Published: 24 September 2024
Text: James Finucane, Street Art Oslo
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The exhibition Oslo, Home of the Spray Can is part of a collaboration between Forskningsparken and Street Art Oslo celebrating the meeting point between art and technology.
On 8 October 1926, chemical engineer Erik Rotheim applied for the first patent for an aerosol can that could hold liquids and dispense them with the use of propellants.
By 1931, Rotheim’s “method and apparatus for atomizing liquids or semi-liquid masses” was legally patented in Norway and he became known as the inventor of the spray can.
Rotheim was employed at Alf Bjercke’s Fernissfabrikk in Oslo (now Jotun) and collaborated with instrument maker Frode Mortensen to develop the spray can for the commercial market, but they where unable to solve the problem with the nozzle, which kept clogging. In the mid-1930s they chose to sell the patent to the USA for 100.000 kroner (4.638.059 kroner today).
Rotheim died in 1938 at the age of 39, and was therefore not around to witness the global success of his invention.
Posten (Norwegian Postal Service) celebrated Rotheim’s invention by issuing a commemorative stamp in 1998, but because the technology was developed for the commercial market in the USA, many people still do not know that the father of the spray can is from Oslo.
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As with many other inventions of the era, World War II was a major factor in the development of the spray can.
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. soldiers were being shipped to the South Pacific, where illnesses like malaria and typhus were being spread through contact with mosquitos.
Two researchers from the Department of Agriculture, Lyle Goodhue and William Sullivan, developed a small portable can in 1943 that was pressurized by a liquid gas and capable of spraying insecticide.
Similar aerosol systems were quickly adapted to other product categories for the general public to use, including spray paint.
Illinois paint company Seymour of Sycamore was the first to use aerosol technology solely for paint products in 1949. Owner Ed Seymour wanted to demonstrate an aluminum paint, developed for painting radiators, that would employ a “mist” feature similar to the device American soldiers had used in World War II, and was awarded a US patent in 1951.
Nowadays, the spray can is part of everyday life for millions of people worldwide, with applications in all areas of the home. In the past, freon and chlorine fluorocarbons were used as a propellant gas, but this was banned in 1981. Now a mixture of propane and butane is used as propellant gas, while the race to produce the first sustainable spray can is well underway.
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Spray paint is a popular medium among modern day graffiti artists due to its portability, permanence, and speed.
In this way, it can be compared to the collapsible metal paint tube which in the 19th century enabled artist to paint ‘en plein air or outdoors for the first time, and thus heralded the Impressionists art movement.
The exact origins of the modern-day graffiti movement are keenly debated; pioneering writer* CORNBREAD was active in Philadelphia as early as 1965. In 1971, an even greater awareness was placed on graffiti culture when The New York Times ran a front-page news article about TAKI 183, a Greek teenager whose name was everywhere on the New York City streets.
Films such as Style Wars (1983), Wild Style (1983), Beat Street (1984 and the book Subway Art (1984) exported the four elements of hip-hop culture (DJ-ing, MC-ing, graffiti and breakdancing) from New York to the rest of the world. In Scandinavia, young artists traded photos and zines for inspiration and tips to get the most out of the limited selection of spray paint and colors available to them. The book Graffiti I Danmark included a tutorial on how to mix together paint from two separate cans to create a third color; while other writers came to realize that nozzles from formfett (cooking oil) and stoffrens (fabric cleaner) were great for painting broader lines.
Oslo-based artists Raide and Pay2 made their presence felt on the international scene and were among the first to develop a network with the New York graffiti community. For a period, a new and exciting youth culture was thriving.
*term for someone who writes graffiti
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As humans we have an innate drive to communicate with our tribe and have done so for centuries by writing on walls.
The oldest example of figurative art, discovered in 2024 on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi, is at least 51,200 years old. The term graffiti comes from the Italian graffiato (literally “scratch”), used to describe handwritten inscriptions of the early Roman empire.
But as fast as the graffiti movement developed, cities also moved to suppress it. Prior to the Lillehammer Winter Olympics of 1994, Oslo municipality began an inter-agency crackdown on graffiti; an approach formally adopted into a zero-tolerance policy against graffiti in 2000.
At one point, the city of Oslo was spending 80 million kroner per year* on the removal of graffiti. Parents were put on high alert by fake fines delivered to their letterbox, and writers were portrayed as brainless in the “Taggerhue” advertising campaign shown in the cinemas and displayed on public transport.
These measures led to stigmatization and severe sanctions for graffiti artists, including fines that are still being paid today in the most severe of cases. For 20 years, Oslo waged a “war” against graffiti in the capital which despite changing attitudes still has repercussions today.
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«The City used to treat graffiti artists in an inacceptable way. Police and security guards from private companies were used to combat an art form, with unnecessary use of force. On behalf of Oslo, I want to apologize to all those who were affected by this policy.»
Omar Samy Gamal, byråd for kultur, idrett og frivillighet på Art In/Between Spaces-seminaret, UiO Domus Biblioteca, 23. juni 2023Spray paint has been a global commodity since the 1950’s. From the early days of improvising and “making do” with the limited choice of products available, today there is a dizzying array of brands, colours, nozzles, tools and paraphernalia related to the humble spray can.
Shapes and sizes range from micro to ultra-wide, with limited-edition cans collected as object d’art. At the same time, vintage cans and ephemera are traded by a growing international community of collectors.
New sub-categories of graffiti and street art emerge as the technology and tools continue to develop in lockstep with artistic innovation. This complexity is captured in The Feral Diagram (Daniel Feral, 2012) which depicts how graffiti and street art have moved towards the center of art history and articulates how they have influenced, and been influenced by, the other major art movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Banksy, arguably the world’s most famous living artist, continues to court international attention with little more than a spray can, stencil, and good eye for placement. At the same time, posthumous exhibitions for pioneers such as Lee, Futura2000 and visionary artis RAMM:ΣLL:ZΣΣ - Whose ‘gothic futurism’ style inspired the shift from letter-based to abstract graffiti – demonstrate an increased appreciation for innovators of the graffiti movement we know and love today.
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If you were a graffiti writer in Scandinavia in the 1980’s or early 90’s the likelihood, is you painted with Quick Spraylakk.
The Sandefjord-based company was the only commercial paint brand on the market. Still, writers from Norway would often travel to Denmark and back by train to stock up on paint, where the price was considerably cheaper, and you could get a wider range of colors. Especially sought after was the color Lemon Yellow which wasn’t available in Norway.
Quick Spraylakk was and still is considered a quality brand, however the development of spray paint for graffiti and street art purposes from the late 90’s onwards – with qualities like high and low pressure for different environments and a larger variety of colors – resulted in writers moving away from using Quick.
Today, Quick Spraylakk is still targeting the DIY (“do it yourself”) market and relaunched their Quick Bengalack range in 2019 with a larger variety of colors, and semi-gloss spray paint.
«Da vi begynte å male på midten av 80-tallet var Quick standarden for spraymaling: den hadde en tykk konsistens som gjorde at konturene virkelig skilte seg ut. Senere innså vi at vi var de heldige som hadde opplevd "ekte" maling! Da vi besøkte New York City i 1992, tok vi med oss Quick for å sikre at vi hadde solide konturer på våre pieces. Dette var ikke vanlig på den tiden og fikk mange til å snakke...men for oss var det en fast del av hvordan vi gjorde våre pieces.»
Spino5)
To mark the exhibition Oslo, Home of the Spray Can, Street Art Oslo has resurrected an iconic Quick spray can design from the 1980’s and invited artists to draw their own label in a personal tribute to the much-loved brand. The collection will remain on display in a public venue after the exhibition and continue to be expanded to the lead up to the 100th anniversary of the invention of the spray can in 2026.
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Did you know that the spray can was invented in Oslo? "Oslo, Home of the Spray Can" is an exhibition with historical objects, archival documentation and curated artworks that pays tribute to Erik Rotheim's invention from 1926 and the art movements it formed the basis for - graffiti and later street art.
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If you walk through the glass corridor on the ground floor of Oslo Science Park, you will encounter something resembling a zoo for tech enthusiasts. It's Startuplab's workshop, Hardwarelab. Here, prototypes are developed, tested, modified, discarded—or end up as successful products.
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