Graffiti Art

Graffiti Art
Key Dates: 1980-

This was a movement which achieved an enormous amount of success in New York in the 1980s. It was named after the spray-can vandalism common in most cities and most associated with the New York subway system.

The two most successful figures of this movement were Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. The New York art scene embraced Graffiti Art, with several galleries specialising in the genre and a Museum of American Graffiti opening in 1989.

The genre was big business with artists in the field selling their work for huge amounts. The two most prominent figures died young, however, and the style soon went out of fashion.