R.I.P. Saber's L.A. river piece..

[mosthated770]

What you are looking at above is a piece by Los Angeles graffiti artist Saber. But it's not just any piece, it's a massive an insanely famous piece. In fact, it holds the Guinness Book of World Records title for being the largest "wild style" piece in the world. Painted in 1997, it took 35 nights and over 125 gallons of latex paint to create. It's visible on Google Maps and in the world of well know graffiti pieces this is always one of the first mentioned. And now it's gone.
The piece used to be located on a stretch of the LA Rive in the southeast corner of downtown, arguably a boring, plain, even ugly and run down part of the city. The piece was almost impossible to see without actually climbing into the river bed (I know, I went there specifically to see it a few years ago) and was like a bright, colorful hidden treasure in a bleak and gray part of town. And suddenly for unexplained reasons someone in the city felt it was a justifiable expense (in this economy!) to pay city workers to destroy it. As shocking as this is, it's not the first time world renowned public works of art in LA have been destroyed with no explanation. You see, this is why we can't have anything nice.

http://la.metblogs.com/2009/09/04/sabers-world-famous/

http://www.cloutonline.com/?q=node/3555

waste of taxpayers money, isnt LA in huge debt? And they waste money on this?

 

[king beef]

Looks dumb when it's covered up.

 

[twilight24xjet]

Originally Posted by King Beef

Looks dumb when it's covered up.

x2

 

[ookslord]

horrible.....smh

 

[scott frost]

Judging by that picture, looks as though they need some more paint.

 

[nash]

smh, I used to see that whenever I was in that part of town. we dont have money to waste on crap like that.

 

[halftime718]

 

[youmadyoubad]

im glad it got covered up, stuff is ugly and taggers should buy a big board and tag in their backyards not on public property that (TAX PAYERS PAY FOR) if weregonna start talking about tax payers. . I live in LA and some of this graffiti is just plain disgusting. .

 

[mf doomer]

Damn, this is sad cause graffiti is really a talent/skill.

 

[soltheman]

 

[russ tha g]

Stupid. That was a nice piece. If you look at the pic, they seem to have left all the crappy little tags next to it, too.

Puts an L in LA.

 

[forgot about jae]

And the government at one point sponsored art..

 

[hybridsoldier23]

LA bureaucratic a-holes

 

[king beef]

Originally Posted by YouMadYouBad

im glad it got covered up, stuff is ugly and taggers should buy a big board and tag in their backyards not on public property that (TAX PAYERS PAY FOR) if were gonna start talking about tax payers. . I live in LA and some of this graffiti is just plain disgusting. .

U mad?

 

[DownByLaw]

Originally Posted by YouMadYouBad

im glad it got covered up, stuff is ugly and taggers should buy a big board and tag in their backyards not on public property that (TAX PAYERS PAY FOR) if were gonna start talking about tax payers. . I live in LA and some of this graffiti is just plain disgusting. .

While I agree that some of the %#$$ we are subjected to is a disgrace, clearly the piece covered was not. Seriously, what was the point ofcovering it?

 

[sirius lee handsome]

Piece of history down the drain. This piece is and will be one of the most important pieces of street/underground/graffiti art ever.


And now they cover it up with a big old white blotch and make the surrounding LA River scenery look even worse? idiots

 

[diego]

Excuse my ignorance but is this the same place where they shot the racing scene in Grease?

Or the closing scene in "Blood In Blood Out"?

 

[p2vandal]

damn that sucks..
specially since saber doesnt do much illegal stuff anymore..
o well though his works still around.

 

[nash]

Originally Posted by Diego

Excuse my ignorance but is this the same place where they shot the racing scene in Grease?

Or the closing scene in "Blood In Blood Out"?

Yep, both of those. As well as Transformers, The Italian Job, Purple Rain, and a whole lot more movies and some music videos.

 

[send one]

Unless they plan on painting the ENTIRE river wall, this makes no sense.

R.I.P.

 

[ogmikey]

Waste of money takin it down. Just taking away from the culture, it wasn't hurting anybody.

 

[mac a roni]

[color= rgb(102, 0, 153)]You can really see it through satelite[/color]

 

[khadafi252]

so last i checked, the station fire has cost 60 mill to fight so far. put in a pin in that.

the city of LA paid people to cover this up? i'm not in CA anymore and i know you guys are having hard financial times out there, but it seems like a wasteof resources to be used towards something so minimal.

 

[syxth element]

. My sister's bf got this pic of the piece (from his boy) signed bysaber..

 

[sundoobie]

What is the point in covering that art up? I give it 2 days before taggers start working on that fresh new painted wall.