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Culture / by Sarah Nagué
Photographer / Leslie Woods
Author / Sarah Nagué

The Makings of JonOne

Contemporary artists, as opposed to their tradition-bound predecessors, often exist in a zone of freedom, if not financially than at least in terms of expression. While this freedom has contributed to unleashing the creative power of many artists that are today considered geniuses, it has also kept many pioneers outside the world of art galleries and sponsored shows.

An established graffiti artist, JonOne knows what it’s like to be marginalized. Being part of the early generation of graffiti artists in New York City, he stayed on the fringes of the art world for decades. But graffiti has since evolved into a complex urban art form increasingly acclaimed in and outside the art world, and JonOne can now tell us what it’s like to be on top. WRG had the opportunity to ask one of the forerunners of the graffiti movement about his personal evolution as a visual artist and the transformation of the graffiti scene into a recognized artistic tradition.

JonOne

“I sometimes think I had the perfect environment to be a graffiti writer,” JonOne said about growing up in Harlem to a Dominican family in the 60s and 70s. “The relationship I had with my parents, the temptations, the streets, being oppressed, having no opportunities, all of those were the molds to making me.”

When JonOne started tagging, graffiti was not perceived as art. “Back in the day,” he told us, “you did something in the streets and it was perceived as vandalism. It took a certain time for people to realize that we actually had talent and that what we did was great.” Along with his group 156 All Starz and in parallel with other renowned artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, JonOne contributed to making New York City the international center of graffiti art in the 70s and 80s.

JonOne

Even though the future looked brighter for street artists in the Big Apple, JonOne thought that a change of scenery would benefit him, so he accepted the invitation of French graffiti artist Bando and relocated to Paris. The move may have seemed counterintuitive to those unfamiliar with the graffiti scene of the time – New York had outranked Paris as the art capital of the world since the 60s and was gathering all the attention with big names become mainstream.

But Paris was particularly interesting for JonOne. For starters, the Stalingrad Metro Station was a destination for any self-respecting tagger. Paris was also blooming with a unique energy. Creativity was at its highest, benefiting from the influence of taggers from all over Europe. For JonOne, Paris seemed like a great place to evolve as an artist and citizen of the world.

Yet the City of Light, with all its novelty and promises of freedom, was not always easy on JonOne. “I kept on painting, and for years I had no money. I was broke, just bomb broke. One day I went up to my friend A-One, and I said, ‘Hey! Do you think that graffiti is dead? Do you think that it’s over?’ And he said, ‘It’s only finished when it’s finished in your head.’ What a good piece of advice! And I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right. It ain’t finished.’”

“The life of an artist is very difficult and very complicated. I think that you just gotta have fun doing what you love to do and have a good time. Sometimes, it may not work and you may find yourself like me, for many years, as the artist qui ne réussit pas, the struggling artist.”

JonOne

The “poet of the street,” as JonOne calls himself, is now a world-renowned artist. He has several exhibits under his belt, ranging from galleries across Europe to Hong Kong and in select American cities, and his art auctions for as much as $28,000 a pop.

Success stories like his are still rare. Relatively few street artists have been featured in museums, but those lucky few have certainly had an impact on the way we perceive art. Fewer and fewer people see street art as a degradation of architecture and public space. Instead, a growing number of us appreciate how it beautifies our cities. Just look at the social, artistic, and financial clout of someone like Banksy.

JonOne

Big players and global companies have started to value street art and integrate it into popular culture. Collaborations like the one between Perrier and JonOne for a limited edition bottle are becoming more and more popular. In their ivory towers, art historians are opening up to the idea of welcoming street art into the formerly sacrosanct walls of traditional art venues.

The irony in all this is that taggers like JonOne, who fought so hard to get out of the system, are now falling right back into it. But this time it’s on their own terms.

Contemporary artists, as opposed to their tradition-bound predecessors, often exist in a zone of freedom, if not financially than at least in terms of expression. While this freedom has contributed to unleashing the creative power of many artists that are today considered geniuses, it has also kept many pioneers outside the world of art galleries and sponsored shows.

An established graffiti artist, JonOne knows what it’s like to be marginalized. Being part of the early generation of graffiti artists in New York City, he stayed on the fringes of the art world for decades. But graffiti has since evolved into a complex urban art form increasingly acclaimed in and outside the art world, and JonOne can now tell us what it’s like to be on top. WRG had the opportunity to ask one of the forerunners of the graffiti movement about his personal evolution as a visual artist and the transformation of the graffiti scene into a recognized artistic tradition.

JonOne

“I sometimes think I had the perfect environment to be a graffiti writer,” JonOne said about growing up in Harlem to a Dominican family in the 60s and 70s. “The relationship I had with my parents, the temptations, the streets, being oppressed, having no opportunities, all of those were the molds to making me.”

When JonOne started tagging, graffiti was not perceived as art. “Back in the day,” he told us, “you did something in the streets and it was perceived as vandalism. It took a certain time for people to realize that we actually had talent and that what we did was great.” Along with his group 156 All Starz and in parallel with other renowned artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, JonOne contributed to making New York City the international center of graffiti art in the 70s and 80s.

JonOne

Even though the future looked brighter for street artists in the Big Apple, JonOne thought that a change of scenery would benefit him, so he accepted the invitation of French graffiti artist Bando and relocated to Paris. The move may have seemed counterintuitive to those unfamiliar with the graffiti scene of the time - New York had outranked Paris as the art capital of the world since the 60s and was gathering all the attention with big names become mainstream.

But Paris was particularly interesting for JonOne. For starters, the Stalingrad Metro Station was a destination for any self-respecting tagger. Paris was also blooming with a unique energy. Creativity was at its highest, benefiting from the influence of taggers from all over Europe. For JonOne, Paris seemed like a great place to evolve as an artist and citizen of the world.

Yet the City of Light, with all its novelty and promises of freedom, was not always easy on JonOne. “I kept on painting, and for years I had no money. I was broke, just bomb broke. One day I went up to my friend A-One, and I said, ‘Hey! Do you think that graffiti is dead? Do you think that it's over?’ And he said, ‘It's only finished when it's finished in your head.’ What a good piece of advice! And I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right. It ain't finished.’”

“The life of an artist is very difficult and very complicated. I think that you just gotta have fun doing what you love to do and have a good time. Sometimes, it may not work and you may find yourself like me, for many years, as the artist qui ne réussit pas, the struggling artist.”

JonOne

The “poet of the street,” as JonOne calls himself, is now a world-renowned artist. He has several exhibits under his belt, ranging from galleries across Europe to Hong Kong and in select American cities, and his art auctions for as much as $28,000 a pop.

Success stories like his are still rare. Relatively few street artists have been featured in museums, but those lucky few have certainly had an impact on the way we perceive art. Fewer and fewer people see street art as a degradation of architecture and public space. Instead, a growing number of us appreciate how it beautifies our cities. Just look at the social, artistic, and financial clout of someone like Banksy.

JonOne

Big players and global companies have started to value street art and integrate it into popular culture. Collaborations like the one between Perrier and JonOne for a limited edition bottle are becoming more and more popular. In their ivory towers, art historians are opening up to the idea of welcoming street art into the formerly sacrosanct walls of traditional art venues.

The irony in all this is that taggers like JonOne, who fought so hard to get out of the system, are now falling right back into it. But this time it’s on their own terms.

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