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Street Art at MOCA
How Jeffrey Deitch convinced an outlaw art movement to show itself for the landmark retrospective “Art in the Streets”
“This was somebody’s glory day, like winning a sports championship, to be revered by your peers, achieve a special place in the history of your neighborhood with your talent — king of your block,” Gastman says. “It should be celebrated — the artists have earned it.”
But not every form of street art retains its impact when you remove it from its intended environment. Gastman points out that some artists, the ones who have done the most damage on the streets, are less able to translate their work to a gallery or museum setting. Much of the wow factor in street art is the prowess of placement and surprise of discovery.
ART IN THE STREETS, THE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY AT MOCA, PHOTOS BY GREGORY BOJORQUEZ, COURTESY OF MOCA
In the foreground, L.A.'s Cartoon works on his installation.
Other artists — the ones with formal art educations — have spent less time working on the streets, using them as an open forum, an alternative to shopping their slides around to galleries. “From a typical curator’s perspective, it would make the most sense to pick the latter group,” Gastman says. “But for an exhibition like this, it’s extremely important to include the former group as well, so that the exhibition is an outgrowth of the streets, and reflects what is actually important outside the museum’s walls.”
“Art in the Streets” could serve to unify the old-school split between street art and graffiti. Up to now there has been a hard line between street artists who choose materials like stickers or wheat paste (slopping posters onto walls using liquid glue) and the graffiti crews who use aerosol paint to do throw-ups that highlight their tags.
“The street art that’s celebrated isn’t graffiti, it’s usually more mass-appeal stuff without its own language,” Revok says. “For purist graffiti guys, rewards aren’t commonplace, but Retna and Saber work hard to be artists, and this is long overdue.”
Quinones says he is “excited to see both entities, street art and graffiti, co-exist. One was born from the other under the same lights and cocktails. I believe complications should be left to the United Nations, not art.”
Bojorquez started his esteemed career tagging the neighborhoods on L.A.’s Eastside in 1969. A graffiti legend who’s also an art show veteran, he’s glad that the innovators of the movement are being recognized by MOCA. “This show acknowledges the old school. I didn’t think they were going to do that. All of street art is illegal and I like that. But graffiti is still its own beast.”
Still, MOCA invited only those artists who have a certain finesse. If you’re a die-hard devotee searching for a ’90s tagbanger from Portland, Ore., you may be disappointed.
“What people need to understand is that this is not a graffiti nerd show,” Deitch says. “It’s not one piece from everybody who ever worked. Some people are bound to come out and say, ‘You got the story wrong,’ or, ‘You didn’t include this person.’ Well, maybe, but this is unlike when somebody is doing a pop art show 30 years after it happened. There you’re dealing with a whole body of exhibition records and books and artists’ archives. We don’t have that here. Things come from different directions — people with good memories or fanatics with pictures, not one central place.”
Some artists who were invited, among them self-described “graffiti nerds,” were hesitant to get involved. “The common misconception here is that this show is a complete history or an L.A. graf show,” Gastman says. “It’s neither of those things. It’s 30 to 40 artists who raised the profile of an entire movement with high artistic merit. ... The participating artists were very supportive once they understood this intent. ... There is a reason and thought behind every one of the pieces included.”
While there have been comprehensive street-art shows in the recent past — the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s “Viva La Revolución: A Dialogue With the Urban Landscape,” in 2010, and the Tate Modern’s “Street Art,” in 2008 — both these shows focused on what’s happening now. “Art in the Streets,” by contrast, strives to be more of a retrospective.
Many galleries have hosted smaller street-art exhibits over the years. Aaron Rose, Deitch’s other co-curator for “Art in the Streets,” used to run New York’s Alleged gallery, an influential 300-square-foot hangout in an East Village storefront, where he gave current art superstars Fairey, Thomas Campbell and Ed Templeton early shows in the ’90s. Rose continued the party-as-art-show tradition started by Astor’s FUN Gallery in the ’80s, initially representing his friends from the skateboarding scene and helping to make art accessible to a young, detached audience.
In 2006, Rose staged a street-art museum showcase of his own called “Beautiful Losers,” a visual spectacular that included many of the artists chosen for the upcoming MOCA show. The touring exhibit hosted sold-out opening nights around the world and spawned a collectible coffee-table book and a noteworthy documentary of the same name.
36 comments
I wonder how you were able to post a comment without using the coroorate whores who made every little thing you use daily, you punk poser. If you like art then look and admire, if you dont than say so...life is not about hating corporations all the time. Pick your battles man, we all need a nickle to live on.
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BLU Why is it not in this exhibition?The art of the street would there be limits to freedom of expression?The art market would he hard to integrate the work of producing meaning, beyond the agreed upon?
The episode in December 2010 at MOCA is quickly evacuated, I think …http://next.liberation.fr/cult...
I’ll go see the work of BLU in the streets, keep your tools speculation museumFor more news, soon: http://ecritique-revue.over-bl...
A +Sabine
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[incorrect event name listed dept.] APRIL IS JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH!
Thurs. Apr. 28th - Special TRIPLE signature "Companion Events" Jammin Foundation & Linda Morgan, Ms. SmoothAhead Jazz Presents: HONORING -6PM CHARLES OWENS "Sensei Maestro" & DOLORES PETERSEN - A.Pro-Advocate Rep.
SHOWCASE: And OPEN MIC / JAM: "Welcome Home" And JAM w/ D'z "Lady & Gentlemen" In-House Live Jazz Trio "redoubtable jazz vets" Karen HERNANDEZ & Tony DUMAS · Ralph PENLAND
7PM SHOWCASE: feat. "Woodwindist" FUASI ABDUL-KHALIQ visiting from Germany, "Special" Guest Co-Host JEFFREY WINSTON - Jazz Historian, Philantropist, writer8PM (sign-up 7:30PM) OPEN MIC / JAM: "heavy surprise guests" "stellar assortment of top-flight jazz musicians" Guest Co-Host "Young Lion" RANDAL FISHER - Intern/s DOLORES PETERSEN Presents: @ HSB&G 6122-6124 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood
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"If you choose to do art paid for by an institution, you have to play nice."
That pretty much sums up why there's a Nike skateramp, but no Blu anti-war mural at the MOCA show. Exit through the gift shop, indeed.
[unlisted dept.] SHOWCASE: And OPEN MIC / JAM: Thurs. Apr. 21st, 7:00pm And 8:00pm (sign-up 7:30pm) "Companion Events" (entertainment/music - instrumentalists/vocalists)SHOWCASE: Fundraiser - SOCIETY OF SINGERS - Deborah ASH, Synthia HARDY, Cara Lee PENDLEBURY, Polly PODEWELL, Sherwood SLEDGE, Chris SMITH "Sing SOS And JAM..."OPEN MIC / JAM: D'z "Lady & Gentlemen" In-House Live Jazz Trio "Master" accompanist/improv-musicians Karen HERNANDEZ - Music Director/p & Tony DUMAS - b • Ralph PENLAND - d, (multi-genre - Blues, Jazz, Latin, Pop...) DOLORES PETERSEN Presents: @ HSB&G 6122-6124 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood
[completely related listing dept.] APRIL IS JAZZ APPRECIATION MONTH! SHOWCASE: And OPEN MIC / JAM: Thurs. Apr. 21st, 7:00pm And 8:00pm (sign-up 7:30pm) "Companion Events" (entertainment/music - instrumentalists/vocalists)SHOWCASE: Fundraiser - SOCIETY OF SINGERS - Deborah ASH, Synthia HARDY, Cara Lee PENDLEBURY, Polly PODEWELL, Sherwood SLEDGE, Chris SMITH "Sing SOS And JAM..."OPEN MIC / JAM: D'z "Lady & Gentlemen" In-House Live Jazz Trio "Master" accompanist/improv-musicians Karen HERNANDEZ - Music Director/p & Tony DUMAS - b • Ralph PENLAND - d, (multi-genre - Blues, Jazz, Latin, Pop...) DOLORES PETERSEN Presents: @ HSB&G 6122-6124 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH1111...Outlaws?..........HAHAHAHAHAHAH......more like corporate faggots ...
This is right up L.A's whitewashed alley. Fucking street artists? More like commercial prostitutes...
Revok expressed "disdain" for indoor shows...But this one's cool...Different...it's cool... This hack, like the rest of his cronies with their redundant hit ups. Grey village grey walls..same shit over and over...
Lets talk Slick..handed his ass by HEX in 91"...this BITER is a joke....his plagerism and straight up intellectual property theft is as bad as..
Scene 1 OBEY (downloading internet image)
...it's an experiment in redundancy...did you buy a shirt..."
BANKSY (doing online banking)
...no, but these sheep will buy anything...lets sell them an "aerosoul outlaw"...in stores now!!!
Regurgitated images screaming no talent. Screaming capitalism...
Lets hope to cash whores that SEEN is somewhere to be found.
this is completely incoherent. evidence that people who are up on this stuff tend to be well, idiots.
I am so excited to travel from the east coast to west coast to see this show! I as a artist working with street art want to know more about the history of the exciting work I see on the streets. Congrats on your institution for supporting this great art movement and putting in the spotlight. Joycehillstudio.com
Play Deitch for a day by 'approving' or 'disapproving' the street art of LA for yourself. Learn how at http://moca-latte.org and get a free batch of stickers.
Really...you are the exact sort of ignorant trend whore that this exhibit is geared to.
Graffiti is on the street for the public to see
Only difference is you douche bags that want it painted over when its on your wall.
Send up a shout for Tony Silver's 1982 "breakthrough" documentary, Style Wars, regarded as the best hip hop film ever made. The film will be screened in the Art in the Streets in its entirety as well as favorite scenes.
White washing over BLU's mural was not simply an act of artistic censorship it was an act of political censorship. If BLU had created a pro-war mural there would have been no white washing and no controversy. By meekly accepting the destruction of BLU's work, the LA art community is endorsing the notion that anti-war art must ride in the back of the bus if it is allowed to ride at all.
It wasn't about being pro or anti-war, the reason it was buffed was out of respect for the residents in the neighborhood. Across the way from the mural is the "Go for Broke" monument which commemorates the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, they were Nisei - American-born sons of Japanese immigrants who fought during WWII. Simply put, it was a poor choice in judgement on Blu's part. He didn't bother to research where he was painting.
Did Deitch hold a community meeting and ask anyone if they were offended? How about the fact that MOCA sits on the very spot where Japanese were shipped off to internment camps? How about THAT for censorship? I am positive that blu knew exactly what he was doing, that wall looks directly at the VA where many of the vets there would most likely have agreed with blu's statement and Dept. of Homeland Security where people are deported from - but hey, you can become a US citizen if you join the military!
“We are working with brands that are already a huge part of this world,” Rose adds. “It is a very organic fit. They are companies who have invested heavily in street culture for years.”
Corporate marketing parasites.
This weak show rides on the tail of San Diego and others. It's hardly a first.
http://www.mcasd.org/exhibitio...
Street art is / can be radical explicitly because it stays in the street, defying what's public / private and sanctioned.
Once it moves into a museum / mausoleum, sanitized for quick grab sales in the MOCA gift shop ("Art in the Streets" mouse pads! key chains! ski masks!), it's immediately neutered.
[listing dept.] "April is JAZZ Appreciation Month"
SHOWCASE: And OPEN MIC / JAM: Thurs. Apr. 14th, 7:00pm And 8:00pm (sign-up 7:30pm) "Companion Events" (multi-genre, vocalists/instrumentalists)SHOWCASE: Pro-Vocalist - SHARON STANLEY "She's Bold & Beautiful" And JAMs...OPEN MIC / JAM: D'z "Lady & Gentlemen" In-House Live Jazz Trio - "Master" accompanist/improv-musiciansKaren HERNANDEZ - Music Director/piano & Tony DUMAS - bass • Ralph PENLAND - drums DOLORES PETERSEN Presents: @ HSB&G 6122-6124 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood
How can Deitch characterize BLU's mural as "undermining the whole show" when he approved the design? It makes no sense. Deitch lost his balls or got a call but I guarantee no one else doing art in that show saw that mural as "undermining" anything. Liar and coward.
What a bunch of bullshit. If you are commissioned to do a mural you have to "play nice"? Street art has never been about playing nice. How about we call Deitch's decision to white out Blu's mural what it was? CENSORSHIP.
Just want to mention that in October 2010 the National Gallery of Australia put on a large scale show of Australian street art, especially focusing on the explosion of stencil art and wheatpasting that occurred around 2004-2006. The exhibit has just closed in Canberra, and is currently showing in Brisbane, and opens in Melbourne later in 2011.
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