It is called graffiti to a mode of street painting or visual art, generally illegal, which is
generally carried out on large surfaces of urban spaces: walls, gates, etc.
The term graffiti comes from Italian and in turn from the name given to the satirical
inscriptions in public spaces made during the Roman Empire, known as graffito, and which
are its most remote antecedent.
This term, however, became enormously popular after its incorporation into American street
culture, as well as the movements of hip-hop and different urban tribes, which used this type
of form of expression.
In general, the graffiti is carried out on high or highly visible walls, sometimes as a way of
territorial marking or competition to conquer the most daring spaces, facing the possible
interruption of the drawing by the police.
There are three main types of graffiti, although there is no formal study of them, nor are
there too strict rules for their preparation:
Art graffiti. Associated with the hip-hop culture of the 70s and 80s in the United States, it
tends to represent more or less abstract motifs, names or recurring messages, always
through a display of colors and shapes that sometimes takes several days to complete.
public graffiti. The public "slogans" that appear in a city and reiterate slogans or political
messages, more or less satirical or rude, trying to give a message to the masses.
Latrinalia. This is the name given to the little elaborate or rude graffiti that predominates in
public bathrooms and transit spaces, such as doors, elevators, trains, etc. They can range
from confessions of love, threats, complaints to attempts at poetry or storytelling.
More elaborate expressions of graffiti are valued today as a form of artistic intervention in
urban space, becoming world famous despite their ephemeral nature, such as the designs of
the anonymous British graffiti artist Banksy.
The contemporary history of graffiti does not have a clear beginning, nor does it have an
explicit connection with its already mentioned Roman antecedents. The walls have been
filled with anonymous messages on various occasions and before different social or political
processes.
The appearance of spray paint in the mid-twentieth century allowed graffiti to take on a
larger body in the cities, and from then on it became a common tool in the expression and
tribal marking of gang territories, later gaining a stand out as an anonymous but harmonious
form of street expression, through landscapes, figures and original designs.
Around the 90s, the artistic graffiti movement had gained enough strength to reinvent itself
in methods and gain some sociological and even artistic interest, thus giving birth to Street
Art, whose exhibitors are more or less well-known artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey or
Mr. Brainwash, among others.
