168 / 187
| 124
PostWar & Contemporary
3472* QUICKYBlack Images, American History.
Spray paint on canvas.
Signed and titled in the image: QUICKY
BLACK IMAGES, AMERICAN HISTORY!,
also titled on the reserve.
146 x 207 cm.
Provenance: Purchased from the present
owner directly by the artist, since then
privately owned Germany.
The word „Graffiti“ comes from the Italian
“graffito”, which, translated, means “hat-
ching”, but also “inscription in stone”. On
the basis of this meaning, the first graffiti
is to be found in the form of wall paintings
in ancient Egypt and in every historical
period.
As the expression of the attitude of a
generation, reacting to their environment
and engaging with it, the story of graffiti
as art started in 1955 with the death of
the jazz saxophonist Charlie Bird Parker.
Shortly afterwards, the graffiti „Bird lives!“
surfaced in the jazz clubs of New York. In
the 1960s we saw the first larger scale
graffiti in Philadelphia, and by the end of
the 1960s the movement had swamped
New York, where it exploded.
Probably the most well-known exponents
of Graffiti Art are “the Writings” – and the
four works offered here at auction belong
to this group. Text forms the basis of the
pictorial composition, the pseudonym of
the Writer is the motif; and now this script
has to be so uniquely presented, that each
Writer is recognisable. This is communi-
cation within a select group and a contest
between individual artists. The group soon
discovered the underground trains as
a surface in its own right, as a means of
disseminating their Writings as quickly and
as widely as possible.
In the 1980s, the art market discovered
the quality of these fast, expressive works
of art, present throughout the city. The
artists offered at auction here also exhibit
in galleries, and had exhibitions in Europe
in the mid 1980s. In order to meet the
new needs of the galleries, their works are
produced increasingly on canvas.
CHF 2 000 / 3 000
(€ 1 850 / 2 780)