here is a recent article on the famous la river saber piece. this really sucks. that piece is trully graff history. even ja tried to diss it and it got fixed.i dont even know what to say. On September 1, 2009 federal stimulus money was used by the Army Corps of Engineers to buff the Los Angeles River of graffiti. In doing so, they white washed an important part of L.A.’s artistic history. Key among the pieces that were destroyed was a work by the artist SABER; artwork recognized by many worldwide as the largest graffiti masterpiece. Created in 1997 on the slopping concrete banks off the 5 freeway, the piece measured 250’ x 55’ – nearly the size of an NFL football field – and took 97 gallons of paint. Most large-scale graffiti in the L.A. River, such as the MTA roller (also recently buffed) are straightforward two color blocks. What made Saber’s piece world famous (beyond it’s impressive scale and staying power) was that it was a complex full color piece. Few beyond the graffiti scene truly appreciate the dangerous logistics of getting the artist and his supplies to that site, much less the technical and artistic skill required to create such a large piece on an angled surface. This historic artwork has become such a landmark on the LA River that SABER has been featured in the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s exhibition “L.A.: light / motion / dreams” in 2004-2005 and KCET’s Departures series about the river this past July.  
We in Los Angeles are no strangers to having our art history destroyed, from the whitewashing
of David Alfaro Siqueiros’s Olvera Street mural “La América Tropical” in 1932-33 to Kent
Twitchell’s mural “Ed Ruscha Monument,” painted over in June 2006. Of course, the big difference
here is the Getty Conservation Institute is unlikely to fund a multi-million dollar restoration
(as in the case of the Siqueiros mural); nor is SABER likely to win a $1.1 million dollar
settlement under the Federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) or the California Art Preservation
Act (CAPA) as Twitchell did in 2008. You might think that is because the piece by SABER was
illegal, but recent history suggests otherwise. In 2007, the graffiti gallery Crewest, along with help from the activist group Friends of the L.A.
River (FoLAR) organized “Meeting of Styles: LA.” The event brought together over 100 graffiti
artists to spray paint a 10,000 square foot section of the L.A. River at the Arroyo Seco
Confluence in Highland Park. Despite the fact that the organizers secured all necessary permits
for the mural project, and that the event was fully licensed by the county; supervisor Gloria
Molina objected to the work after the fact and introduced an emergency measure to the County
Board of Supervisors that forced the mural to be whitewashed from the flood walls. A spokeswoman
for Molina called the legal graffiti murals a “public nuisance and a potential safety hazard,”
and justified Molina’s decision to introduce the mural’s removal by saying the county was “trying
to save lives.” That is because unlike any other form of public art, people believe that graffiti
art is dangerous, that is ruins neighborhoods and turns juvenile delinquents into criminals. At no
point does anyone stop to think that they are looking at a generation of artists who have grown
up within a public school system stripped of arts education, and in a physical environment that
seems to have no problem with the proliferation of illegal advertising billboards and super-
graphics. Graffiti artists and supporters have pushed hard to create legal public spaces for
people to paint, but one by one places like the Venice Walls and Belmont Yard have been destroyed,
as charges for vandalism went from misdemeanors to felonies. Yet those corporate interests have
no problem stealing the intellectual property of those artists in order to market to the youth. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) included $6.5 million to ensure structural
integrity, remove graffiti and manage vegetation along the Los Angeles River. Graffti abatement
is a popular ploy for politicians, able to point to the stark visual change it produces and claim
that real improvment is being made. However, they don’t seem to understand that providing a newly
buffed surface is only an invitation to graffiti writers who know that the politicains will
inevitably turn their backs on the river once again. While buffing the river may create a few
immediate jobs, I fail to see how this money works toward the Los Angeles River Revitalization
Plan’s worthy goal of transforming a more than 30-mile stretch of the L.A. River into a greenbelt
linking communities. I hope one day that the powers that be recognize that graffiti art, such as
Saber’s historic river piece, are as important to linking communities and the health of the L.A.
River as the meaning of “traditionally navigable waters” is |
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