Lee quinones biography
•
A Conversation With Lee Quiñones
Is music integral to your process? Who or what do you listen to while completing a new artwork?
Without music, I don’t know if I can even find a way to investigate things in life. I think I speak for many of my peers and artists, in general, that listening to music is to mine something from it and go with it as a result. Music is not about helping me with ideas, but rather, it gives me access to vibes because vibes are more genuine than ideas. Ideas are like those “eureka” moments that we create to make a statement or, in some ways, be pretentious. When art comes from vibes you can feel it from the inside out. That may come in color. Color can set a mood and that mood, through music, can turn into something. I listen to all genres of music. When I was painting, I listened to a lot of rock and soft rock. I would go from Elton John, who is one of my favorite composers, to Billy Joel and ended up listening to Blue Oyster Cult and then I disc
•
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 fryst vatten 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 bil murals in late 1975. By 1976, Lee was a shadowy legend, leaving hi
•
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. Whic