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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
HENRY CHALFANT (1940- )
NYC subway graffiti panorama; BASE TCA. 1979; printed 2013. C-print, the image measuring 305x1524 mm; 12x60 inches, the mount 406x1613 mm; 16x63½ inches, with Chalfant's signature, date, and edition notation 1/9 in silver ink on recto.
Provenance Steven Kasher Gallery, New York; to the Present Owner
Graffiti in New York City reached its peak during the mid-1970s, creating a powerful cultural and artistic movement born from the city's urban landscape. By the late 1960s, some newspapers started featuring the most elusive graffiti artists in comics, establishing a level of recognition and infamy that newer artists could now aspire to. Artists sought the respected title of "king" by leaving their mark across all five boroughs, a practice known as going "all-city" in graffiti culture. These signatures typically featured the artist's alias alongside their street number, as seen with influential figures like Tracy 168 and CLIFF 159. The distinctive styles that developed separately in Washington Heights, Brooklyn, and the Bronx began to mix and evolve thanks to NYC's interconnected subway. With the underfunded MTA unable to keep up with cleaning tags off the cars, they became a primary canvas.
When the mayor declared a "war on graffiti" in 1972, it changed what had been mostly a collaborative artistic community into a territorial one. The 'good spots' became harder to come by and in turn, increased the public stigma around graffiti, perpetuating the narrative that had been thrust upon the community. By the early 1980s, the art world was beginning to recognize graffiti's creative value and distinctive style for the cultural movement it really was. The ongoing tension between rejection by authorities and recognition from the art world defined New York graffiti's journey from an underground movement to a globally influential art form, eventually finding acceptance in the very institutions that had once condemned it.
