The museum has launched a Kickstarter campaign for a retrospective of the works of Henry Chalfant, the photographer and filmmaker who has documented New York City's subway art since its early days in the Bronx.
“...buildings and subway cars across the city were covered with all forms of graffiti, from gang tags to sprawling masterpieces (complete murals). In 1972, New York Mayor John Lindsay announced the first war on graffiti, dubbing it as vandalism. In the 1980s, the city escalated its tactics, using guard dogs, razor wire, and fences to curb graffiti artists. In 1983, the MTA painted hundreds of subway cars white, but that only invited fresh new graffiti. As the crackdown intensified, some graffiti artists started using rooftops or canvases instead of subway cars.”
“Titled Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977-1987, the retrospective will showcase hundreds of Chalfant’s photographs, including life-sized prints of graffiti-covered subway train cars. It will also display a video featuring 800 images from well-known and under-recognized subway writers; interviews with select artists; and recreation of Henry’s 1980s SoHo studio. The exhibition will feature the mostly vanished works of graffiti legends like Dondi, Dez, Futura, Lady Pink, Lee Quiñones, Skeme, and Zephyr, as well as works by known Bronx-based subway writers such as Blade, Crash, DAZE, Dust, Kel, Mare, Mitch 77, Noc 167, SEEN, and T-Kid.“
