Creolizing for Survival in the City

Abstract

world. To regain control over the subways, New York mayors Lindsay and later Koch initiated and sustained multi-million dollar campaigns to erase the paintings and arrest the painters. While the passionate and bold murals have vanished from New York's subways, the art form has become a world-wide phenomenon with adherents in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and all major U.S. cities. In New York the original who are mostly male, still call themselves painters, aerosol artists, graffiti artists, or writers, and the most dedicated of them continue to create their work in public spaces and for art galleries. Since the beginning of their movement in 1971, New York City subway painters have used diverse cultural ideas in their creative processes. Most of the great painters were young (between 12