Since the early 1930s Los Angeles is known as

Los Angeles has had a tumultuous history with street art. Under the regrettable tenure of former city attorney Carmen Trutanich, authorities cracked down on murals and equated them with graffiti. The city later lifted its ban on murals and provided a pathway toward legalization.

What's interesting here is, throughout this shift, L.A. had become a street-art epicenter. MOCA's groundbreaking show "Art in the Streets"solidified the city's street-art impact in 2011 and seemed to bring a wave of global artists (Banksy, Space Invader) from around the world to town.

It can already be argued that the graffiti side of street art has a longer history in L.A. than almost anywhere else, including New York, as a result of a Mexican-American gang history that dates to before World War II. Los Angeles also is home to prewar murals by noted Mexican artist David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Nowadays the famous 101 freeway murals, Olvera Street, Venice Beach are just a few places where murals are located.

More Info: www.laweekly.com

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16 Comments

Jacqueline Tattam

The reference contradicts the premise ‘since the 1930s...’. The article (dated 2015) discusses the Melrose Mural Project which had been recently approved. It states “The goal,” Duckworth says, “is to have Melrose become the street art capital of the world.”..Therefore it hasn’t been known as the street art capital of the world since the 1930s and may not even be known as such now.

Elsy O. Stromberg

Lived there for years, never heard that before. The gang graffiti is definitely not art!

Vance Duncan

Kodi06, yeah, City of Angels is definitely the better answer still. I was thinking of the Doors “LA Woman” when he referred to City of Lights

Vance Duncan

I lived in Los Angeles for 15 years and *NEVER* heard it called that. “City of Lights” would have been a far better answer.

chipdhf

Nobody calls it that

mikemerr

And if you have been there an extremely overpopulated city & region

Richard D. Boyle

I agree with the answer if one is willing to overlook 5-10 other choices such as NYC and Rio. I’m 85 and have yet to hear of LA being referred to this way. I agree with Jacqueline Tattam’s comment.