Graffiti artists amaze me not so much with their creativity, although that certainly cannot go unnoticed, but much more with their ability to introduce unusually warm colors into a work tailored by incredibly dark themes. Lee – a graffiti artist famous for his works during the New York City Subway graffiti movement – is no exception. His work – “Stop the Bombs” – produced in 1979, most certainly stands out with its magnificent size, as it covers the whole train-car, however, to me, it stood out particularly with its theme of War.
From afar, the attention of the audience is brought immediately to the flaming yellow and orange lines in the very middle, under which, in massive, ground-grey bubble letters spell out the title of the piece – “STOP THE BOMBS.” As one gets closer, it becomes evident that what from a few meters away seemed like a cheerful setting sun is actually the mushroom top of an atomic explosion. Dark blue background surrounds the flames. One side reads “USA”, the other “USSR”. One glance at the graffiti refers us back to the end of World War One and the beginning of the Cold War, in particular, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the first days of August 1945. Although the words do tell a large part of the story, I think it’s the colors that shape it properly. The dark navy blue background may symbolize the Atlantic Ocean separating the two superpowers as well as the darkness of USA’s and USSR’s actions. The combination of lightning-like yellow and orange may suggest the rapidity of the bombings while the large greyish-brown letters could represent the earth. The ground that accepted thousands of bodies that were turned into ash as the result of the still-remembered bombings.
Although the work itself is huge in size, the exhibition only holds a rather small photograph of it, almost hidden away in one of the room corners. While some may argue that the work was only included to demonstrate artistic skill and that its position in the museum hall suggests careless attitude of the curator towards the depicted subject, I would argue the exact opposite. I think that by including the work, and by placing it where it hangs, the curator tried to underline that first of all, graffiti artists did not only focus on painting their names in interesting letters but also find ways to integrate worldwide problems into their works. Secondly, and most importantly in my opinion, I think the work was included and allocated that specific corner to point out that even though over half a century passed since the events and we may no longer focus much attention to it, we will always remember what has happened even if the memory will be in the far-corner of our minds.