Recognize!

This past weekend, my Mom and I went to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery to see a new exhibit called Recognize! a collection of hip hop and contemporary portraiture. The artists highlighted were Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp, graffiti artists, David Scheinbaum, a photographer, Kehinde Wiley, painter, Jefferson Pinder, video artist, Nikki Giovanni, poetry, and Shinique Smith, installation/collage artist. It was a great exhibition - especially since such a profound and highly respected Gallery acknowledged hip hop culture as an established art form and not just street-art. It was also the first time the Smithsonian exhibited graffiti art which I thought was a very bold and daring thing to do, seeing that it is illegal and looked down upon as a professional art form. I am not very familiar with graffiti or "street" art, but I know it to be a vital component of hip-hop culture, (other components include Mc-ing, Dj-ing, and break-dancing.) I am also very aware of the fact that it is a Richmond no-no. In AFO, we were given the run-down of the consequences of graffiti and even the simple use of spray paint.
I'm not sure how I feel about graffiti - I think it has its time and place, and can understand how it is appropiate in urban evironments where some find it difficult to express themselves and see it as the best way to appeal to the masses. But I also see the difficulty in distinguishing between graffiti art and taggers, who merely want to deface public property just because they can get away with it. It's like the walls in the elevator in my building. No one has anything of importance to say - they just want to write dirty things because no one is monitoring them and they can get away with it. I commend the Smithsonian for putting together a great show that displayed hip-hop on a new and different level to be critically disscussed in a positive light.