Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt’s Impact on 1960s New York’s Streets
Stencil Archive is always looking for stories and photographs to fill in the many gaps of lost/forgotten/unnoticed history relating to stencils in the streets. Brooklyn Street Art just represented, posting a great article by Ted Riederer discussing Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt's one particular environmental stencil project that has mostly been "lost" in the pre-digital cobwebs of time. BSA's post has many more photos, so we recommend that you all go there to check them out. And we here at Stencil Archive always have deep respect for Jaime Rojo's work over there in NYC. BSA is holding it down outside of social media, and for that, we tip the hat.
Graffiti as Concept: Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt’s Impact on 1960s New York’s Streets
October 15, 2024 Artists
Special guest Ted Riederer shares the story of a New York artist who, as a gay street youth, made his mark with bold, conceptual graffiti. Blending street culture with high-concept art, his early works challenged boundaries, reshaped graffiti history, and paved the way for a pioneering career in immersive installations and social activism.
by Ted Riederer
Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, whose work is collected by prestigious institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, and the Brooklyn Museum, and who was honored by President Barack Obama, began his career as a conceptual graffiti/street artist in the late 1960s. Known for his numinous sculptures and installations crafted from everyday materials like staples, cellophane, paper bags, and Scotch tape, Tommy’s journey started with a bold move. At just 20 years old, in 1968, he launched a spray paint stencil campaign on 4th Street in the East Village—a calculated street art action that reshaped and rewrites the many narratives of graffiti history.
