Graffiti

Brassaï, called “the eye of Paris,” authored books of black-and-white photographs such as Paris by Night (1933), Camera in Paris (1949), and Graffiti (1961). Drawing on his background in journalism, he made images of the atmospheres and textures of Parisian streetscapes and interiors beginning in the 1930s. His perspective on the city proved hugely influential for the surrealist group whose novels—such as André Breton’s Nadja and Louis Aragon’s Paris Peasant—had often been structured around Paris walks.

For Brassaï, this image from the liberation of Paris simultaneously represented “the language of the wall” and the attempt to efface this language. Brassaï compared the aggressive, dripping black “stain” to contemporary abstract painting. The white symbol emerging from it is the Cross of Lorraine, a Catholic symbol that came to prominence during the conflict between France and Germany after World War I. During the Occupation, it became a symbol of the French resistance organization founded by Charles de Gaulle.