IZ THE WIZ, NEW YORK GRAFFITI PIONEER PASSED AWAY THIS WEEK.

Here is a tribute piece to the great man himself by artist BETA at the ZAP GRAFFITI ARTS studio

Here is Iz the Wiz website for more info on the man himself.

http://www.izthewiz.com/

THANKS FOR THE INSPIRATION

It is truly with a heavy heart that I bring you this tragic news: the world has lost IZ the WIZ, aka Mike Martin. Iz passed away yesterday morning at his brother’s home in Florida.

He was the longest running All-City King of NYC subway graffiti, by many accounts a gentle and caring soul, and one of my graffiti heroes. Iz was also the feature of several books and movies, including Subway Art, portraying a detective in the film Wild Style, and he is prominently featured in the landmark documentary Style Wars.

Rest in Peace Mike Martin aka IZ the WIZ, IKE 327, CI…The Master Blaster Forever.

As a collegian in the 70’s, I earned my degree in the suggested four years through consistent, if not diligent, study, and by enduring a commute that stretched from isolated western Queens to Dion and DeLillo’s Belmont Bronx. The trek was not without its variety–Q38 to G to E or F to D, and culminated with a penitential half-mile uphill walk along the never-placid Grand Concourse. My destination was Fordham.

The D leg of the journey extended from midtown Manhattan to the North Bronx, and was punctuated by an express interlude between 59th Street and 125th Street, during which, outside the train, stations whizzed by, up above lay the bucolic wonders of Central Park, and inside was a passing parade of homeless beggars bearing considerable oratory and force of character, and musicians and rhymists as yet undiscovered by the Broadway scouts. To avoid all of this sometimes demanded that one study the flowering graffiti that covered most subway surfaces then, and that is how I became aware of Mingo 1.

His was one of the identifiers that was most prominent on the trains I rode, and one of the easier to decipher. Thus, I was long accustomed to Mingo’s status as a “bomber” by the time I saw an item in the newspaper about a notorious graffiti artist being captured, and his career ended. I read on–could it be the only graffiti artist I was aware of? It was Mingo.

Not much detail was given, or at least not much I absorbed, but I did find it interesting that a person, albeit now handcuffed, had been matched with the nom de paint so familiar to me. Life, college and the D train continued their progress unimpaired.

Months later, I boarded a D train for the beginning of another long ride home. I slumped in a corner seat, quickly abandoning my resolve to get a head start on my required reading, and settled in for some rest. But before my eyes could close, they picked up something written in verse on the wall next to me. The first proper noun was by now familiar. “Mingo’s Back” the title proclaimed without exclamation. Indeed he was, and I read with amusement as he launched into triumphant, unchastened verse:

Mingo’s Bad
Mingo’s Tops
Mingo Ain’t Afraid of the TA Cops.

Several years ago, idly Googling, I searched the name Mingo, and among the results was a link to a graffiti website, memorializing the best-known practitioners at the 70’s. There I read the news that Mingo, who I learned had an uneven reputation even among his peers in the genre, had met a violent death some years before. All the gaps in my knowledge about the ubiquitous Mingo soon filled in a jumble of underground testimony, attaching the tag I had watched whiz by so many times to a short life of starts and stops, of brief tunnel-emerging fame and long nights in ignominious darkness, of fickle readership, of lonely writing.

otgog’s, originally uploaded by sizzled.

might as well keep it moving with On The Go scans.

this is a particularly amazing page of photos from JOEY of 1980’s subway graffiti from New York.

Interview with Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant about the old and new Subway Art book and a look at their favorite photospots in NYC.

The Duster limited edition deck is FINALLY in. We’ve waited a long time for this one to come out. Only 50 off the press. Good luck getting one! (Dusty Black Book Sketch)

I’m not much for the music but I love this polish crew bombing a subway train…

It’s no secret that painting a subway line is the ultimate goal for most graffiti writers, and this is true worldwide. In fact, the “clean train” movement (named for the act of painting trains that are typically kept pristine) has exploded across Europe over the past several years, in countries like Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, etc., and the access to European systems attracts travelling graffiti writers from all over.

Some transit systems do very little to stop graffiti writers, while others go to extremes, even shooting at vandals with pellet guns. In Sweden, they have come up with a new tactic, borrowing from the writers themselves: the conductors are allowed to carry their own paint (typically yellow) with them, and paint (read: scribble) over any graffiti they find on their cars!

Below, a conductor gets loose with it, followed by two examples of the “improved” cars:

Seems reasonable.

It’s no secret that painting a subway line is the ultimate goal for most graffiti writers, and this is true worldwide. In fact, the “clean train” movement (named for the act of painting trains that are typically kept pristine) has exploded across Europe over the past several years, in countries like Poland, Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, etc., and the access to European systems attracts travelling graffiti writers from all over.

Some transit systems do very little to stop graffiti writers, while others go to extremes, even shooting at vandals with pellet guns. In Sweden, they have come up with a new tactic, borrowing from the writers themselves: the conductors are allowed to carry their own paint (typically yellow) with them, and paint (read: scribble) over any graffiti they find on their cars!

Below, a conductor gets loose with it, followed by two examples of the “improved” cars:

Seems reasonable.