BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Happy Halloweenathon! Two great events this weekend: last night’s Halloween bashes in the streets, subways, bars, and your local senior community center, followed by today’s New York City Marathon, with 60,000 runners, some still in Halloween costumes, making their way through all five boroughs. It’s a feast for the eyes, ears, and spirit.
We also had our twice-yearly clock change, gaining an extra hour overnight. With cool, sunny days and the trees in the parks blazing orange, red, and yellow, street art and graffiti have some serious competition for our attention.
You’ve heard of the Queen of Soul, the King of Pop, the King of Rock and Roll, the Queen of Salsa, the King of the Blues, the Godfather of Soul, the Queen of Country, and the Godmother of Punk. These honorifics have evolved over time from public sentiment and public relations or declared by a trusted authority. Did you know graffiti and street art have these grand titles, and as they evolved, sometimes the same titles were used twice or thrice?
BLADE has been called the King of Graffiti, and so has Cornbread. Lee Quiñones has been called the King of New York, Lady Pink the First Lady of Graffiti, and PHASE 2 the King of Style, while Dondi was the Style Master General. Martha Cooper was called the Godmother of Street-Urban Art by the University of California and is listed in the 2026 Guinness World Records for the Longest Career as a Street-Art Photographer.
Le Parisien called COPE2 Le pape du graff (Pope of Graffiti) in 2012, and Dijon Beaune Magazine recently called FUTURA 2000 Le pape du graffiti (Pope of Graffiti) as well.
This week, we realized that three artists have been called the Godfather of Street Art: the Frenchman Blek le Rat and two Americans, Ron English and Richard Hambleton. We’ll ask Blek about it this month when we’re in London, where he’ll be celebrating 45 years on the street and preparing for his new show at Woodbury House in Mayfair, featuring 45 new works.
Another honor came in September, when the five members of the Chicago Park District Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rename a park “Don’t Fret Park” in honor of the much-loved Chicago street artist.
But back to Richard Hambleton: he’s being paid tribute on New York streets right now, as seen in our first Image of the Week, honoring the Godfather of Street Art.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, featuring CP Won, DE$, DERS, Frank Ape, Homesick, Matthew Visuals, Modomatic, MOGE, NAY, Noahh Cook, Pell, Roy Lichtenstein, SPAR, Vixen, and XN28.
