Graffiti existed before some ancient civilizations such as ancient Greece and Roman Empire. If the definition of graffiti is broader, the murals painted in caves in prehistoric times can also be regarded as graffiti.
Nowadays, "graffiti" gives this street art some recognition to some extent. Otherwise, these works will be called "scribbling" or "smearing".
Graffiti is expressed as plural graffiti in English. Its singular word is graffito. These two words are both borrowed from Italian and both originated from Greek, meaning "writing". Historians have not come to a conclusion about when and how the word became the meaning of "graffiti".
The history of modern graffiti
In the 20th century, a kind of graffiti called "Come here for a visit" became popular in Europe and America. The content of this graffiti is like a person crawling on the wall and peeking. People only see his eyes and nose. There is a line under it: "Come here to travel" or "What? Nothing? " In that case. In World War II, with the popularity of fighter planes, graffiti on the fuselage became popular.
After the war, in many big cities all over the world, boys and other groups of people scribbled on the walls everywhere, and most of them left their names to declare their control over graffiti. But by the end of the 20th century, this kind of behavior began to break away from the Youth League and gradually became a personal creation. Some people doodle for the sake of doodling, or doodle to increase their reputation and skills as graffiti artists. Personal graffiti and organized graffiti are different in form and motivation. For example, the artistic motivation of personal graffiti is higher than that of organized graffiti; In addition, personal graffiti uses a wide range of media, including walls, buildings and even freight trains.
Sometimes graffiti, like a pen name, can reflect the author's accomplishment. Sometimes graffiti includes the year of creation, the author's name and its abbreviation, or reflects some experiences, memories or reminiscences of the author. Some graffiti even contains argot.
Some graffiti with the meaning of remembering the dead, even if it is painted at the door of the store, the clerk dare not daub it at will. Other graffiti with special significance painted on abandoned fences or walls will sometimes not be erased by the owners or the government.
In addition, there are some graffiti with local colors. This is the graffiti of some gangs in Southern California.
Some avant-garde artists began to study the concept and use of graffiti in the 1960 s, and Scandinavia even has a college specializing in graffiti.
Because graffiti artists need to avoid being arrested, many graffiti are done quickly. This kind of fast and illegal (even organized) graffiti, sometimes called "labeling", is treated separately from other graffiti with artistic elements.
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