Rapid Enamel (1984)

Rapid Enamel: The Art of Graffiti is an exhibition (Oct. 7 – Nov. 10 1984) featuring works (paintings, drawings, photographs) of A-ONE (Anthony Clark), BLADE (Steven Ogburn), Blaze, Henry Chalfant, Daze, Duster, FUTURA 2000, Malcolm Kirk, LADY PINK (Sandra Fabara), Jenny Holzer, LAK (Ricardo Lakenpool), LEE (Lee Quinoñes), PART, PHASE 2, Quik, Rammellzee, Kenny Scharf, Robert Fiore, THE ARBITRATOR KOOR (Charles William Hargrove Jr.), TOXIC, United Grafitti Artists, John Danza.This exhibition is curated by Richard Flood.

American graffiti art now enjoys considerable acclaim in Europe, where it is widely exhibited and has begun to enter major public collections. Only recently has critical attention come to focus on this work here in America, and a larger public dialogue is still lacking in this country. This exhibition is intended to commence such a dialogue. The exhibition will be the first by an American institution to attempt a qualitative survey which will also include the working drawings for the graffiti works.

Graffiti is generally dismissed as a form of urban vandalism, but in the late 1970s art collectors and museums began to look on graffiti as a genre worthy of serious aesthetic consideration. This survey discusses the graffiti work of artists including Lee Quinones, Jenny Holzer and Kenny Scharf, and includes Henry Chalfant’s meticulously photographed reproductions of the work. Richard Flood, Curator for the Walker Art Center and of this exhibition, offers his meditations on the complex aesthetic and sociological issues generated by graffiti.