Dondi White 1961-1998 Artist    
For more than 20 years in New York City, graffiti culture was as pervasive as it was secretive. Scores of underground artists worked in the shadows to create illicit and unconventional masterpieces-colorful and graphic paintings made with aerosol spray paint on New York City subway lines. Graffiti writer Dondi White came up in the 1970s, plastering his name and many aliases on dozens of subway trains. His work and personality stood out in the culture, and he became a star among graffiti writers. As New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) eradicated graffiti writing from its trains, White became one of many graffitists who began to work aboveground. Graffiti-based art was at the heart of New York’s art scene in the 1980s. White put his work on canvas and exhibited it in art galleries. He was the first graffiti artist to have a one-man show in the Netherlands and Germany, and his work is collected by European museums. After his death in 1998, White’s brother Michael, and graffiti writer Andrew “Zephyr” Witten, collaborated on the book Dondi White: Style Master General, The Life of Graffiti Artist Dondi White, Regan Books 2001.

Dondi White was born Donald J. White on April 7, 1961, in Manhattan, New York. He was the youngest of five sons of Italian and African-American parents, and was raised in the mostly white East New York section of Brooklyn. Dondi was a creative child who flew pet pigeons, played stickball and touch football with his brothers, and built go-carts out of milk crates and roller skates. The Whites spent many weekends swimming at Coney Island. Dondi’s parents instilled a strong sense of family morals onto their sons. Talking back to elders, cursing, and disrespect were out of the question. The White boys said their prayers nightly and settled arguments in the backyard of their home with boxing gloves. Both his childhood tricycle and his Catholic school upbringing would later resurface in his artwork. Religious imagery and religious terms, such as “Anno Domini,” were prevalent in his work. His mother nicknamed him Dondi.


Built a Crew and His Rep
The family moved six blocks away when White was nine years old, and it was in this new neighborhood that his older brother Michael recalled seeing “Dondi” scribbling on streetlights near the house. While White was still a child, his neighborhood began to change. Street gangs and heroin came to East New York, and the boy’s personal safety became an issue. His two older brothers, Albert and Robert, had already grown up and moved out, and his family began to worry that their youngest could be recruited by a gang. But he kept himself busy playing pool and building minibikes, and immersed himself in flying his pigeons, which kept him off the streets and on the roof of his house for hours at a time. By 1976, the Whites had retired and had moved again, and Dondi was the only son left in the house. It was a dream-come-true for Dondi, who was building his reputation as a graffiti writer-the new house was within walking distance of three major New York train yards. He tagged using “NACO” and “DONDI,”and worked on refining his style, gradually moving from simple tagging to building more elaborate pieces.
Anxious to leave high school behind, he earned his GED in 1980, took a job in a government office, and began to indulge his interest in graffiti. His bedroom became a meeting place for graffiti writers, many of whom he met through raising pigeons. A writer called Duro, whom White had met in 1974, became his best friend. The odor of aerosol spray paint was strong in the family basement-it had become his artistic testing ground. While most of the graffiti in White’s neighborhood was gang-related and territorial, White’s approach was founded in artistry.

  

 

  
 



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