Ejercicio Modelo B - 1 · Inglés PAU Navarra Ordinaria 2021

GRAFFITI: ART OR VANDALISM?

Where do you expect to see graffiti? Bristol Museum and Art Gallery was the kind of place you went to see classical statues and stuffed animals in cases until the arrival of the 'Banksy versus the Bristol Museum' exhibition in the summer of 2009. The exhibition hosted more than 100 works by Banksy, one of the world's most famous graffiti artists. For many artists like Banksy graffiti has become a springboard to international fame.

Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art form really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names, or 'tags', on buildings all over the city. In the mid seventies it was sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in spray paintings.

In the early 70's a few art galleries in New York began buying graffiti, however, at the same time that it began to be regarded as an art form, John Lindsay, the then mayor of New York, declared the first war on graffiti. When asked by a journalist he explained: "graffiti is always vandalism as it is committed without permission on another person's property or on public property. Whether particular viewers find any given piece of graffiti artistically compelling is irrelevant because its most salient characteristic is that it is a crime".

The debate over whether graffiti is art or vandalism is still going on but graffiti artists seem to be winning the battle. There are more and more cities providing legal graffiti spaces. The DPM Park in Dundee, Scotland, has the longest legal graffiti wall in the UK, known as the wall of fame. Anyone can paint on the wall of fame any time they like. Mike Crilley, the wall of fame organiser, believes that artists are reclaiming cities for the public from advertisers and that graffiti represents freedom and makes cities more vibrant and attractive. He intends to highlight the positive aspects of graffiti and even intends to run workshops for local children.

1. Answer these questions about the text. Use your own words whenever possible (2 points, 1 each).

a.

What does John Lindsay think about graffiti?

b.

What does Mike Crilley think about graffiti?