SCRAWLS ON THE
WALLS: Graffiti and Muralism in Mexico City
Muralists Felipe Ehrenberg and Daniel Manrique participated in a resurgence of Mexico's muralist movement in the 1970s. Although influenced by the Three Greats, they forged their own artistic philosophies and styles, drawing on contemporary influences and events. With the invention of the spray-can in the late 1900s, writing on walls took on a different form and meaning in Mexico. Rawer in execution and expressive of a younger, more urban subculture, the art-from became known as graffiti. Ehrenberg and Manrique's generation of muralists find little connection with their work and this new form of spray-can muralism, while graffiti artist Pedro Van Lenger insists his work is an evolution of traditional Mexican muralism.
Born in a small village
which has since been swallowed whole by Mexico City, Ehrenberg considers
himself a General Practitioner of art, and refuses to let himself be categorized
or defined.
As a practitioner of public and performance art, He
views art as a dialogue betwen two people. "The Maker and the Watcher
become accomplices," says Ehrenberg. "The Maker just initiates
it. For the Watcher, the work of art never stops growing."
"Giant companies created a tool--the spray can. After a while, people learned sophisticated ways of using spray cans, that these companies never thought possible," he says. "The tool is being appropriated by different clientelle, who "deface" whole cities. That marking of a city's skin bothers one part of the population, but to another part, it establishes all sorts of codes and messages." For Ehrenberg, the
quality of graffiti ranges from "a dog pissing on a wall to a very
sophisticated works of art."
For Ehrenberg, graffiti art and murals have very different purposes, even
though both are public expressions of art. Whereas traditional
murals are signed by the creator, graffiti pieces are typically signed
with a "tag" or pseudonym. "Mural artists get empowered
or commissioned by their community," he says. "Graffiti artists
feel empowered. They take over a wall." Still, Ehrenberg does
see some validity in sophisticated graffiti art. "Graffiti
artists pull from their surroundings, which artists have always done,"
he says. "Art
is a biological need for humans and graffiti is one way that people meet
that need."
Wearing
only black, Daniel Manrique stands in stark contrast to his vibrantly
colored murals.
On
a chilly night
in October 1996, Pedro Van Lenger was illuminated only by the moonlit
sky, as he spray-painted a wall in La Condesa, Mexico City. The only sound
around him came from the intermittent rattle and hiss of a spray can as
it spewed paint in fine lines and bursts. Van Lenger’s La Condesa wall has since faded and has been tagged over by other graffiti artists and gangs. Unconcerned about his own work’s transience, Van Lenger believes in this dialogue that public art, including graffiti, inspires in a community.
This young graffiti
artist and muralist defends his craft against the anti-graffiti sentiments
of some of his predecessors, like Daniel Manrique. He attributes Manrique’s
harsh judgments to a "generation gap" and insists that graffiti
walls often have sophisticated political messages. In 1997, Van Lenger
traveled to San Miguel, where he spray-painted a war zone scene in protest
of human rights violations happening in Chiapas. The wall-turned-canvas
depicted body parts, a severed head, clustered dollar-signs in the shape
of bushes and a river of blood dripping to the wall’s edge. For Van Lenger, graffiti is not only expressive of a particular community, it is also reflective of contemporary artistic trends. "Look at modern art. No one paints Rubens anymore. Modern art is so distorted, like Rothko," says Van Lenger. "Similarly, graffiti is an evolution of Rivera’s muralism."
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