Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977–1987 @ The Bronx Museum
25 September 2019 to 8 March 2020
Graffiti is now understood to be an immediate and direct way to revolution. Graffiti is raw and explosive. Since the early 60’s , artists like the Situationists persisted, take it to the streets. Radical slogans, graffiti on the walls, poetry, spontaneity, students active during the May riots of Paris in 1968 used graffiti as an anonymous, cheap, direct way to communicate their dissatisfaction. Years later in NYC, a group of Bronx teenagers used graffiti as an expressive, subversive art form against a failing system they watched crumble around them.
Henry Chalfant documented everything happening in the secretive community of writers. The drawings, tags, trains, break dance moves, block parties, and the the early birth of hip-hop music and style. In the exhibition, a boom box sits in the corner. Large subway cart replica models with train sounds make up a room in the museum. Enlarged photographs of tags from artists active during the time and 35mm prints of a technique Chalfant created to capture entire trains in panoramic, overlapping shots are some of my favorite in the show.
Graffiti on subway cars is no longer a thing in New York, but the graffiti spirit is alive and lasting in the streets. Art vs transit reminds and shows us the beginnings of what was once new and what can now be considered customs passed down from one generation to the next through the years.
Chalfant graduated from Stanford university in 1977, and after moving to New York he formed relationships with young Bronx artists inviting them to his studio downtown. He continued to document graffiti culture in New York City. His book, Subway Art published with Martha Cooper at a point in time was the most stolen book in the United Kingdom.
Bronx Museum
1040 Grand Concourse
Bronx, New York 10456
T: 718–681–6000
