What I found most interesting about our visit to the Museum of the City of New York was the graffiti art. There has long been a debate over whether or not graffiti is art or vandalism; the MCNY clearly believes the former, since they host a variety of graffiti art on the first floor. One of the walls of this section of the museum hosts a list of quotes from several authority figures that are both for and against it; one of the most surprising quotes comes from Kathleen Westin, the Junior Council Co-chair of the Museum of Modern Art, who says “the people who graffiti ought to be shot at dawn” (MCNY). Contrast this with Diego Cortez, an art curator, who believes that “graffiti should be looked at as a highly sophisticated art form which is the image of New York, and is definitely the soul of the undeground scene” (MCNY). It’s baffling that such divergent views exist simultaneously on this subject matter. In my opinion the best defense the museum gives for this form of art is that it provides an outlet for underprivilegded and lower class children – “the most significant thing about graffiti was not their destructiveness but their cohesion;” a community and sense of fellowship developed among graffiti artists.

Defenses For and Against Graffiti

The question of graffiti being art cannot apply to all graffiti. There exist graffiti that are true masterpieces, such as the pieces in Martin Wong’s “City as Canvas” exhibition, but there are also less artful graffiti that actually diminishes the appearance of a wall or subway. Such graffiti may appear as a mess of spray paint on some surface, which does not appear to have been thoughtfully or meticulously produced. Such can hardly be considered art, and perhaps this is the kind of graffiti that anti-graffiti figures such as Kathleen had in mind when speaking against it. I would find it very strange if she actually had graffiti the quality of Martin’s in mind; for since she is an authoritiative figure at the MoMA, she must find Andy Warhol’s soup cans to be art, but to find Warhol’s repetitive soup cans as art and Wong’s intricate, beautiful graffiti as a reason to be shot is odd indeed.