Street art has become so accepted by the mainstream that even The New York Times can write a story referring to illegal tags as art without so much as a mention of the darker side of graffiti.
Instead the paper calls graffiti “uncommissioned, uncommercial forms of expression,” and encourages readers to spend the weekend looking for street tags, rather than blocking them out as noise and New Yorkers become accustomed to doing on their busy streets.
In the “Weekend in New York” travel column this week, reporter Seth Kugel does a great job of explaining graffiti in the most common terms – what it is, where to find it and how (not) to judge it.
He writes, “Finally, judging street art is not like judging a coin collection: just about nothing is in mint condition. But that’s part of the charm. Pieces are supposed to decay over time, either naturally or sped along by human hands. A years-old image half torn down or covered with other images (often in homage) is part of the experience.”
The best part about the story is, unsurprisingly, photos taken around the city of NYC graffiti. The NYT presents them in a slideshow with captions so informational you don’t even need to read the story to understand and appreciate the art.
