... I like having that as a reminder of what鈥檚 really important.鈥�
Sophia Dawson
A strikingly different type of Black Lives Matter portrait was recently unveiled across the street from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Sophia Dawson painted a mural depicting Eric Garner, the victim of asphyxiation by a police officer, as a child. He poses smiling alongside his sister, Lisha, and his brother Emery. Titled 鈥淔or Gwen,鈥� the mural is dedicated to the mother of Mr. Garner.听
鈥淎 mother鈥檚 loss of a child is a universal loss,鈥� explains Ms. Dawson, whose long-standing activism for criminal justice reform stems from watching documentaries in college as well as her own mother鈥檚 incarceration. 鈥淚 was really trying to tap into the hearts of people that don鈥檛 care and don鈥檛 see and that don鈥檛 feel, because I think they鈥檙e blinded in a way. And I鈥檓 hoping that my art will lift the veil off their faces so that they can see things the way I see it.鈥�
Ms. Dawson, a fine artist who is entirely new to street art and using spray paint, also collaborated on a mural where she painted Mr. Floyd as an infant in the arms of his mother.听In another Black Lives Matter mural in Foley Square in Manhattan, Ms. Dawson filled the 鈥淟鈥� in the phrase with portraits of mothers whose children have been killed by police.听
鈥淚 believe my gift is from God, so I use it as a form of service,鈥� says Ms. Dawson, who teaches art classes at Rikers Island, a jail for New Yorkers, most of whom are awaiting trial. 鈥淲e鈥檙e meant to bless other people, to heal other people, to liberate other people.鈥�
Cedric 鈥淰ise1鈥� Douglas
Long before he went to college to become a professional designer, Cedric 鈥淰ise1鈥� Douglas learned his craft with quick, furtive paint strokes of aerosol cans on the streets. Scanning other people鈥檚 sneakers for telltale aerosol splatter, he joined a crew in Boston and tagged walls as Fanes, a playful twist on the word 鈥渇inesse.鈥� Recognizing his talent for art was, Mr. Douglas says, akin to discovering he possessed a superpower.听
鈥淭he cool thing about graffiti was it was like my second superhero outfit,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 Cedric Douglas by day, but at night I鈥檓 Fanes. So it was like people didn鈥檛 know who you were. But you had something that you knew you were doing that no one knew.鈥�
Not even his own family knew about his pastime. When Mr. Douglas was arrested for elaborate artwork on a derelict basketball court, the police he鈥檇 fled from during a foot chase were far more genial than his livid mother. Compounding his mother鈥檚 ire: The Boston Globe covered the incident.听Indeed,听some听street art is considered vandalism under the law and may be punishable with fines or imprisonment if people are caught by the police.听But Mr. Douglas knew that his interest in graffiti had steered him away from worse paths. After college, he and his partner Julia Roth started their own mobile art vehicle, dubbed the Up Truck, to mentor children.
鈥淲e鈥檇 go around teaching people how to be creative,鈥� he says. 鈥淪ome of the things we do teach is spray paint, which is kind of ironic since I got arrested for using it.鈥�
Mr. Douglas has painted many pieces protesting violence, including portraits of nine victims of the 2015 mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. For a recent art project, Mr. Douglas created yellow caution tape featuring the last words of Black people killed by police, including Mr. Garner鈥檚 鈥淚 can鈥檛 breathe.鈥� When he handed out reels of the tape to Black Lives Matter protesters in June, the front page of The Boston Globe featured a photograph of someone holding a strip with the words 鈥淒on鈥檛 shoot.鈥澨�
鈥淎 lot of the work I try to do is paint Black men and women in a positive light,鈥� says Mr. Douglas, who was听nominated for the Ad Club of Boston鈥檚 2016 Rosoff Award for individuals changing the city through diversity and inclusion. 鈥淥ne of the issues we have with racism is that a lot of people have a negative perception of Black men and women. A lot of people just aren鈥檛 around a lot of different cultures. Boston is very siloed, and there鈥檚 Black neighborhoods and there鈥檚 white neighborhoods.鈥澨�
Robert Vargas听
For much of the coronavirus shutdown, Robert Vargas has been working on one of the world鈥檚 most ambitious 鈥� and dangerous 鈥� pieces of art. He鈥檚 been painting 鈥淎ngelus,鈥� one of the world鈥檚 largest murals, entirely freehand on the side of a 14-story Los Angeles building. Ascending two stories on the swaying scaffolding can feel like an additional 1,000 feet, says Mr. Vargas, who explains that 鈥淎ngelus鈥� celebrates ethnic diversity in an inclusive city. But when the Black Lives Matter protests came through his downtown neighborhood, the internationally known fine artist came back down to earth. He watched rioting and looting break out while standing in front of another of his murals, 鈥淥ur Lady of DTLA.鈥澨�
Days later, when the ransacked Starbucks across the street from him erected wooden boards to cover its broken windows, Mr. Vargas saw an opportunity to turn a 鈥渂lack eye for our community and a bit of an eyesore鈥� into a positive message. He used the planks as a canvas to paint the word 鈥淛ustice.鈥� The word is split into two. Mr. Floyd鈥檚 eyes sit between the two fragments.
鈥淭he symbolism there is that he is the bridge to justice,鈥� says Mr. Vargas. 鈥淲hat I wanted to do was create something that would, of course, show solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, but also be able to create an image that would show that we are a resilient people.鈥澨�
Mr. Vargas went even further. After observing artists painting the slogan 鈥淏lack Lives Matter鈥� in gigantic letters on streets across the country, he decided to make a statement of his own. He painted the words 鈥淐hange,鈥� 鈥淧eace,鈥� 鈥淯nity,鈥� and 鈥淟ove鈥� over the four crosswalks directly beneath his high-rise studio. He named the piece 鈥淚ntersection of Introspection.鈥澨�
鈥淵ou鈥檒l be able to take one of these roads, make a left, make a right, and then find the Black Lives Matter intersection somewhere else,鈥� says Mr. Vargas, a fine artist in the classical tradition. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e down with Black Lives Matter, then that鈥檚 the destination. If you don鈥檛 understand Black Lives Matter, then that鈥檚 the origin.鈥�
