Sunday, November 11, 2007

Chelsea, 21st Street between Seventh and Sixth Avenues


Mary Sargent © 2007 ………………..........…………….. click to enlarge


I wonder if there is a subcategory of street art known as commercial street art. I searched the web for an answer and found an interesting roundtable on street art, but they didn't address my question.

This is the side of the building that houses Kove Bros. Hardware, and I imagine that one of the brothers hired a street artist to paint the side of the building. Is it still street art?

I await enlightenment.

See map.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not one to wnlifhrw sny - zmrgt - Dotty@ Sorry! This was a genuine mistake. I was trying to say, "Not one to enlighten anyone, I can still venture to say that, to me, this is kind of street art but not the spon - ." Actually, come to think of it, no, it is not street art. Street art, to me, is art done on the run, and advertises mostly the anonymous artist. I saw an amazing wall (walls, actually) of street art on Saturday when I took the Q train to Sheepshead Bay to meet friends. The train passed very close to stone walls on which street artists (or "artists"?) had painted their tags. The scary thing was that there was only about a foot of space between the walls and the train. How could anyone paint those tags, what with the threat (and reality) of trains coming and scraping the artist out of life and into the grave? I know that trains don't run all that often, but still....Too bad you don't venture into Brooklyn to take photos, Ms. Sargent.

Anonymous said...

This definatly qualifies as street art to me. The building/business owner hired a guy to do it legit - but only a street artist has the skill to paint large murals on building walls with spray paint.

PS: it's rumored that in my (trendy) neighborhood in Brooklyn, landlords of new condos are paying street artists to "dirty up" the sides of their buildings. That way the hipsters dropping half a mil on a 1-bedroom feel like they have street cred by moving into a dangerous/arty kind of place.
S