As previously noted, people had been tagging the motorcycle mural by David Flores, the last commissioned art for the space.
This prompted Jessica Goldman Srebnick, co-chair of Goldman Properties and curator of this wall, to issue a statement on Instagram in late May:
The creative process is an utter joy to watch. Filling a fire extinguisher with paint and spraying to destroy a work of art is not talent. It is sad and not only ruins the opportunity for countless artists, it ruins the opportunity for a neighborhood to live with glorious world-class art. The Houston Bowery wall could be just another advertising wall, but we’d prefer it to be a powerful beacon of the best of a movement.For now, we don’t wish to wipe away what’s been done, we are simply taking a break...
Since then, the motorcycle has been covered with layers of new tags.
9 comments:
Martha Cooper's new book Spray Nation includes some great photos of Keith Haring working on his first mural there, had never seen them before.
Whoever did this severely disrespected the ENTIRE community. I hope their karma finds them quickly.
This is why we can't have nice things, b/c the lowest common denominator of behavior prevails.
Look disgusting just like the rest of the neighborhood we letting these individuals destroy everything they want straight up lawless no limits no penalties for the crimes they commit
Used to be that taggers respected the work of street artists and would not tag. That is why ROA's rat on the stoop on 2nd Street 2/Bowery lasted so long. Then some idiot tagged it and suddenly it was covered with lousy tags. In fact someone just put a huge tag next to, but thankfully not on top of, his large Robin mural on the wall at Albert's Garden on the same block.
The covered up motorcycle mural wasn't even worth glancing at. The best one was a few years ago that looked something like a Japanese garden scene. Stunningly beautiful color work and composition. The current mess is about as debased as it gets.
It's so depressing that this is allowed to happen. Hopefully the increase in the city's focus on quality of life crime also eventually turns to the rampant graffiti. Not only does graffiti create a blight on the neighborhood but it is basically an additional tax on small businesses.
@RJJNY. That sounds cool. I just happened to be walking by there the day that Keith Haring was painting the mural. He was so good at promotion that he handed out little white buttons with his radiant baby for people to wear. I will have mine tucked away somewhere so it might be worth something. Keith was the friendliest guy with the kindest soul. I saw him later on at the Basquiat Warhol show in SoHo and he seemed overwhelmed by all the hype and crowds. He was much happier painting.
I just saw one of these taggers the other night on Saint Marks place. It was a white guy in very nice hipster clothes, you’d never think he was a tagger. And he looked really nervous doing it. He even looked over his shoulder to see if he had been caught. These idiots must’ve read about graffiti online somewhere and now they think that they are graffiti artists one. Actually, they should look up losers online to see what they really look like.
Look at it as a graffiti battle royale / survival of the fittest to see whose name can stay up the longest/largest. So far Cope has conceded. Graffiti reflects the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood so I think its ugliness makes sense quite frankly.
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