really the history of murals reflects on the society and the common spaces. in my city, Maracaibo in Venezuela. a group of passionate artist, decided to do a mural on the street, took them time and effort but they were insisting on restoring the space, so they clean, polish, did the beautiful mural. days later, the latest political candidate put his literal face, covering the mural, just to make it look like he had made it all.
Austin Texas has a legal "graffiti park", where anyone can bring a can of spray paint and paint on some deteriorating building sides. I visited it this winter and it was super cool.
The walls of the school my mother works in are covered in murals. My favorite is in the hallway leading to the library. It's a large park filled with characters from children's books interacting with each other. Takes me back to my childhood every time.
Although not exactly in a public space in the way this video addresses, the murals in my high school had a strong impact on the personality of the space and my experience of it for 4 years. They were landmarks we used to talk about our space (our community) and ways of immersing ourselves in the creations of students in the past and what had inspired them. Before I graduated, another student painted a mural of several students, including me. The cycle of painting continues, and I may have been painted over by now, but I like to think that I became a part of the experience other kids had in that school, just as the mural of Jim Morrison was important to mine.
ArtichokeHunter this totally reminded me of old high school! Every "Art 1" student paints half of a ceiling tile, and so now the majority of the hallway ceilings are covered in mini murals. It's like Sistine Chapel meets high school pop culture over the span of 20ish years:D All the painting students do wall murals in the school too, and it's so cool. It totally helped make the place seem less like a concrete box.
As I was watching the part about the Federal Arts Project I noticed a mural that looked very familiar to me. I've been living in Ventura, Ca for close to 25 years now and visit the post office regularly. I've always noticed the mural but I guess I've never really thought too much about when it was painted or who painted it. This video shows the mural at 3:52. I had no idea it was funded by the Federal Arts Project and painted in 1936-37. This video just made me become a whole lot more aware of an amazing work of art in my own town. Next time I go down there I'll stop and take a closer look at it. Thanks Art Assignment :)
I am completely obsessed with the phoenix mural in St. James Town, Toronto. It is the tallest mural in the world and it is so beautiful. It also has a really interesting history because it was built at the sight of a huge fire and was a way for the community to rebuild itself. It's on this huge grey apartment building in a "bad" area of town but to me it shows that traditionally stigmatized areas can have beautiful and thriving communities.
I live in Berlin and a huge mural that comes to mind is the East Side Gallery. It is a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall which has been painted on by many different artist from around the world. Definitely look it up if youve never heard of it before. It really is an impressive collaboration.
You dropped a significant stitch omitting the historic murals and public art of El Paso, organic art movements that span half a century and are among the best and most influential in the USA, particularly in the Borderlands. Carlos Callejo, Hal Marcus, Gabriel Gaytan, Mario Colín, Carlos Todas are a mere few of the best known from the past 50 years. Many more up and coming and recently renowned artists are flourishing now.
This is from 2016, it is now 2022 and counting... The Estrada Courts Murals in LA really to be restored and fixed up, you showed one in this video... I'd be happy to help to do this...
Here in Durham, NC we have a series of murals of the amazing woman Pauli Murray. She was a civil and women's rights activist, lawyer, and poet. She was also BFFs with Eleanor Roosevelt and was the first female black Episcopalian priest.
I moved away from Vancouver a couple years ago and just moved back, and the city has been COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED by murals. It's incredible how different it feels here where there's art hidden around every corner. My opinion of the city has increased tenfold.
I love all the public art going in around all over the world! My home town Dunedin, New Zealand has a whole load of beautiful art. And Christchurch, New Zealand has even more, after their earthquake a significant number of central city buildings where destroyed and had to be pulled down, this left a lot of empty walls which have been filled with art! It also makes an area that is filled with sadness, bright and happy with a reason so go there!
I love the free graffiti wall in Ottawa. A five minute walk from the Parliament buildings. It is a gorgeous collaboration by people in the community and it's constantly changing and evolving. People have really embraced it as a protest space too, the Idle No More movement is captured on it, so is Black Lives Matter. It's such an amazing reflection of the community, and particularly interesting because it is in Ottawa, which as a national capital has a lot of state-based public art spaces.
I'm really greatful of the graffiti and art community around here. If you want another place to visit right next to Ottawa, you can always check out the graffiti bridges near Leamy Lake in Gatineau.
I love public art and I really love Diego Rivera. One of my goals is to be able to go to el Museo Anahuacalli in Mexico City so I can see his work. I'm so glad you guys touched on all the incredible murals and other forms of public art the celebrate Latinos in the American Southwest. Mexico City would be an amazing city to visit for an episode. Great video!
+Isaac Davis Yes! Mexico City is on my short list of places I'd like to go with The Art Assignment. But before that, we'll be making another stop in Mexico. I won't name it yet, but stay tuned.
In my high school, there are several murals on the walls of the hallway, lunchroom, and library from the New Deal's WPA. I am mostly just taken back by how much history all of the murals have been through, seeing several alumni coming back remember how they walked those halls looking at the same murals.
There was a mural painted in my home town recently that sprang up without any warning - it's a huge painting of illumination swirls like from old monastery texts. St. Cuthbert was brought to our town, Chester-le-Street, when the Lindisfarne monks escaped the Vikings, bringing with them the Lindisfarne Gospels. We later discovered the mural was in celebration of this and marking that the Gospels were toured around Britain as an anniversary project.
In Philadelphia there is a mural of an "under the sea - scape" with 2 whales and fish. You can see it just as you come off the highway and are driving into the city. For me this always indicated that we were almost home from a long trip. :)
In Melbourne we have an enormous mural constructed into the side of a building. Enormous as in, it is the size of a sky scraper. When you look from a distance the entire building is the face of indigenous elder, William Barak.
I remember a great Trompe D'oeil mural in Miami on South Beach. It's gone nowl. 😥 I'd lovely to sleep a great Trompe D'oeil mural in Philadelphia! Prayers.
One of my favorites was Brian Goggin's sculpture/mural "Defenestration" in San Francisco: furniture and appliances fastened to the walls of an abandoned hotel, made to look like they were all climbing/spilling out of the windows. It stood for years, but was taken down recently to make way for new apartments - call it evicted art. I think restoring/preserving these kinds of murals is important in a way, but there's also something great about their impermanence, the chance to be meaningfully replaced.
If I could make a suggestion, If you are going to invite a guest in to discuss a topic, have the host and the guess face each other, make it an interview, not a presentation where you are reading off a TelePrompTer. Invite us into the discuss by allowing us to ponder and question, rather than sit quietly.
Murals are my favorite kind of art. I think public art on such a large scale like murals are so important for cities. I personally do live in Indianapolis as well so I love the 46 murals that were put in by the Arts Council a few years ago. But the most impact mural I can remember was one inside my hometown middle school. It was inspired by the Wyland project, but was done by middle school art students back in the 90's. So it was an entire hallway that led the the cafeteria that looked like the ocean. There were all sorts of different sea creatures on the walls and even a submarine around one of the corners. I still love going and visiting the middle school just for that mural. There were actually several in that school, but the ocean hallway was my favorite one.
One of my favorite public murals is the library parking garage in (St Louis maybe?) that painted the outside of the parking garage to look like a bookshelf. It was practical, informative (showed you where to park for the library) and interesting to see which books they picked. I also really like the decorated staircases in San Francisco. Not sure if that counts as a bunch of tiny murals, but they were such a beautiful adornment of a necessary piece of infrastructure.
A public art installation I loved was the San Francisco LED Lights Project. It's also a city with many wonderful and powerful murals, including some by Diego Rivera.
Building-size murals are common in Russia, especially on USSR-era apartment buildings. They come in many styles and are universally well done. A Russian friend said it was a major way that the state employed painters, designers, and graphic artists, especially in areas outside the main population centers of the nation.
my university (universidade de brasilia - brasil) is a modern architectural masterpiece and the students have the habit of making art in the walls :) it´s really amazing and it suits the philosophy of the university which is democratization of knowledge and expression
I've always loved public art :) My fave is a sculpture on one of the lawns at the University of Adelaide (The Fones by Jonathon Dady). They just feel really fun and welcoming.
I just visited Havana, Cuba with my Historic Preservation program at the College of Charleston and was most captivated by the public art - yes, the government funded revolutionary propaganda, but also the art of the people that consumes vacant walls throughout the region. I am writing a paper on the subject now so this video is rather serendipitous! My question is - how do you decide when graffiti is worth preserving? I guess the ephemerality is a part of the game, but sometimes I think a work becomes so ingrained in the community that temporary street art can find a permanent home.
+kayleecaaa Of course, I think this can be highly subjective, but generally the graffiti I've seen preserved are those pieces that the ownership of the space likes it, or perhaps recognizes that the community likes it.
I'm not sure how to feel about the preservation of murals.To me, there is something very appealing about how temporary public art often is. There are several murals I can think of with which I've developed a kind of a personal relationship by walking past them on a daily basis, sometimes paying a lot of attention and sometimes not at all, and then, one day, they are gone. They can act like a necessary mirror when they exist, reflecting a different image in different life situations. And when they disappear, you are forced to prove to yourself that you can keep going without them.
+Joonas Puuppo You're speaking my language. I love thinking about the temporariness of art, be it a mural or otherwise. What works do we choose to preserve, restore, allow to deteriorate in front of us, paint over, remove? Who makes these decisions? These questions have a huge bearing on our experience of art. I think it's wonderful to embrace the temporary nature of art, and I think that it's something that should be discusses whenever something is made and placed in the public sphere. The artist and commissioning institution and community can and should have a dialogue about how long the piece should last, who will care for it, and who will take it down. I have lots more thoughts, but I'll stop there.
+Joonas Puuppo Yeah, wow. Great thoughts. There's a mural here in Indy that I like almost because it's faded and old ... but it's lost a lot of it's original color. It's almost as if it has a kind of "patina." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runners_(Urban_Wall)
+Richard S. McCoy That's cool. You could argue that the mural hasn't deteriorated, but rather evolved into something that isn't necessarily better or worse than the original -- just different. Here is a picture of one of the murals I had in mind while writing my original comment: www.flickr.com/photos/puupipo/6978510120/in/album-72157629561637976/ taken by me on the day it was finished in 2012. It was created along with several other smaller-scale murals on the walls of a building that was about to be demolished in a year or two, and I was a part of the small, grassroots collective of mostly twentysomethings who organized the whole thing. The building was eventually demolished and replaced by a boring office building but the reaction to the murals by locals, both young and old, was overwhelmingly positive and has led to the creation of several other public artworks around the city.
Joonas Puuppo Oh! Thanks for sharing the image. Great mural ... whimsical and smart at the same time. It's a shame it's not around anymore, but great that it led to others being made.
Great video! I am very proud of the murals I have painted so far at many of the Indianapolis area breweries. Never thought my career would go in this direction when I started painting. I have a few more planned for the year, and hope to do a lot more after that.
There's this one place in Oslo, a group of old factory buildings by the river, that's been converted to a night club and galleries. It's very close by two different art schools, so it's always full of interesting art. The walls are full of murals. It's a very striking place, a bit like entering another world, but it's also become a bit of a joke in Oslo. People laugh when politicians take their portraits with the murals in the background, because they're trying too hard to appeal to the "hip crowd", and the art sometimes gets dismissed as selfie or music video backgrounds.
As a kid I was always fascinated by a mural in a movie theater in my hometown-- it always seemed completely out of place, in the quiet, well lit basement of the theater, alone except for the bathrooms in a big, empty linoleum foyer. A little googling told me it's credited to Arthur Crisp somehow, but there doesn't seem to be anything concrete about the mural's history at all. The basement of the Shaker Square Theater in Ohio seems an odd place for a very eastern-inspired mural by a Canadian artist? It's a continuing mystery for me.
I just quickly wanted to swoop in and comment on painting a mural "without permission". I think that was a poor choice of words. Murals in public places that are made without a CONTRACT are not made without permission. Public places are built and inhabited for and by the public, they are not owned by an individual or a group but set out to belong to "everybody". when graffiti artists are paint on walls that are also owned by them, they really shouldn't need a "permission". From whom anyways? Nobody OWNS the public space. It's this paradoxon that makes the art movement interesting not only for social studies but theorethical art history as well.
+irgendwelchedinge In the U.S. "public spaces" that are owned by the city, state, or federal government are "owned" by the citizens. In this way it is a space that must compliment a wide variety of perspectives, and our government should be the ones that control "permission" for these spaces.
When public space is given to the local government as a "contribution," it is maintained by a government body. If you run over a bump in the road, you tell the government and they send someone to fix it. Yes, you pay taxes to get that pot hole fixed, but because the responsibility to fix that hole, and all the other public assets, is left to the government body, it is also up to them to consider damage to that property because they are responsible for it's maintenance and upgrade. Any additions to public property, if unsanctioned, are left to the responsible body to consider as damage, especially if it is not commissioned because it does not share the image that the government body has for that city. Some local governments may consider street art as a crucial part of the character of the city, and some consider it a sign of neglect, vandalism and dilapidation.
At my high school we have a giant mosaic mural at the front of building that covers quit a large area. It is in pretty great shape for being almost 50 years old. But my school also murals (to match the front) in the lobby that are not in good shape from some students picking off tiles and they just fall off. I personally do like the murals but when there are little Chuck missing it doesn't look good. I wish they would restore if or maybe get new ones up.
+Mike Steele I really like Lawrence Weiner, and I especially like text based art that you see on a daily basis. For me good text-based work is always changing, as I read the text as an image, as I read it with different emphasis on different words, as I imagine punctuation, etc. Do you like it?
I'm in love with "Isles of Shoals Humpbacks" mural in portsmouth nh by robert wyland. it's so giant and so blue, and it's on the back of a building looking over a boring parking lot. there's something about its location that feels really right for the slow power of whales, you know.
Bristol in the UK is full of murals at every turn. If anyone gets a chance to visit and see these murals in amongst buildings designed by the some of the UK's most famous architects then do. It's a UK city often unheard of by people who don't live here, which is such a shame.
Melbourne, Australia, is home to a lot of commissioned and non-commissioned street art. One that has been in the news recently is a feminist mural in Northcote that was a public art project in the 80s. The mural was recently capped by someone notorious for painting his tag over other people's work, which was kind of devastating, but the response to it has been pretty amazing. Original story: www.theage.com.au/victoria/graffiti-tagger-destroys-historical-smith-street-feminist-mural-20160225-gn4894.html and plans for the updated mural: www.theage.com.au/victoria/all-is-not-lost-artists-respond-to-vandal-who-destroyed-smith-street-feminist-mural-20160308-gndcf4.html
I think Albuquerque has and is doing a great job by organizing mural artist from around the world to descend onto the city and paint new life into a drab desert landscape with its Mural Fest. Hong Kong Walls is another great project that's bringing mural artist together to show their talents to the world on an annual basis.
So In Quebec city, we had this ''Moulin à Image'' ( The Mill of Image) that was projected on big old grain silo that was unused in the port of the city. It could be seen by everyone, from across the water, on the deck and on the fortification walls of the old city. They projected sound and animations of images made by artist, on different theme. But there was no narration. It was only to give an abstract feeling of the theme. The best one was probably the one about the story of Canada : you could see the image, and guess by the sound, the ambiance, the feeling and agencement of images what time it was. No need to think. And you could always think of the old city that surrounded you. The fact that it was so accessible was really a piece of art, but a good storyteller medium.
Boysen Paint company commissioned a bunch of foreign artists to paint (using boysen Knoxxout) trees along EDSA, an important major highway in the heart of Metro Manila. And though some of them were good, none of them were as moving and culturally grounded as murals done by filipino fine arts students from UP Diliman painting their college walls. These murals pop up in dance videos, facebook banners and are loved by the community, while boysen feels like a marketing stunt. One underground tunnel was even themed with claustrophobic pipes! Like yes, the most traffic jammed artery of metro-manila, let's make it even feel worse, brilliant. Contrast this with local graffiti/mural painters whose themes are dolphins, protecting wildlife, peace for mindanao (notable are those around Quezon city circle and outside military bases). Another great example is Bonifacio Global City commissioning local artists+foreign artist collaborations to mural up their city which reaped such gorgeous and site sensitive pieces. I love the examples you guys shared, and as an architecture student I actually encourage blank walls to be painted by great art, I just really really really prefer that this be senstive to the local contexts and stories and hopefully commission local artists. I want to link some pics but I might get marked as spam :(
Thanks for this video ! I find it really interesting how this kind of public art adapt to way more than a wall but to the scale of the city. When you showed Bansky's piece of art, we understand that he started on smaller surfaces so the design was not as impressive as if it was designed on great towers but the message was eloquent at first sight. And what happened when the message became too big for too small walls ? Well he simply created a whole theme park full of messages about refugees, politics,... Then, it was the city adapting to the art ! And I think this use to be very European, the disctrict of Shoreditch is North London has become an open museum for mural art, The tacheles Quartier in Berlin has mixed history and street art (in opposition to Nazi's painting which also were a big part of the horrible propaganda), the City of Marseille in the South of France has been fighting for decades to make mural and public art a full part of the town's identity... Yeah I think that's the European way of exhibiting public art :)
+Nina Dufresne Great response! Thanks! I think part of the reason that Europe and the US are different is the copyright laws for art and architecture. In the US artists can still copyright art in the public domain, but in parts of Europe, the copyright law is much more different. I think there's a different sense of the "public space" because of this.
The small town where I grew up - Midland, Ontario is known for its large number of historic murals all around town. (one of them is 80ft high by 250 ft wide!) The murals depict scenes of the town's rich history over the last 150 years. They were also just beautifully done and integrated amazingly with the historic architecture of its downtown area. Here are some pictures. My favourite one is the "Brebeuf Lighthouse." www.midland.ca/Pages/Midland-Mural-Tour.aspx
I loved getting to see it before I head out to pilsen again. This will definitely influence my weekend for sure. Any specific murals you recommend I go hunt for??
+Kathia Rodriguez Pilsen, Chicago? There are a number of good web pages dedicated to public art in Chicago. In cities, I really like projects that are in the public transit spaces, and think there's a good one near Pilsen. www.choosechicago.com/articles/view/PILSEN-MURALS/472/?FLUSH
oooh, a guest, that's cool. i really like the format of this episode (and, well, the content too). where i live i see a an interesting duality: there are a lot of murals, some of them even comissioned for subway stations and important buildings around the city. i think it's pretty cool. and, of course, there are loads of subversive murals about police brutality put up non oficially. i like how it works both ways.
In the city I live in there's a mural of the ocean that features an under the sea view. It's really pretty but old and its beginning to chip. That's not what's cool about it, the cool thing about is that the artist has recently come back to start in art school a few blocks away from that mural he made 25 years ago.
+charcoal Angel Oh wow, interesting. You mean the artist is going back to school to get an art degree, and he hadn't had one before when forging his way as a muralist. Would like to know more.
+The Art Assignment Well, I think it's more of an after school kind of school that offers free art classes, and yeah he went to go get an art degree and came back I don't remember all the details (I may have been wrong about the years btw) but right now he's going through the work of trying to get things set up. I don't know what they name of the school (or the name of the artist for that matter) is but I live in Green Bay WI if that's any help. I hope that answers some questions? I'm really not the right person to talk about this.
+The Art Assignment Looks like I was wrong about a lot of stuff lol I have a bad memory well looks like he never went for a degree but it looks like he was traveling the world to make murals and it was only 15 years, his name is Brandon Badeau. fox11online.com/ashwaubenon-artist-hopes-to-give-back-with-new-school
It's really strange to think how far behind the USA is in terms of the expansion of art into public spaces and places in comparison with Europe. It's mind boggling to think it only started in the 20th century (are you sure about that?). In Europe, power and cultural identity began during the Renaissance (not including the medieval Church) in the confines of the courts of kings and princes and later expanding into newly developing towns and cities and public spaces. The appropriation of ancient sculptures and building types led to the belief that these new cultures had ancient linages; which of course they did not! This is why to me it is so interesting to look at the visual culture surrounding one today and ask - why does it look like this? what is it saying? That's why I adore art history it enables me to read images, sculptures and buildings and interpret their (changing) messages for new cultures.
there's a mural in my city of 5 happy kids that I've always really liked. a few years ago somebody graffitied over the face of one and it has never been fixed! it makes me sad. :/
This was great! I'm interested in what you think of "political murals" such as the ones in Northern Ireland? Are they murals or are they street art? Should they be preserved when some of the messages are hateful? They are definitely very public and historical.
+Sazzy Robnob I think it's really up to the community in which the murals reside. Sometimes, though, public art art can be so important that it becomes regionally or nationally significant.
One Question and One public art - I was curious as to why Rene was put along side the Chicano movement. While his work was hispanic I'd argue it had relatively little to do with Latino Americans in the states and was more concentrated on communistic politics and the Cuban revolution and was more for an audience in Latin America while the Chicano movement concerned itself with Latino Americans in the states and their strife. Maybe I misunderstood what the Chicano movement was or am unaware of some connection Rene had with the states out side of the one mural he made at UCLA and at the very least I'd love to understand the pairing. - As for a great example of public art in Orlando there is one universal symbol of the city and that's the fountain at Lake Eola, it's on our flag, on our seal and now it's our women's soccer teams crest I've never seen a city embrace one public structure as strongly as Orlando embraces the fountain. It's almost become short hand for the city.
+Sergio Urbina Yea, I like HENSE, too. But do you think his murals are like large canvases, or directly relating to and responding to the architecture?
Two of the most memorable murals to me in Atlanta are downtown. The first is one you can see when driving on the interstate through the city and honors John Lewis, a civil rights leader: dailycaller.com/2012/08/24/john-lewis-campaign-pays-for-massive-mural-of-congressman-on-atlanta-building/ The second is one that you just can't miss when around five points that features a praying man being sucked dry (as I interpret it) by a straw: clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2011/08/25/elevate-rises-above-underground-atlanta-tomorrow When I searched for Atlanta murals for this comment, I found so many more I had no idea about. There's a lot of this city I haven't visited, it seems!
There was a beautiful mural put up on the side of the gym at my high school done by a local artist who has done many different murals throughout the city. The mural depicts athletes and coaches from years past and present. When you look at you would assume that these athletes were the best in our school, or the hardest working or involved a lot in the community today. But they're not. Each person on the mural had to pay for their spot, each paying at least $500 with prices depending on how large you are on the painting. I think it's absolutely terrible that the school is presenting this beautiful mural that shows the athletes and coaches with the most money rather than the best ones or the ones who were the most well known in the community.
The thing about murals and graffiti I don't like is that I respect and admire the bricklayers' craft. Good brickwork is becoming increasingly rare compared to previous eras.. University Mall in Fairfax, Virginia, while I don't know that it ever had graffiti once had great unpretentiously beautiful brickwork, which in recent years has been replaced by hot pink concrete blocks. That place is so un-fucking-believably ugly now. Here's hoping it gets covered in graffiti.
The all lives matter mural in Vero Beach, FL was changed to say black lives matter. Shortly after protests it was haphazardly changed to “All” again, then back to “Black” then covered up completely by the building owner. 😒 needless to say, the mural became a dynamic conversation for a minute there.
For the longest time there was a series of murals in my home town done by the same artist. They were kind of universally hated for being cheesy and not good. I liked them as a child because the first two had existed since before i was born. Familiarity is pleasant to me. There were rumors that the artist was owed a favor or was ill and gifted the mural space in sympathy. It ended up being a sore issue in town politics. There was team pro murals and team paint over them. During the height of the "war" the third and final mural was painted as a thumb to the nose to the anti mural team. However, in the end the paint over it team won. Now there are none. Which makes me sad.
+Xenolilly Yeah, nobody really wins there. But it always kind of excites me when people really hate something, because it clarifies to me what they think art should be or do in a particular space. You bring up another interesting part about public art and murals, and that is life span. I think decisions about how long something should stay up, or does stay up, and whether or not it should be restored is fascinating and can have a big impact on the meaning of a work of art.
The murals in the Indiana University cinema are odd. I think they're supposed to be "the history of man," but only pre-history is represented within the theater, as far as I can tell. I think there's at least one slain deer.
+Gabby K I like those murals! They were done by Thomas Hart Benton, a famous early 20th century painter. After they were restored in the early 2000s, IU created a web page about them ... so 2003 ... www.iub.edu/~iuam/online_modules/benton/
Interesting, but so much US centric! Talking about communities and political expression, I'm surprised that the murals in Northern Ireland were not mentioned, where facades of houses are painted with political or historical messages. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murals_in_Northern_Ireland
+scozio Super interesting to see Northern Ireland's murals. And you're right, our video is too US-centric. Part of that is Richard and my areas of focus, and the other part is that murals are EVERYWHERE. We've only scratched the surface, we know it, and we wanted to open up the conversation to a wide audience who would hopefully share cool murals with us in places we aren't as familiar with. Thanks for doing that.
I live in São Paulo and I'm often fascinated by the murals around the city, especially grafittis. With you just walk around central areas you must see one of them: expressoesurbanasblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/8270956544_349b261a5f_b.jpg We have an avenue with open museum, were each column that sustains the subway has a work of art. gds-wifmtpphmjvvgffvmg.netdna-ssl.com/contentFiles/system/pictures/2014/3/109852/cropped/museu.jpg And more: www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/cidade/secretarias/subprefeituras/upload/se/imagens/noticias/Grafite/_OGT8911b.jpg s2.glbimg.com/yBi4MODwAj-Z5vRSrIBiEkmHhl6A03DP9e4hu3EOLk5Ioz-HdGixxa_8qOZvMp3w/e.glbimg.com/og/ed/f/original/2013/02/13/mural_niemeyer_eduardo_kobra_02.jpg
The Puertorrican government strongly encourages independent public art by permitting the whole city of Santurce to be covered by murals and graffiti. They even have even created a map and tours, as if the entire city was a gallery. www.santurceesley.com/#concepto avenidadelasartes.com/street-art-graffiti/
really the history of murals reflects on the society and the common spaces. in my city, Maracaibo in Venezuela. a group of passionate artist, decided to do a mural on the street, took them time and effort but they were insisting on restoring the space, so they clean, polish, did the beautiful mural. days later, the latest political candidate put his literal face, covering the mural, just to make it look like he had made it all.
Austin Texas has a legal "graffiti park", where anyone can bring a can of spray paint and paint on some deteriorating building sides. I visited it this winter and it was super cool.
Yep but too bad it got demoed though.
The walls of the school my mother works in are covered in murals. My favorite is in the hallway leading to the library. It's a large park filled with characters from children's books interacting with each other. Takes me back to my childhood every time.
Although not exactly in a public space in the way this video addresses, the murals in my high school had a strong impact on the personality of the space and my experience of it for 4 years. They were landmarks we used to talk about our space (our community) and ways of immersing ourselves in the creations of students in the past and what had inspired them. Before I graduated, another student painted a mural of several students, including me. The cycle of painting continues, and I may have been painted over by now, but I like to think that I became a part of the experience other kids had in that school, just as the mural of Jim Morrison was important to mine.
ArtichokeHunter this totally reminded me of old high school! Every "Art 1" student paints half of a ceiling tile, and so now the majority of the hallway ceilings are covered in mini murals. It's like Sistine Chapel meets high school pop culture over the span of 20ish years:D All the painting students do wall murals in the school too, and it's so cool. It totally helped make the place seem less like a concrete box.
As I was watching the part about the Federal Arts Project I noticed a mural that looked very familiar to me. I've been living in Ventura, Ca for close to 25 years now and visit the post office regularly. I've always noticed the mural but I guess I've never really thought too much about when it was painted or who painted it. This video shows the mural at 3:52. I had no idea it was funded by the Federal Arts Project and painted in 1936-37. This video just made me become a whole lot more aware of an amazing work of art in my own town. Next time I go down there I'll stop and take a closer look at it. Thanks Art Assignment :)
You guys made me miss the time I used to live in East Los. Loves those murals.
I am completely obsessed with the phoenix mural in St. James Town, Toronto. It is the tallest mural in the world and it is so beautiful. It also has a really interesting history because it was built at the sight of a huge fire and was a way for the community to rebuild itself. It's on this huge grey apartment building in a "bad" area of town but to me it shows that traditionally stigmatized areas can have beautiful and thriving communities.
I live in Berlin and a huge mural that comes to mind is the East Side Gallery. It is a remaining portion of the Berlin Wall which has been painted on by many different artist from around the world. Definitely look it up if youve never heard of it before. It really is an impressive collaboration.
You dropped a significant stitch omitting the historic murals and public art of El Paso, organic art movements that span half a century and are among the best and most influential in the USA, particularly in the Borderlands. Carlos Callejo, Hal Marcus, Gabriel Gaytan, Mario Colín, Carlos Todas are a mere few of the best known from the past 50 years. Many more up and coming and recently renowned artists are flourishing now.
This is from 2016, it is now 2022 and counting... The Estrada Courts Murals in LA really to be restored and fixed up, you showed one in this video... I'd be happy to help to do this...
Here in Durham, NC we have a series of murals of the amazing woman Pauli Murray. She was a civil and women's rights activist, lawyer, and poet. She was also BFFs with Eleanor Roosevelt and was the first female black Episcopalian priest.
I moved away from Vancouver a couple years ago and just moved back, and the city has been COMPLETELY TRANSFORMED by murals. It's incredible how different it feels here where there's art hidden around every corner. My opinion of the city has increased tenfold.
I love all the public art going in around all over the world! My home town Dunedin, New Zealand has a whole load of beautiful art. And Christchurch, New Zealand has even more, after their earthquake a significant number of central city buildings where destroyed and had to be pulled down, this left a lot of empty walls which have been filled with art! It also makes an area that is filled with sadness, bright and happy with a reason so go there!
I love the free graffiti wall in Ottawa. A five minute walk from the Parliament buildings. It is a gorgeous collaboration by people in the community and it's constantly changing and evolving. People have really embraced it as a protest space too, the Idle No More movement is captured on it, so is Black Lives Matter. It's such an amazing reflection of the community, and particularly interesting because it is in Ottawa, which as a national capital has a lot of state-based public art spaces.
I'm really greatful of the graffiti and art community around here. If you want another place to visit right next to Ottawa, you can always check out the graffiti bridges near Leamy Lake in Gatineau.
I love public art and I really love Diego Rivera. One of my goals is to be able to go to el Museo Anahuacalli in Mexico City so I can see his work. I'm so glad you guys touched on all the incredible murals and other forms of public art the celebrate Latinos in the American Southwest. Mexico City would be an amazing city to visit for an episode. Great video!
+Isaac Davis Yes! Mexico City is on my short list of places I'd like to go with The Art Assignment. But before that, we'll be making another stop in Mexico. I won't name it yet, but stay tuned.
In my high school, there are several murals on the walls of the hallway, lunchroom, and library from the New Deal's WPA. I am mostly just taken back by how much history all of the murals have been through, seeing several alumni coming back remember how they walked those halls looking at the same murals.
There was a mural painted in my home town recently that sprang up without any warning - it's a huge painting of illumination swirls like from old monastery texts. St. Cuthbert was brought to our town, Chester-le-Street, when the Lindisfarne monks escaped the Vikings, bringing with them the Lindisfarne Gospels. We later discovered the mural was in celebration of this and marking that the Gospels were toured around Britain as an anniversary project.
In Philadelphia there is a mural of an "under the sea - scape" with 2 whales and fish. You can see it just as you come off the highway and are driving into the city. For me this always indicated that we were almost home from a long trip. :)
In Melbourne we have an enormous mural constructed into the side of a building. Enormous as in, it is the size of a sky scraper. When you look from a distance the entire building is the face of indigenous elder, William Barak.
Cool!
I remember a great Trompe D'oeil mural in Miami on South Beach. It's gone nowl. 😥 I'd lovely to sleep a great Trompe D'oeil mural in Philadelphia! Prayers.
One of my favorites was Brian Goggin's sculpture/mural "Defenestration" in San Francisco: furniture and appliances fastened to the walls of an abandoned hotel, made to look like they were all climbing/spilling out of the windows. It stood for years, but was taken down recently to make way for new apartments - call it evicted art. I think restoring/preserving these kinds of murals is important in a way, but there's also something great about their impermanence, the chance to be meaningfully replaced.
The murals of Valparaiso in Chile overrule the walls of the city! And is amazing!
If I could make a suggestion,
If you are going to invite a guest in to discuss a topic, have the host and the guess face each other, make it an interview, not a presentation where you are reading off a TelePrompTer. Invite us into the discuss by allowing us to ponder and question, rather than sit quietly.
Murals are my favorite kind of art. I think public art on such a large scale like murals are so important for cities. I personally do live in Indianapolis as well so I love the 46 murals that were put in by the Arts Council a few years ago. But the most impact mural I can remember was one inside my hometown middle school. It was inspired by the Wyland project, but was done by middle school art students back in the 90's. So it was an entire hallway that led the the cafeteria that looked like the ocean. There were all sorts of different sea creatures on the walls and even a submarine around one of the corners. I still love going and visiting the middle school just for that mural. There were actually several in that school, but the ocean hallway was my favorite one.
One of my favorite public murals is the library parking garage in (St Louis maybe?) that painted the outside of the parking garage to look like a bookshelf. It was practical, informative (showed you where to park for the library) and interesting to see which books they picked.
I also really like the decorated staircases in San Francisco. Not sure if that counts as a bunch of tiny murals, but they were such a beautiful adornment of a necessary piece of infrastructure.
A public art installation I loved was the San Francisco LED Lights Project. It's also a city with many wonderful and powerful murals, including some by Diego Rivera.
(SF Bay Bridge LED Lights Project)
AAYYYY those Chicano Park pictures!!! I'm a home grown San Diegan, super cool to see that on here!!
Building-size murals are common in Russia, especially on USSR-era apartment buildings. They come in many styles and are universally well done. A Russian friend said it was a major way that the state employed painters, designers, and graphic artists, especially in areas outside the main population centers of the nation.
my university (universidade de brasilia - brasil) is a modern architectural masterpiece and the students have the habit of making art in the walls :) it´s really amazing and it suits the philosophy of the university which is democratization of knowledge and expression
I've always loved public art :) My fave is a sculpture on one of the lawns at the University of Adelaide (The Fones by Jonathon Dady). They just feel really fun and welcoming.
I just visited Havana, Cuba with my Historic Preservation program at the College of Charleston and was most captivated by the public art - yes, the government funded revolutionary propaganda, but also the art of the people that consumes vacant walls throughout the region. I am writing a paper on the subject now so this video is rather serendipitous! My question is - how do you decide when graffiti is worth preserving? I guess the ephemerality is a part of the game, but sometimes I think a work becomes so ingrained in the community that temporary street art can find a permanent home.
+kayleecaaa Of course, I think this can be highly subjective, but generally the graffiti I've seen preserved are those pieces that the ownership of the space likes it, or perhaps recognizes that the community likes it.
I'm not sure how to feel about the preservation of murals.To me, there is something very appealing about how temporary public art often is. There are several murals I can think of with which I've developed a kind of a personal relationship by walking past them on a daily basis, sometimes paying a lot of attention and sometimes not at all, and then, one day, they are gone. They can act like a necessary mirror when they exist, reflecting a different image in different life situations. And when they disappear, you are forced to prove to yourself that you can keep going without them.
+Joonas Puuppo You're speaking my language. I love thinking about the temporariness of art, be it a mural or otherwise. What works do we choose to preserve, restore, allow to deteriorate in front of us, paint over, remove? Who makes these decisions? These questions have a huge bearing on our experience of art. I think it's wonderful to embrace the temporary nature of art, and I think that it's something that should be discusses whenever something is made and placed in the public sphere. The artist and commissioning institution and community can and should have a dialogue about how long the piece should last, who will care for it, and who will take it down. I have lots more thoughts, but I'll stop there.
+Joonas Puuppo Yeah, wow. Great thoughts. There's a mural here in Indy that I like almost because it's faded and old ... but it's lost a lot of it's original color. It's almost as if it has a kind of "patina." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Runners_(Urban_Wall)
+Richard S. McCoy That's cool. You could argue that the mural hasn't deteriorated, but rather evolved into something that isn't necessarily better or worse than the original -- just different.
Here is a picture of one of the murals I had in mind while writing my original comment: www.flickr.com/photos/puupipo/6978510120/in/album-72157629561637976/ taken by me on the day it was finished in 2012. It was created along with several other smaller-scale murals on the walls of a building that was about to be demolished in a year or two, and I was a part of the small, grassroots collective of mostly twentysomethings who organized the whole thing. The building was eventually demolished and replaced by a boring office building but the reaction to the murals by locals, both young and old, was overwhelmingly positive and has led to the creation of several other public artworks around the city.
Joonas Puuppo Oh! Thanks for sharing the image. Great mural ... whimsical and smart at the same time. It's a shame it's not around anymore, but great that it led to others being made.
Great video! I am very proud of the murals I have painted so far at many of the Indianapolis area breweries. Never thought my career would go in this direction when I started painting. I have a few more planned for the year, and hope to do a lot more after that.
There's this one place in Oslo, a group of old factory buildings by the river, that's been converted to a night club and galleries. It's very close by two different art schools, so it's always full of interesting art. The walls are full of murals. It's a very striking place, a bit like entering another world, but it's also become a bit of a joke in Oslo. People laugh when politicians take their portraits with the murals in the background, because they're trying too hard to appeal to the "hip crowd", and the art sometimes gets dismissed as selfie or music video backgrounds.
As a kid I was always fascinated by a mural in a movie theater in my hometown-- it always seemed completely out of place, in the quiet, well lit basement of the theater, alone except for the bathrooms in a big, empty linoleum foyer. A little googling told me it's credited to Arthur Crisp somehow, but there doesn't seem to be anything concrete about the mural's history at all. The basement of the Shaker Square Theater in Ohio seems an odd place for a very eastern-inspired mural by a Canadian artist? It's a continuing mystery for me.
+feigesi c1.staticflickr.com/1/24/59544405_acd10d5d8b_b.jpg
+feigesi Murals can be great in a lot of places, right!
This is so interesting! It explains why there are all those weird murals in municipal buildings that inspired the one in Parks and Recreation.
I just quickly wanted to swoop in and comment on painting a mural "without permission".
I think that was a poor choice of words. Murals in public places that are made without a CONTRACT are not made without permission. Public places are built and inhabited for and by the public, they are not owned by an individual or a group but set out to belong to "everybody". when graffiti artists are paint on walls that are also owned by them, they really shouldn't need a "permission". From whom anyways? Nobody OWNS the public space. It's this paradoxon that makes the art movement interesting not only for social studies but theorethical art history as well.
+irgendwelchedinge In the U.S. "public spaces" that are owned by the city, state, or federal government are "owned" by the citizens. In this way it is a space that must compliment a wide variety of perspectives, and our government should be the ones that control "permission" for these spaces.
+Richard S. McCoy Good point, Richard. But it is true that our government doesn't always control that permission in good or interesting ways.
When public space is given to the local government as a "contribution," it is maintained by a government body. If you run over a bump in the road, you tell the government and they send someone to fix it. Yes, you pay taxes to get that pot hole fixed, but because the responsibility to fix that hole, and all the other public assets, is left to the government body, it is also up to them to consider damage to that property because they are responsible for it's maintenance and upgrade. Any additions to public property, if unsanctioned, are left to the responsible body to consider as damage, especially if it is not commissioned because it does not share the image that the government body has for that city. Some local governments may consider street art as a crucial part of the character of the city, and some consider it a sign of neglect, vandalism and dilapidation.
From my desk at work, I have a great view of the Glowing Lines by Odili Donald Odita in Durham, NC. Really vibrant, curious mural.
At my high school we have a giant mosaic mural at the front of building that covers quit a large area. It is in pretty great shape for being almost 50 years old. But my school also murals (to match the front) in the lobby that are not in good shape from some students picking off tiles and they just fall off.
I personally do like the murals but when there are little Chuck missing it doesn't look good. I wish they would restore if or maybe get new ones up.
I pass the Lawrence Weiner mural "A Translation From One Language To Another" every day on my way to work in Boston!
+Mike Steele I really like Lawrence Weiner, and I especially like text based art that you see on a daily basis. For me good text-based work is always changing, as I read the text as an image, as I read it with different emphasis on different words, as I imagine punctuation, etc. Do you like it?
+Mike Steele Lucky ... I love Lawrence Weiner.
I'm in love with "Isles of Shoals Humpbacks" mural in portsmouth nh by robert wyland. it's so giant and so blue, and it's on the back of a building looking over a boring parking lot. there's something about its location that feels really right for the slow power of whales, you know.
+maggieedna The Whaling Walls. There are lots! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Whaling_Walls
+Richard S. McCoy yeah I know, but this one is mine and my favorite.
Thanks. This was great lecture. I love that Frosty Meyers piece is still standing on Houston St in NYC.
Awesome. i am a full time muralist too and have started videos over the last year. great angle on the focus! really awesome!
Bristol in the UK is full of murals at every turn. If anyone gets a chance to visit and see these murals in amongst buildings designed by the some of the UK's most famous architects then do. It's a UK city often unheard of by people who don't live here, which is such a shame.
Favorite guest host.
I really like that you guys made a painted wall similar to the shelves that are the usual backdrop.
Melbourne, Australia, is home to a lot of commissioned and non-commissioned street art. One that has been in the news recently is a feminist mural in Northcote that was a public art project in the 80s. The mural was recently capped by someone notorious for painting his tag over other people's work, which was kind of devastating, but the response to it has been pretty amazing. Original story: www.theage.com.au/victoria/graffiti-tagger-destroys-historical-smith-street-feminist-mural-20160225-gn4894.html and plans for the updated mural: www.theage.com.au/victoria/all-is-not-lost-artists-respond-to-vandal-who-destroyed-smith-street-feminist-mural-20160308-gndcf4.html
I think Albuquerque has and is doing a great job by organizing mural artist from around the world to descend onto the city and paint new life into a drab desert landscape with its Mural Fest. Hong Kong Walls is another great project that's bringing mural artist together to show their talents to the world on an annual basis.
So In Quebec city, we had this ''Moulin à Image'' ( The Mill of Image) that was projected on big old grain silo that was unused in the port of the city. It could be seen by everyone, from across the water, on the deck and on the fortification walls of the old city. They projected sound and animations of images made by artist, on different theme. But there was no narration. It was only to give an abstract feeling of the theme. The best one was probably the one about the story of Canada : you could see the image, and guess by the sound, the ambiance, the feeling and agencement of images what time it was. No need to think. And you could always think of the old city that surrounded you. The fact that it was so accessible was really a piece of art, but a good storyteller medium.
I remember the Steve McQueen mural in my old neighborhood Pico Union!
el seed is doing some awesome stuff in cairo painting on multiple buildings and creating 3d perspective at certain angles.
Boysen Paint company commissioned a bunch of foreign artists to paint (using boysen Knoxxout) trees along EDSA, an important major highway in the heart of Metro Manila. And though some of them were good, none of them were as moving and culturally grounded as murals done by filipino fine arts students from UP Diliman painting their college walls. These murals pop up in dance videos, facebook banners and are loved by the community, while boysen feels like a marketing stunt. One underground tunnel was even themed with claustrophobic pipes! Like yes, the most traffic jammed artery of metro-manila, let's make it even feel worse, brilliant. Contrast this with local graffiti/mural painters whose themes are dolphins, protecting wildlife, peace for mindanao (notable are those around Quezon city circle and outside military bases). Another great example is Bonifacio Global City commissioning local artists+foreign artist collaborations to mural up their city which reaped such gorgeous and site sensitive pieces. I love the examples you guys shared, and as an architecture student I actually encourage blank walls to be painted by great art, I just really really really prefer that this be senstive to the local contexts and stories and hopefully commission local artists. I want to link some pics but I might get marked as spam :(
+Maria Mison The Bonifiacio Global City projects sound very interesting! I'm checking them out now online. Thanks!
Philadelphia is known for being the City of Murals. It would be great to mention The Mural Arts Program and the impact on the city.
Thank you for this interesting study in the history of mural painting in the United States.
Thanks for this video !
I find it really interesting how this kind of public art adapt to way more than a wall but to the scale of the city.
When you showed Bansky's piece of art, we understand that he started on smaller surfaces so the design was not as impressive as if it was designed on great towers but the message was eloquent at first sight.
And what happened when the message became too big for too small walls ? Well he simply created a whole theme park full of messages about refugees, politics,... Then, it was the city adapting to the art !
And I think this use to be very European, the disctrict of Shoreditch is North London has become an open museum for mural art, The tacheles Quartier in Berlin has mixed history and street art (in opposition to Nazi's painting which also were a big part of the horrible propaganda), the City of Marseille in the South of France has been fighting for decades to make mural and public art a full part of the town's identity...
Yeah I think that's the European way of exhibiting public art :)
+Nina Dufresne Great response! Thanks! I think part of the reason that Europe and the US are different is the copyright laws for art and architecture. In the US artists can still copyright art in the public domain, but in parts of Europe, the copyright law is much more different. I think there's a different sense of the "public space" because of this.
I watched mur murs by Agnes Varda recently and it was a rely interesting look at the murals in Los Angeles so glad you guys had posted this too :)
The small town where I grew up - Midland, Ontario is known for its large number of historic murals all around town. (one of them is 80ft high by 250 ft wide!) The murals depict scenes of the town's rich history over the last 150 years. They were also just beautifully done and integrated amazingly with the historic architecture of its downtown area.
Here are some pictures. My favourite one is the "Brebeuf Lighthouse."
www.midland.ca/Pages/Midland-Mural-Tour.aspx
My great uncle once painted a mural of the Champs-Elyseé on his dining room wall because he thought the wall looked plain. Ah, rest in peace, George.
i really enjoy these videos, it's such a great way to discuss so many types of art.
+Alice Quarrell Thanks! I'd love to visit, but Tasmania is so far away ... some day, you know.
I loved getting to see it before I head out to pilsen again. This will definitely influence my weekend for sure. Any specific murals you recommend I go hunt for??
+Kathia Rodriguez Pilsen, Chicago? There are a number of good web pages dedicated to public art in Chicago. In cities, I really like projects that are in the public transit spaces, and think there's a good one near Pilsen. www.choosechicago.com/articles/view/PILSEN-MURALS/472/?FLUSH
wow color jam is so cool!
Actually in English class 🤘🏻
Me too
me too
oooh, a guest, that's cool. i really like the format of this episode (and, well, the content too). where i live i see a an interesting duality: there are a lot of murals, some of them even comissioned for subway stations and important buildings around the city. i think it's pretty cool. and, of course, there are loads of subversive murals about police brutality put up non oficially. i like how it works both ways.
In the city I live in there's a mural of the ocean that features an under the sea view. It's really pretty but old and its beginning to chip. That's not what's cool about it, the cool thing about is that the artist has recently come back to start in art school a few blocks away from that mural he made 25 years ago.
+charcoal Angel Oh wow, interesting. You mean the artist is going back to school to get an art degree, and he hadn't had one before when forging his way as a muralist. Would like to know more.
+The Art Assignment Well, I think it's more of an after school kind of school that offers free art classes, and yeah he went to go get an art degree and came back I don't remember all the details (I may have been wrong about the years btw) but right now he's going through the work of trying to get things set up. I don't know what they name of the school (or the name of the artist for that matter) is but I live in Green Bay WI if that's any help. I hope that answers some questions? I'm really not the right person to talk about this.
+The Art Assignment Looks like I was wrong about a lot of stuff lol I have a bad memory well looks like he never went for a degree but it looks like he was traveling the world to make murals and it was only 15 years, his name is Brandon Badeau.
fox11online.com/ashwaubenon-artist-hopes-to-give-back-with-new-school
It's really strange to think how far behind the USA is in terms of the expansion of art into public spaces and places in comparison with Europe. It's mind boggling to think it only started in the 20th century (are you sure about that?).
In Europe, power and cultural identity began during the Renaissance (not including the medieval Church) in the confines of the courts of kings and princes and later expanding into newly developing towns and cities and public spaces. The appropriation of ancient sculptures and building types led to the belief that these new cultures had ancient linages; which of course they did not! This is why to me it is so interesting to look at the visual culture surrounding one today and ask - why does it look like this? what is it saying? That's why I adore art history it enables me to read images, sculptures and buildings and interpret their (changing) messages for new cultures.
there's a mural in my city of 5 happy kids that I've always really liked. a few years ago somebody graffitied over the face of one and it has never been fixed! it makes me sad. :/
This was great! I'm interested in what you think of "political murals" such as the ones in Northern Ireland? Are they murals or are they street art? Should they be preserved when some of the messages are hateful? They are definitely very public and historical.
+Sazzy Robnob I think it's really up to the community in which the murals reside. Sometimes, though, public art art can be so important that it becomes regionally or nationally significant.
One Question and One public art
- I was curious as to why Rene was put along side the Chicano movement. While his work was hispanic I'd argue it had relatively little to do with Latino Americans in the states and was more concentrated on communistic politics and the Cuban revolution and was more for an audience in Latin America while the Chicano movement concerned itself with Latino Americans in the states and their strife.
Maybe I misunderstood what the Chicano movement was or am unaware of some connection Rene had with the states out side of the one mural he made at UCLA and at the very least I'd love to understand the pairing.
- As for a great example of public art in Orlando there is one universal symbol of the city and that's the fountain at Lake Eola, it's on our flag, on our seal and now it's our women's soccer teams crest I've never seen a city embrace one public structure as strongly as Orlando embraces the fountain. It's almost become short hand for the city.
+gmann2101 I think the interesting thing about Rene's work is that it fed back into murals in the U.S. ...
I thought of Hense and his work with architecture and public art.
+Sergio Urbina Yea, I like HENSE, too. But do you think his murals are like large canvases, or directly relating to and responding to the architecture?
Love the mural in the video icon
not really murals but in Townsville, Australia we've got to giant spider installations. Im still not sure why.
You need to do something about that annotation.
Murals ! Yeah
Bogotá, Colombia is a great city for public art. Check it out!
What is the difference between Frescoes and Murals?
who do you talk to if you want permission to make a mural?
+dansucio Depends on where you want to make it. All you need is permission from the property owner, I believe. But it would depend on the situation.
You most often will need a government permit.
Two of the most memorable murals to me in Atlanta are downtown.
The first is one you can see when driving on the interstate through the city and honors John Lewis, a civil rights leader: dailycaller.com/2012/08/24/john-lewis-campaign-pays-for-massive-mural-of-congressman-on-atlanta-building/
The second is one that you just can't miss when around five points that features a praying man being sucked dry (as I interpret it) by a straw: clatl.com/freshloaf/archives/2011/08/25/elevate-rises-above-underground-atlanta-tomorrow
When I searched for Atlanta murals for this comment, I found so many more I had no idea about. There's a lot of this city I haven't visited, it seems!
If you see art on a wall, how do you really know if it's a mural or graffiti art?
A time...
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There was a beautiful mural put up on the side of the gym at my high school done by a local artist who has done many different murals throughout the city. The mural depicts athletes and coaches from years past and present. When you look at you would assume that these athletes were the best in our school, or the hardest working or involved a lot in the community today. But they're not. Each person on the mural had to pay for their spot, each paying at least $500 with prices depending on how large you are on the painting. I think it's absolutely terrible that the school is presenting this beautiful mural that shows the athletes and coaches with the most money rather than the best ones or the ones who were the most well known in the community.
+Megan Andrew Hmm... that's an interesting way to get a mural completed in a high school. Seems a little odd.
Hi
The thing about murals and graffiti I don't like is that I respect and admire the bricklayers' craft. Good brickwork is becoming increasingly rare compared to previous eras.. University Mall in Fairfax, Virginia, while I don't know that it ever had graffiti once had great unpretentiously beautiful brickwork, which in recent years has been replaced by hot pink concrete blocks. That place is so un-fucking-believably ugly now. Here's hoping it gets covered in graffiti.
The all lives matter mural in Vero Beach, FL was changed to say black lives matter. Shortly after protests it was haphazardly changed to “All” again, then back to “Black” then covered up completely by the building owner. 😒 needless to say, the mural became a dynamic conversation for a minute there.
shout out to Detroit's nuts mural scene. All this blight is good for something.
For an in depth look at the process and impact of community-based murals check out the new documentary "Called to Walls." www.calledtowalls.com/
+Dave Loewenstein Cool, thanks for the recommendation.
For the longest time there was a series of murals in my home town done by the same artist. They were kind of universally hated for being cheesy and not good. I liked them as a child because the first two had existed since before i was born. Familiarity is pleasant to me. There were rumors that the artist was owed a favor or was ill and gifted the mural space in sympathy. It ended up being a sore issue in town politics. There was team pro murals and team paint over them. During the height of the "war" the third and final mural was painted as a thumb to the nose to the anti mural team. However, in the end the paint over it team won. Now there are none. Which makes me sad.
+Xenolilly Yeah, nobody really wins there. But it always kind of excites me when people really hate something, because it clarifies to me what they think art should be or do in a particular space. You bring up another interesting part about public art and murals, and that is life span. I think decisions about how long something should stay up, or does stay up, and whether or not it should be restored is fascinating and can have a big impact on the meaning of a work of art.
Qui est là pour l'anglais
@yasin
Can you do a video about the case for graffiti and street art, please?
im excited for borderlands 3
same
Philadelphia has a number of great murals. Too many to list. Many move beyond paint and employ texture and physical grafting to buildings.
+Metabeard I think you could do a whole episode of public art in Philly.
Agreed. Don't quote me on this, but I remember hearing some statistic that Philly has more public art than any other city in the world.
wewe la citéeezee
You should come to Baltimore and see the www.baltimoreloveproject.com/ by Michael Owen, who does a lot of other great Murals across the country!
The murals in the Indiana University cinema are odd. I think they're supposed to be "the history of man," but only pre-history is represented within the theater, as far as I can tell. I think there's at least one slain deer.
+Gabby K I like those murals! They were done by Thomas Hart Benton, a famous early 20th century painter. After they were restored in the early 2000s, IU created a web page about them ... so 2003 ... www.iub.edu/~iuam/online_modules/benton/
I am a mural artist i want to go america
Interesting, but so much US centric! Talking about communities and political expression, I'm surprised that the murals in Northern Ireland were not mentioned, where facades of houses are painted with political or historical messages. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murals_in_Northern_Ireland
+scozio Super interesting to see Northern Ireland's murals. And you're right, our video is too US-centric. Part of that is Richard and my areas of focus, and the other part is that murals are EVERYWHERE. We've only scratched the surface, we know it, and we wanted to open up the conversation to a wide audience who would hopefully share cool murals with us in places we aren't as familiar with. Thanks for doing that.
I live in São Paulo and I'm often fascinated by the murals around the city, especially grafittis. With you just walk around central areas you must see one of them:
expressoesurbanasblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/8270956544_349b261a5f_b.jpg
We have an avenue with open museum, were each column that sustains the subway has a work of art.
gds-wifmtpphmjvvgffvmg.netdna-ssl.com/contentFiles/system/pictures/2014/3/109852/cropped/museu.jpg
And more:
www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/cidade/secretarias/subprefeituras/upload/se/imagens/noticias/Grafite/_OGT8911b.jpg
s2.glbimg.com/yBi4MODwAj-Z5vRSrIBiEkmHhl6A03DP9e4hu3EOLk5Ioz-HdGixxa_8qOZvMp3w/e.glbimg.com/og/ed/f/original/2013/02/13/mural_niemeyer_eduardo_kobra_02.jpg
do the case for the 1975
En anglais la frappe
reeel
Pas mal la pp@@cl3ment.l2ss
@@kelyanpiova7808merci mv
Who else has to watch this for a shitty school assingment?
Art is nice but these assignment questions are not
I love the content of this Channel but I wish VERY MUCH that she would speak more slowly.
The Puertorrican government strongly encourages independent public art by permitting the whole city of Santurce to be covered by murals and graffiti. They even have even created a map and tours, as if the entire city was a gallery.
www.santurceesley.com/#concepto
avenidadelasartes.com/street-art-graffiti/