Street art is the broad label given to the contemporary practice of creating art specifically for display in public spaces.  Even though its roots can be traced back to the style of graffiti that became a prominent fixture of major urban centres starting with New York City in the 1970s, the particular brand of street art that will be examined in this essay is in no way related to gang territoriality or malicious vandalism.  However, the fact that – for the most part – these works are executed directly onto, or installed in and around, public walls/grounds/fixtures still calls for them to be classified as illegal; although practitioners will usually justify their actions as a re-appropriation of communal spaces, which have become overrun by ever more invasive, yet entirely lawful, advertising campaigns. 

Influenced by prevailing forms of youth counterculture, the most unifying trait shared by this new generation of artists is a strong affinity for the ʻdo-it-yourselfʼ ethos, coupled with a remarkable range of multi-disciplinary aptitudes.  Contrary to their graffiti-writing predecessors whose tools were usually limited to cans of spray-paint and industrial markers, todayʼs street artists are incorporating traditional brush-based painting methods, photography, collage; as well as graphic-design techniques such as screen-printing and wheat-pasting; while some are even pushing the genreʼs technical boundaries by including still and moving image projections, music and other digital media.        

The double connotation implied by the use of the word legitimate in this essayʼs title, is not only meant to introduce the ambiguous nature of the debate over “post-graffiti as fine art”, but it also points towards a much broader question regarding the actual role of art galleries and museums as so-called “tastemakers”.  One of the primary definitions of the term legitimate, when employed as an adjective, indicates that something complies with the law – which all forms of graffiti, by their very nature, do not.  A second fundamental meaning, this time in the form of the verb to legitimate, entails the consecration of an artistic manifestation (physical or intellectual) to the realm of ʻseriousʼ or ʻhighʼ art – that is, in stpopular expression.

This essay explores the methods through which contemporary forms of street art have managed to claim their own particular brand of art world legitimacy.  The first section draws on the examples of two recent, large-scale, graffiti exhibitions – Ill Communications II (Urbis, Manchester) and Beautiful Losers (national tour, United States) – as a way of introducing some of the enduring presumptions that affect the publicʼs perception of this specific genre.  The second section looks at the inherent incongruity of pursuing public recognition via an art form that is founded on principles of anonymity.  In the third and final section, we examine the commoditization of street art by way of online visibility and corporate associations. 

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Banksy at the Brooklyn Museum, 2005