Item Information
Title: Conversation with graffiti artists Tracy and Billy and Conversation with graffiti artist Wasp 1
Date: 1983 February 15 and 1984 March 12
Physical Details: 2 sound cassette ; 2 hr., 44 min., 30 sec.
Description: Tape 01 and Tape 02, Side 01 recording is Jack Stewart's conversation with graffiti artists Tracy and Billy on February 15, 1983. Motive for conversation is reviewing and commenting on Stewart's book about graffiti in New York City in the 1970s. Discussion includes identifying and crediting artists and dating their works, relationships between artists and respect for each other's work, and the styles, designs, and themes of graffiti. Also included are numerous stories and recollections relating to graffiti, painting it, and graffiti artists and their life events. Tape 02, Side 02 recording is Jack Stewart's conversation with graffiti artist Wasp 1 on March 12, 1984. Recording ends 00:23:38. Discussion topics include gangs in New York City in the early 1970s, and how graffiti's transition as an art form from specific neighborhoods to the city-wide transit system affected and weakened the territory-based gangs. Notes copied from the tape: Tracy and Billy review book. Interviewees are not introduced on the recording. Their naming relies on notes copied from the tape.
Creator: Stewart, Jack Thomas, 1926-2005
Forms part of: Jack Stewart papers, 1926-2010
Rights Statement: Current copyright status is undetermined
Citation Information: and Jack Thomas Stewart. Conversation with graffiti artists Tracy and Billy and Conversation with graffiti artist Wasp 1, 1983 February 15 and 1984 March 12. Jack Stewart papers, 1926-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Availability: This item has been digitally reformatted. It is available by requesting an appointment in the Archives of American Art's reading rooms, or in certain situations as a Reproduction Request.
Digital ID: 26005