Graffiti Cure That Kills Art

Los Angeles prides itself on the murals that cover many of its buildings and freeway walls, a peculiarly Southern California phenomenon that in some neighborhoods might be the only contact that residents have with art. Some of the big, bold works are very good, others pedestrian. But all deliver a message, and the best of them should receive care and preservation.

Willie Herron’s “The Wall That Cracked Open,” an Expressionist depiction of the gang stabbing of his brother, is one of these, covering an exterior wall of a building in East Los Angeles. It sends a mournful message, one that has been damaged--initially by vandals, it is said, and subsequently by a county graffiti abatement team. The county’s action raises the question of what is art and what is graffiti.

Herron’s mural joins others obliterated by paint-overs around the county, diminishing an art form that speaks for Los Angeles.

Today, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on a motion by member Gloria Molina to preserve this Southern California heritage, establishing a register of all murals within the county and strengthening its policy regarding preservation when removing graffiti. The motion also calls for the county’s Department of Public Works to commission Herron for the full restoration of his mural.

That should happen, for art’s sake.