Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond

When 14-year-old Lee Quiñones began painting his first mural spray paint in 1974, he made marker drawings in the New York subway marshalling yards, which served as studies for his frescoes 15-meter-long rolling murals. Drawings, objects and Subway photographs illustrate how Lee Quiñones' emergence has served as a catalyst for what is today recognized as the movement of street art. Before Lee, graffiti art was accessible to a limited audience young people who admired the style and scale. Images of the trains Lee illustrates how he changed the face of the movement, infusing kinetic elements of futurism in over 120 murals by subway cars through the public transportation system. Lee invented the freestanding urban mural concept with its iconic wall of handball Howard the Duck, in 1978. He introduced spray painting to international level at its first official exhibition in Rome in 1979, alongside Fab 5 Freddy. He influenced his peers Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer, among others, who are seen watching the Lee's work. Lee and Basquiat were the youngest artists to exhibit at the Documenta 7. Lee played the semi-autobiographical role of Zoro in Wild Style, the first feature film about hip-hop. The images reveal the social commentary and poetry used in his early works expressionists. The following paintings show how Lee's practice has shaped a generation of contemporary artists as he developed his technique. The photographs capture the mood and urgency of the New York in the 1980s, moving from the streets to the intimacy and maturity of the environment of the artist's contemporary studio.