Iz the Wiz

Iz the Wiz (actually Michael Martin, born November 30, 1958, † 17 June 2009) was an American graffiti artist. He was one of the first and most famous graffiti artist in the 1970s and 1980s in New York.

Iz the Wiz has been active since 1972 in the graffiti scene. A poster of the Broadway musical The Wiz in 1975 inspired him to his stage name Iz the Wiz. In the New York City borough Queens he preferably brought his works to the metro line A, but also on walls. With trains his name pulled through the city, and made him known. One night he could be so over 100 Throw -ups, quick paintings with one color shaded fill arise. But he was also known for its large, elaborate designed pictures.

His motives were mostly colorful, wagon filled lettering, but also portraits such as John Lennon. As one of the first graffiti artist, he made ​​a special point to keep a balance between quantity and quality, and thus became a model for the generation of writers who came after him. Iz the Wiz in 1983 occurred in the Style Wars documentation. He also had a small role in the film Wild Style in the same year.

The mid-80s were the authorities in New York stronger against graffiti in the subway before. Iz the Wiz then withdrew more and more from the graffiti scene back, only in the nineties he became active again in the scene and helped, among other things build the Phun Factory, a place in Queens, where from 1994 to 2001 Writer legal could spray. With him a kidney damage was diagnosed in 1996, probably a result of spraying without protective mask, which forced him to dialysis. Most recently, he impoverished more and more, and went to his brother in Florida. Five days before his death, he was painting in an art gallery in the Bronx again before an audience a life-size replica of a subway train and produced a video of it.