The origins of the Graffiti Movement started at the end of the ‘60s, when young people from the Bronx, and then later Manhattan and Brooklyn, embarked on a tradition of free expression by using city walls to create this movement called graffiti.
Influenced by billboards and comic strips, they created a new form of expression by drawing their names or initials in an elaborate style on walls, buses and trains. To define graffiti, the pioneers of the movement employed the term “writing,” calling themselves “writers.”
VIDEO: Futura Celebrates Cognac & Street Art With Hennessy
In New York, the movement first began with the tag, upon interpretation from the writer’s pseudonyms: Tak183, Stay High 149, Crash, Sam0, Futura 2000. To distinguish one from the others, writers would use original calligraphy with different motifs or ornaments; their names would leave the limited territory of a neighborhood, and take over the entire town, writers focused on subways.
PHOTOS: No Last KAWS For Hennessy At New Museum
At the end of the ‘70s, these creations, vivid and afire, captured the attention of artistes, galleries and the media. Certain galleries in NYC began showcasing the works of graffiti artists in NY, inviting them to create on canvas.
Today, graffiti is an integral part of the visual landscape of the city and of the contemporary art galleries. Futura himself is one of the most coveted graffiti artists on the market.
There is nothing surprising about the fact that a brand like Hennessy would call on him to express his art on one of their bottles.
