This project will provide digital preservation and access for more than 900 slides documenting aerosol and street art from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. The images are drawn from the editorial files of the International Graffiti Times (IGTimes) the first underground zine devoted to aerosol and street art (1983-1994), part of Cornell Library’s Hip Hop Collection. The IGTimes was founded and edited by David Schmidlapp, who worked with legendary artist and Hip Hop cultural pioneer Phase2 (1955-2019) as art director of the magazine. Phase and Schmidlapp used this collection of slides to educate audiences about street art and its culture. They called their presentation the “Aerosol Art Armada” and took the show on the road to schools, community centers, and other cultural venues in the 1980s and early 90s as a freestyle lecture/performance, combining visual documentation of the development of aerosol street art with live dialogue between Phase2 and Vulcan. Once digitized, the Aerosol Art Armada slides will offer a view of how street art practitioners embedded in graffiti culture itself were codifying and presenting their work in the 1980s and 90s.
Street Art Images from the IGTimes
Investigator: Andrew Moisey, History of Art and Visual Studies
Collaborator: Katherine Reagan, Rare and Manuscript Collections; Kate Addleman-Frankel, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
Arts & Sciences, 2020