Sao Paulo Acts To Protect Graffiti
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Sao Paulo artists Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo obliged London’s Tate Gallery by painting their distinctive yellow graffiti on outside walls of the museum. Just a month later, their hometown began rolling gray paint across one of the brothers’ murals as part of cleanup efforts.
Officials did an abrupt about-face after the Pandolfos and other artists complained both to the city and in the press. Now Sao Paulo is creating a registry of street art to be preserved, exempt from Mayor Gilberto Kassab’s drive to eliminate “visual pollution.” The episode is sparking a public discussion of what constitutes art.
City officials blamed the paint-over on an overzealous interpretation of the law. The Pandolfos, who are twins, say countless murals and panels already have been lost to misguided efforts under Kassab’s Clean City project.
Under the Clean City law, enacted in 2006, billboards were removed, signs with large corporate logos were scaled back, and graffiti is being expunged.
The Pandolfos’ 2,230-foot mural on retaining walls along the 23 de Maio expressway, south of downtown, was half-covered by gray paint on July 3. The destruction occurred even though the art had been officially sanctioned.
Permission from the city was obtained before the Pandolfos embarked on the project in 2002. The brothers, along with Sao Paulo artist Francisco Rodrigues da Silva, known as Nunca, and Otavio’s wife, Nina, spent more than a month decorating the 5-meter-high walls.
On a background of blue, colorful cartoonish faces 3 meters tall look over the eight lanes of traffic. A few of the figures are decked out in traditional regional garb, such as the leather bicorn hat of northeastern Brazilian cowboys.
Some of the city’s 800 inspectors “understood the Clean City law to mean paint over anything that’s irregular,” Regina Monteiro, in charge of coordinating the city clean-up, said. “Because the law didn’t give objective criteria, it was left up to subjective opinion.”
Sao Paulo is developing those criteria, giving priority to cataloging works of graffiti that were painted with permission from the property owner, Mr. Monteiro said. The Clean City law prohibits graffiti that functions as advertising. The city expects the catalog to be ready by November.
