ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to contrast the art world's perspective on graffiti with that of graffiti writers themselves. Graffitists were unable to talk and act "correctly" in the art world's terms and to fit their work within the art world tradition. Graffiti art first began to appear on public walls at a time when many members of the mainstream art world were themselves experimenting with various forms of nongallery art. By virtue of its public context, graffiti is viewed as an expression of resistance to the dominant culture by working-class youth, and any attempts by graffiti writers to turn a profit from their labors are seen as commodified appropriations of this oppositional impulse. The view of graffiti as essentially illegal public art has been espoused not only by critics in the art press and the popular press but also by academic theorists of art and the social sciences.
