Meanings
- uncountableGraffiti that is intended to be, or is seen as, artistic rather than a work of vandalism.
These same neighborhoods are home to bookstores that carry graffiti coffee table books and universities that offer courses on graffiti art.
2023 June 30, Stefano Bloch, “Graffiti has undergone a massive shift in a few quick decades as street art gains social acceptance”, in The Conversation2 more examples
It's also appropriate, for the phenomenon he is investigating is the graffiti art of aerosol signatures that suddenly flowered all over the city's subway cars and walls a couple of years back …
1974 May 6, Eliot Fremont-Smith, “Mailer on the IRT”, in New York, volume 7, number 18, page 97It really made a mark, because it was the first time that every kind of underground art could be seen in one place—and that included graffiti art.
1992, John Gruen, Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN
Origin
Originated as a concept in the 1970s in New York. Compound of graffiti + art.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
graffiti art. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/graffiti%20art
“graffiti art.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/graffiti%20art. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “graffiti art,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/graffiti%20art.
Source: graffiti art on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.