[cont'd]

As the graffiti aspect of the 'Hip Hop' subculture developed, graffiti writing groups started to form. One of the most revered and earliest group to form was the Ex-Vandals. Another famous group was the Independent Writers who had Super Kool as a member. Independent Writers indicated their affiliation with their group by writing 'INDS' after their tags or signatures. Another graffiti writing group that deserves mentioning is a group called Wanted which was founded by TRACY 168 in 1972. Tracy was a streetwise white kid who was so tough that he was allowed to hang out with the Black Spades.

What made the group the Wanted unusual was that they had a permanent clubhouse in the basement of an apartment complex on the corner of 166th Street and Woodycrest Avenue in the Bronx. At its peak in the seventies the Wanted had over seventy members. Some other important graffiti writing groups which existed in NYC were the Magic, Inc., the Three Yard Boys, the Vanguards, the Ebony Dukes, the Writers Corner 188, The Bad Artists, the Mad Bombers, the Death Squad, the Mission Graffiti, the Rebels, the Wild Style, the Six Yard Boys, and the Crazy 5. Membership was not exclusive, some graffiti artists belonged to several groups.

Graffiti reached a new peak of activity during 1976 when whole subway car murals started to appear more frequently. The graffiti artist Lee Quinones became well known for his subway car murals. The Transit Authority did not view these murals as works of art. In 1977 the Transit Authority established a giant subway car wash at its Coney Island train yard at annual cost of $400,000. This discouraged many graffiti artists who were into subway train murals. At this subway car wash the cars were sprayed with large amounts of petroleum hydroxide. After which, the graffiti murals and writings were buffed off.

The graffiti artists referred to the spray as 'Orange Crush' which they named after the defoliant 'Agent Orange' which was used in Vietnam. The smell from this spraying caused many people who came into contact with it to become nauseous. Some graffiti artists tried to counter this process known as 'buffing' by using a better quality of spray paint which they covered with a clear enamel. This was not effective because the Transit Authority found out that in order to counter this new technique, all they had to do was run the trains through the 'buffing' process several more times.

Lee Quinones had a better solution to the 'buffing' process. Quinones abandoned painting his murals on the subway trains and started painting his murals on handball courts. It should be noted that handball court painting originated with TRACY 168 but it was Quinones who was known primarily for painting these courts. Quinones court murals mingled cartoon imagery with a strong moral sensibility. One mural pleaded for end to the arms race.

Another mural portrayed a ten foot tall Howard the Duck emerging form a trash can with the inscription: "If art like this is a crime, let God forgive me. "These graffiti muralists painted for the pure pleasure without ever attempting to earn money from their art. One day, Fred Brathwaite, a graffiti artist himself, approached Quinones about painting murals for money. Quinones thought that this was a good idea and together with Brathwaite formed a graffiti mural group known as the Fab 5. The other members were Lee, Doc, and Slave.

In the February 12, 1979 issue of the Village Voice in an article by Howard Smith this group advertised that they were available to paint murals at a cost of $5 per square foot. Smith asked Brathwaite, "Are you kidding? Most people I know in this city are trying to get rid of you spray can freaks!" Brathwaite responded by telling Smith that graffiti art is the purest form of New York art ever created. Brathwaite went on to say in this article that it was obvious that the Fab 5 was influenced by such new wave artists as Warhol, Crumb, and Lichtenstein.

Brathwaite said this knowing that graffiti muralists were not influenced by these new wave artists let along the fact that many graffiti artists were unaware of these new wave artists. Brathwaite made this statement because he realized the importance of connecting graffiti art with the hip downtown New York art scene, especially Andy Warhol. Smith's article attracted the attention of an Italian art dealer by the name of Claudio Bruni. Bruni contacted Brathwaite and invited the Fab 5 to submit five canvases for an art show in Rome.

The five canvases sold for a thousand dollars apiece. There were three other contacts with the legitimate art world at this time that should be noted according to the author Steven Hager. The first involved Stephan Eins, owner of the gallery Fashion Moda. Eins cultivated a relationship with local graffiti artists because he was looking for a new direction to go in other than what was socially acceptable at the time. Graffiti art fit the bill. The second contact involved Sam Esses, a Park Avenue art collector. When Esses found out that there was an European interest in graffiti art via his contact with Claudio Bruni, he decided to pursue this art form.

Graffiti's third contact with the legitimate art world was via Henry Chalfant, a sculptor who had been taking pictures of graffiti during this period. Chalfant approached Ivan Karp of O.K. Harris Gallery about exhibiting his graffiti photographs in his gallery, which Karp agreed to do. Slowly but surely graffiti art began to receive the recognition which it deserved.

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