Chris Hirsch
Anthropology of Hip-Hop
Melisa Rivire
March 4, 2008
Lee
Quiones: Subway King to Aerosol Royalty
With
the onset of the aerosol art movements in the Bronx in the 1970s came what was
to become one of the largest underground (but massively public) art movements.
Few could predict the impact it would come to have not only on New York City
politics and culture, but also going so far as to be seen literally all over
the world. Through these times, writers did throw-ups, pieces, burners, and tags;
all to let their name be seen by the thousands that overlook their dreary urban
landscapes. It was time to have their names in the bright lights.
From
these surroundings rose Lee Quiones, a.k.a. LEE, one of the most stylistically
renowned and admired aerosol artists. His influence reigns from his work with
painting whole subway trains (10 cars) and using the murals to convey deeper
socio-political meaning, to helping spread the graffiti movement overseas and
being the face of Charlie Ahearns Wild Style in 1983.
Lee
Quiones was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1960. Little is recorded of his
early childhood, however sometime growing up his family relocated to
Manhattans Lower East Side, a largely Puerto Rican neighborhood ever since the
settlements were created around the 1920s (Rivera 23). It was in this setting
that Lee would fuel his artistic fire. Described as shy and elusive (Chang
148), Lee wrote independently throughout the mid-70s, doing large-scale murals
on handball courts and getting his name up elsewhere. He would attend park jams
and parties in his neighborhood that bred the early elements of hip-hop,
unaware that much of that history was being created in the neighboring borough
of The Bronx. As Raquel Z. Rivera describes in her book, New York Ricans
from the Hip Hop Zone, Lee was unaware to
the extent to which the Bronx was contributing to hip-hop as a whole. She
quotes him saying, I had no idea they were doing that shit in The Bronx and
Spanish Harlem. I thought The Bronx was a place where trains were laid up and
people were going nuts, you know? (51). With time, however, his career with
graffiti would bring Lee to most every corner of New York City - he was gaining
his All-City fame.
Lee
would gain new ground and admiration during the mid-to-late-70s after joining
The Fabulous 5ive crew. Consisting of roughly ten writers, the most prolific
became SLUG, MONO, DOC, SLAVE, and the most famous (and youngest) being LEE
(The Fabulous 5ive @149st).
Comprised mostly of writers from Staten Island, this exclusive crew
would become one of the most respected whole car crews, painting full subway
cars, top-to-bottom with one piece or mural (@149st). After members MONO, his
brother BLUD, and DOC 109 -- all from Staten Island-- established a Fab 5 residence
house in lower Manhattan, they found themselves neighbors with Lee (@149st).
The Fab 5 held a unique vision for getting their names up - they focused
almost exclusively on whole cars (@149st). One of the most famous feats of the
Fab 5 was their whole-train masterpiece done in 1977, nicknamed the Merry
Christmas Train- ten subway cars with ten different scenes, with the last car
being a Christmas scene with Santa and a snowman. It had only been done once
before, with the Freedom Train by CAINE and his crew, but the Fab 5s timing
was crucial in making this one of the most revered, oftentimes poorly imitated
feats in graffiti history.
In
Craig Castlemans book, Getting Up, an
extensive interview with Lee describes the whole-train process, a matter that
took two full nights to complete. Upon completion, they followed the train for
many stops throughout New York City, trying to snap any photographs that they
could. Lee describes the reactions of the New Yorkers at most every stop the
train had. He says:
The
station was packed and people were walking into the pieces with their eyes open
like wow, man. It
was bad. It was nice to have it pull up right in front of you and then to get inside of it with
the windows all painted. They probably didnt know it was graffiti; they probably thought the city was
doing something good for a change. They probably thought they
paid some muralist to do it. (12)
It truly was a feat that would give
new levels of street stardom to Lee and the rest of the crew. Lee alone claims
to have done six of the ten cars by himself (Castleman 5), while Joe Austin
cites in his book, Taking the Train,
that over the span of Lees train days he painted 150 whole cars (229). No one
could refute Lees King title. His name was finally gaining fame, and he was
soon to gain newfound recognition -- not only for his art, but also for his
role as the graffiti writer ZORO in Wild Style.
When
Charlie Ahearn set out to find Lee after becoming captivated with his handball
court murals, Lee was no where to be found. Having finally gotten to meet him
one day, Ahearn recalled the mythical aspect to Lees character after having a
rather ambiguous dialogue with him about joining up to do a movie (Chang 147).
Their paths would meet again in the future with an exhibition from the Co-Lab
collective, Charlie Ahearn included, in June 1980. Along with fellow artist Fab
5 Freddy, these three would be the creative forces behind one of hip-hops most
treasured documents of that time period.
Fab
5 Freddy met Lee after venturing into Lees high school to track him down. He
had been inspired by his art around New York and decided he needed to meet the
artist behind it all (Change 147). Through Lee, Freddy would come to work with
the Fabulous 5ve, doing such famous works with Lee as the Campbells Soup Andy
Warhol tribute (Chang 148). It was Freddys vision to work with Charlie Ahearn
about a hip-hop themed movie. Ahearn had wanted to work with Lee as the main
character, so Freddy provided a meeting for the three of them to discuss the
matter more seriously. Shortly thereafter, Wild Style was made.
To
everyones surprise, [Wild Style] did
quite well in the theaters domestically and abroad (Austin 205). The effect it
had on the world can still be seen to this day. Lees role in the film is
crucial, providing the world a voice for a culture that most of America hadnt
seen before. Along with Henry Chalfant and Tony Silvers Style Wars!, these films had a profound impact in teaching
America not only about the
culture, but also how one could
join. Austin writes, In the course of telling these stories, both Wild
Style and Style Wars! provided some how-to information on writing and were
filled with shots of work on the trains and walls of New York City (205). With
these films, any person with the motivation could study and learn to emulate
each aspect of style, whether in breakdancing, turntable tricks, rhymes, or the
many different letter styles in writing. The effects could be seen soon after
the release of these movies, along with the more funded, one-size-fits-all
versions of Wild Style like Beat
Street and Breakin (Chang 194). In terms of the number of writers in
New York City, Austin suggests that there may be a connection between their
growth and the release of such films (205). No doubt, these films had an impact
on hip-hops direction, however it was Wild Styles authenticity and use of real-life pioneers that
makes it such a pinnacle in the history of hip-hop. Lees role brought new
meaning of graffiti to many new audiences, and gave the world a style to strive
for.
A
few years before the tidal wave of visual media covering the world of graffiti
and hip-hop, a very significant shift from the norm changed much of what the
public considered art. Graffiti in art galleries and on canvas started
showing up in exhibits throughout New York City. A new path was being laid.
While
many writers continued to apply their talents to the walls and trains, Lee
became one of the few to focus his attention on canvas-based paintings
(www.wikipedia.org, 2008). Few gallery exhibitions had taken place before the
late 1970s and early 1980s, when many fine arts figures started to collaborate
with aerosol artists. The collaborations between Lee and Fab 5 Freddy ultimately
benefited the both of them, in terms of getting their artwork seen. In 1979,
through Freddys appearance in a Village Voice article, seen smoking a cigar under a Lee mural on handball courts in
the Lower East Side, many new experiences would arise (Change 148, Austin 188).
Claudio Bruni, an art dealer, saw the article and was soon to offer both Freddy
and Lee an exhibition at Galleria Medusa in Rome. This show was the first
introduction of graffiti art to a European audience, exposing the style to a
world with mostly no connection to the art of New York City (Austin 188).
Lee
describes his view of the whole gallery process best. Hes quoted saying, I
saw it early on as a catalyst to develop as a painter and explore the other
horizons outside of a forty-foot subway car. My sense of art was to create art
without a reference point to art history, because this was art history in the
making (www.wikipedia.org, 2008). Whether this was the sole event to jump
start aerosol art in Europe is hard to tell; regardless, this exhibit no doubt
planted a seed of inspiration for future European writers. What little exposure
there was before the early 1980s was due largely to the efforts of getting New
York artists overseas and into the galleries.
Back
home, and back in the galleries, Lees work would be featured all over New York
City. In the early-to-mid-1980s, his work would be included in exhibits in the
White Columns Gallery in New York City, Fashion Moda, which led to a show at
the New Museum (located in one of the citys central art districts), and East
Villages Fun Gallery and 51X (Austin 190-1). A significant gallery that Lee
landed in was the esteemed Barbara Gladstone Gallery, where he landed solo
shows throughout the mid-1980s. His work stayed in high demand until he would
leave the gallery scene in the late 1980s (Austin 192).
Throughout
the different waves of graffiti interest, and throughout the history of its
presence in New York City and beyond, Lee has remained at the forefront as one
of the many pioneers. His work contributed to a movement that took the world by
storm, giving a voice to the often-silenced urban youth. As Lee once said, It
reminds you that theres some life around you (qtd. Austin 181).
Today,
Lee can still be found painting on a large-scale, doing commissioned murals and
canvas paintings. Recently, all of Lees works from his show at the P.S.1.
Contemporary Art Center in New York were purchased by guitar legend, Eric
Clapton - a supposed long-time fan (Progressive Arts Alliance, 2007). His works
are also in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art
(www.wikipedia.org, 2008). A quote from Lees past couldnt be more relevant to
his present day life and influence: I stayed on top, still doing trains. But
they were going down too fast. They dropped. And I stayed floating. Im still
floating (Castleman 17). Indeed, Lee Quiones is flying higher than ever, with
his name forever written on the walls of New York City and the history of
graffiti.
Works
Cited
Austin, Joe. Taking the Train:
Youth, Urban Crisis, Graffiti. New York:
Columbia University
Press, 2001.
Castleman, Craig. Getting Up:
Subway Graffiti in New York Cambridge: MIT
Press, 1982
Chang, Jeff. Cant Stop Wont
Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation.
St. Martins Press:
New York, 2005.
The Fabulous 5ive @149st. @149st. 2003. 23 Feb 2008.
<http://www.at149st.com/tf5>.
"Graffiti." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. 24 Feb 2008, 01:59
UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
23 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Graffiti&oldid=193611732>.
"Lee Quinones." Wikipedia,
The Free Encyclopedia. 22 Oct 2007, 16:58
UTC. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. 23 Feb 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lee_Quinones&oldid=166315008>.
Murals in the Schools.
Progressive Arts Alliance, 2007. 3 March 2008. <http://www.paalive.org/news/?cat=5>
Rivera, Raquel Z. New York
Ricans from the Hip-Hop Zone. Palgrave
Macmillan: New York, 2003