Lee Quinones @149st

@149st Presents: LEE QUINONES
On August 30th 1999 in New York City, Lee Quinones; one of the most influential and prolific artists to emerge from the New York City Subway Aerosol Art movement began a new mural entitled "Securing The Requiem". @149st documented Quinones' progress with regular updates.Enter Day 1

Lee Quinones is considered without question the grand expressionist, Jackson Pollack of the New York Graffiti Art Movement. His work, virtually from the beginning, has had the same quality and commitment as his recent paintings. It can be praised for its directness, its pungent commentary on everyday life and the forthright manner in which he addresses himself to his subject matter.

In simple, Lee's style is rooted in popular culture, but retains the screeching dynamicizm of yesterday's subways while still using the graffiti based tool the spray can.
In August of 1999 Lee took on a massive 5 story building facade for the painting entitled "Securing The Requiem"a vivid window into the spiritual and physical presence in Vietnam.

Unlike past paintings where the helicopters were embraced and celebrated as gallant warriors going into combat, they instead are referred here as reflections of ourselves, powerful with conviction and hope yet, innocent and vulnerable.

Inanimate objects are very much alive with its rotors and rivets, just as are the stone reliefs in the twelfth century shrines throughout the country. It is the undeniable human struggle here, between the young and the entrenched of ideals that brings the soul of its creators into the object in presence.