1. Form of urban expression made with aerosol paint on a surface, where simple things like a scratch or a personal signature can be captured, as well as complex designs in terms of technique and/or reflection that can be considered art.
2. Trademark made illegally on a private property or public monument.
3. Street art marked by visual manifestations of a cultural, political and social nature.
Etymology: By Italian graffitiof graffiti, which refers to ‘scratch’; in Spanish it can be written with one or two ‘f’.
Grammatical category: masculine noun
in syllables: graf-fi-ti / graf-fi-ti.
graffiti
Understood as one of the most popular and characteristic expressions of urban art today, graffiti is nothing more than a drawing or pictorial work of art made on the walls of the street. Thus, graffiti does not move or display within intellectual or private art circles, but is characterized by being publicly exposed for all to see and enjoy every day.
Graffiti is generally anonymous and can have different objectives in terms of the reason for its creation: while some are purely artistic, others are political formulations, others protest, and many others are simple messages without much pretension.
The word graffiti comes from Italian and is related to the idea of graphite or graphic expression. Precisely, one of the most characteristic elements of graffiti is that it is always done graphically and visually. In general, graffiti does not follow artistic rules other than the author’s own freedom of expression, and that is why while some are really complex and true works of art, others are simple phrases written with some violence on the walls or doors of business.
It is estimated that graffiti is always done by the younger generations who are opposed to the conservative and institutionalized world of adults. In this sense, in many countries graffiti is a crime since it is considered dirt or damage to private property. However, in various places graffiti is already integrated into the urban fabric and is considered a true and important form of cultural and popular expression.
Today, graffiti has been reinvigorated in many cities as highly complex stencils and infinite designs are used to establish ideas or points of view. Some of them are funny, others have an important irony, but they all do it from an artistic side that must be taken into account beyond the fact of the graffiti itself.
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