American Graffiti. Margo Thompson

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      DONDI used unadorned letters in ‘Children of the Grave’, a theme to which he returned three times, in 1978 and twice in 1980. These were whole car, top-to-bottom pieces: ‘DONDI’ in italic capitals covered the windows. The phrase ‘Children of the Grave’ referred to a song by the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, and was written inside the letters of the tag. In ‘Children of the Grave Return, Part 2’, the letters in olive green, yellowy-tan, orange-pink, and ice blue were blocky and three-dimensional and marched across the length of the car. In the third version, ‘Children of the Grave Again, Part 3’, the letters were in a similar palette but more curvilinear, with a loop at the top of the O that joined the N’s serif in a flourish, outlined in black and casting black shadows. The effect was clean and elegant. The decorative effects lay outside the lettering, where DONDI painted a hand reaching in from the left in ‘Part 2’ and appropriated two child figures from comic-book artist Vaughn Bodé in ‘Part 3’. These elements and the caption lent the compositions their emotional resonance, a tinge of despair. The writer’s name by contrast was slick and declared a subjective presence in the face of the lack of opportunity implied by the song title. This was social criticism, rejecting the perception popularised in media such as The New York Times that subway writers were antisocial, juvenile delinquents.[82] Rather, DONDI’s piece suggested that they were children in a dangerous environment, facing a bleak future, yet claiming their right to participate in the public sphere by writing on trains.

      ‘Children of the Grave, Part 3’ established DONDI’s reputation beyond his fellow writers: photographer Martha Cooper documented its execution. In her pictures published in Subway Art in 1984, DONDI’s seriousness about his craft is evident and resembles a fine artist’s studio practice. Writers prepared sketches before tackling trains to devise their designs, even labeling the diagrams with the names of aerosol paint colours to determine how much of each would be needed. All of this advance work is evident in the Subway Art spread, where DONDI has his paints arrayed along an open subway car door, in front of his sketchbook where he has outlined his piece and drawn the cartoon children for reference.[83]

      FUTURA 2000

      FUTURA 2000 lived on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, near the 1 line, where he began tagging in 1971. Early on, he was aware of graffiti’s expressive potential and standards of quality. He admired PHASE 2 for his lettering style and aerosol technique. Another older writer, STAY HIGH 149 was famous for incorporating a stick figure appropriated from the logo for the television show The Saint and the sentiment he expressed with the caption ‘Voice of the Ghetto’.[84] The idea that graffiti spoke for a disenfranchised constituency resonated with FUTURA.

      FUTURA’s early career ended in autumn 1973. While he and his friend ALI were painting in a tunnel there was an explosion, and ALI was severely burned.[85] FUTURA ceased writing on trains, and in 1974 he joined the Navy, serving until 1978. After his tour, he returned to New York where ALI, inviting reconciliation, contacted him to ask him to join Soul Artists, a group of graffiti writers who worked out of an abandoned laundromat on sign-painting commissions.[86] There FUTURA met ZEPHYR, a younger writer who had begun tagging trains in 1977, and by the end of 1979 they were writing on trains together.[87] In spring 1980, ZEPHYR invited him to run another graffiti studio, this one supported by businessman and art collector Sam Esses.[88] Where Soul Artists was a commercial enterprise, Graffiti 1980, also known as the Esses Studio, encouraged the production of writing as fine art: graffiti on canvas. The two months spent there, СКАЧАТЬ