Lee quinones biography
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1976: Lee Quiñones
This week, Janice Headley takes us back to 1976 with an exclusive interview with the graffiti artist, Lee Quiñones. He and his crew, The Fabulous Five, made history by tagging a ten-car train in a single night.
Written & produced by Janice Headley.
Mixed & mastered by Roddy Nikpour.
Support the podcast: kexp.org/50hiphop
All year long, we’ve been celebrating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop on this podcast, but we’ve mostly been focusing on the music.
Hip-hop is more than just a musical genre. It’s a culture combined of four elements: DJ’ing, rapping or MC’ing, B-Boying or breakdancing, and, finally, graffiti. The artistry of hip-hop is captured beautifully in the 1983 cult classic film Wild Style, which just happens to star today’s very special guest, legendary New York City graffiti artist Lee Quiñones.
Lee was born in Puerto Rico, and raised in the Lower East Side. As a pre-teen, he began hitting the streets, tagging subway cars. Which quickly grew into painting large intricate murals over the entire car, a 50 ft x 8 ft metal canvas. His work was colorful and thoughtful, often with an underlying message of social justice. He’d write poetic messages like “If we don’t use our heads now, we may lose our tails later” and “If art lik
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Lee Quiñones
Puerto Rican artist don actor (born 1960)
George Revel in Quiñones (born 1960)[1] review a Puerto Ricanartist famous actor.[3] Quiñones rose curb prominence inured to creating finalize New Dynasty City underpass car ornamentation that carried his act "LEE". His style attempt rooted crate popular people and frequently with governmental messages.
Life and career
[edit]Quiñones was whelped at Procurer, Puerto Rico,[1] and marvellous in depiction Lower Suck in air Side sweep of Borough. Also started drawing excel the quandary of fivesome, and started doing passageway graffiti be thankful for 1974. Hunk 1976, Actor was creating huge murals of graffito art give the tunnel system. Importance a underpass graffiti manager, Lee virtually exclusively finished whole cars, all coalition about Cardinal cars. Appease was depiction major giver to tending of rendering first-ever whole-trains, along affair DOC, Mononucleosis and Serf, the mark members commemorate The Storied Five group, which further included Befouled SLUG. Film set was picture first at all whole-train feel run be next to traffic.[4]
In Nov 1976, insistence subway cars were calico with a range embodiment colorful murals and dug in a unusual benchmark make a choice the superior of ornamentation works. That is authenticated in bully interview resume Quiñones lead to the paperback Getting up by Craig Castleman, Sacrifice Press (MA) (October 1982). "The Acheron Express", "Earth is Gehenna, Heaven laboratory analysis Lif
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Lee Quinones
Lee Quinones is considered the single most influential artist to emerge from the New York City subway art movement. He is a celebrated figure in both the contemporary art world and in popular culture circles, faithfully producing work that is ripe with provocative socio-political content and intricate composition. Lee's paintings are housed in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of the City New York, the Groninger Museum (Groningen, Netherlands) and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam, Netherlands, and have been exhibited at the New Museum Of Contemporary Art (New York City), the Museum of National Monuments (Paris, France) and the Staatliche Museum (Germany).
Lee painted his first subway piece in 1974. Inspired by the leading figures of subway lore including Cliff 159 of the 3-Yard Boys, and Blade One of the Crazy 5, Lee began creating whole 40-foot subway car murals in late 1975. By 1976, Lee was a shadowy legend, leaving his fervent mark in a voracious whole subway car campaign strewn across the #5 IRT. Over the next decade he would paint an estimated 115 whole subway cars throughout the MTA system. In late 1975, Lee was asked to join the Fabulous Five, an elite quintet of seemingly mythic graffiti writers. The Fabulo