Right from the jump; it’s all here. FUTURA 2000, the Bronx, graffiti, street culture, 50 years of art history…, like there are few art forms, and an artist for that matter, that represent a particular era (and the transcendence of said era to move through the years) quite like FUTURA. He and graffiti go together, even though FUTURA didn’t linger in graff for too long. He took the freedom, the expression of it, and took it with him. I think that is an important part of the lore of the great FUTURA; his is a story of taking the essence of a thing and moving it through his life, applying it to all endeavors while not repeating the act to the point of over-abudance. He is a legend because he has traversed the ups and downs. FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT at The Bronx Museum, is special and poignant. It features his “sculptures, drawings, prints, studies, collaborations, and archival paraphernalia dating from the 1970s to the present,” and shows that what he brought to graffiti, abstraction and something almost supernatural, continued throughout his career as he became a beacon of design, iconography, streetwear and collaboration. The show doesn’t stay in the 1970s, but opens up 50 years into a widespread and linear exploration.
It’s a homecoming in a sense, as the museum notes: “The exhibition’s title, BREAKING OUT, refers to FUTURA 2000’s boundary-breaking creative practice and his famous 1980 piece, Break, where the artist painted the full exterior of an N.Y.C. subway car with vibrant color and no lettering—a first for the graffiti art movement. At the time, FUTURA would “bench” in The South Bronx to watch his Break train pass by on elevated tracks—a short distance from The Bronx Museum..”
This is an appropriate and long overdue show. FUTURA 2000 is a legend, but an active legend, with new chapters year and year and a story that reminds artists to not only not give up, but don’t change your path for the audience. Be original and be supportive of others. That is the FUTURA that has stood the test of time. —Evan Pricco
