Art is known to be a matter of opinion. What is a true feat for one is just the useless scrawl of some drunken idiot for another. And if we're being honest, it often is. In the world of street art and graffiti, this problem is particularly pronounced. Nothing angers a seasoned street artist more than having their work defaced by some random sprayer. Especially when they can't think of anything better than just spray-painting their name over the picture, tagging themselves cheaply. But artists shouldn't look at it so narrowly. Tagging also looks back on a proud tradition! May I introduce:Joseph Kyselak, the first tagger in history and graffiti master of the Biedermeier period.
Joseph Kyselak:a born loser?
So who was this Joseph Kyselak and what does he have to do with graffiti? An awful lot is not known about him. He was probably born in Vienna sometime at the end of the 18th century. You're not so sure about the exact year of your birth, but it certainly wasn't a great time for a carefree childhood. A good ten years before little Joseph was born, the revolution had broken out in France, and soon all of Europe went to war against Napoleon. And then someone says again that the children of today have such a hard time. Sensory overload and such... Yes, of course.
Young Kyselak wasn't that lucky at the time. After all, he came from a well-established family of Austrian civil servants (the ultimate goal of every Austrian!) His father worked for the „k. k. Private, family and vital funds top management" , a Viennese authority and a strong contender for the longest useless word of all time. Shortly after the victory over Napoleon and the subsequent Congress of Vienna, which he must have witnessed in one way or another, Kyselak graduated from high school with the Matura. The best conditions to follow in his father's footsteps and become a civil servant!
It was a good time for that too. In the meantime, the Biedermeier period had begun in Austria. It wasn't that important what you did in life. It was important to do it quietly and not to attract attention. Made for the officials. Nevertheless, the young Kyselak decided against the life of a civil servant and enrolled in philosophy at the University of Vienna. By the way, studying philosophy back then was what it mostly still is today:an excuse not to work. After a few unsuccessful semesters, Kyselak dropped out of college. In the meantime, his father had gotten him a job at his agency:an unpaid internship! Today's philosophy students are also familiar with this.
What a pub crawl through Vienna can bring
Kyselak's internship at Vitalfondskassenoberdingsbums went great. He liked it there so much that after seven years (!) he was still there as an intern! He had meanwhile applied for a position as an assistant, but was turned down. Ironically, by pointing out that other applicants could no longer be expected to do an unpaid internship. Joseph must have had the fullest understanding of this. It is now 1825. Kyselak is fast approaching thirty and has achieved nothing in life. A failed degree, seven years as an intern in his father's agency. No wonder he liked to go there for a drink.
During one of these sociable drinking evenings at the Spittelberg in Vienna, the moment that changed his life all came about. While intoxicated, he and his friends made a bet in which Kyselak claimed he could become a celebrity throughout the Habsburg Empire within three years. And without committing a crime or inventing a new method of suicide, he stressed.
From hopeless case to father of graffiti
Even if dear Kyselak would not have found it difficult to invent a new method of suicide - after all, he was originally Viennese - he thought of something else. In the same year he set off on a multi-year hike through Austria. He probably had two motives. On the one hand, he wrote a book about his adventures. Travelogues were very much in vogue in the Biedermeier period and it was easy to become famous very quickly. It's just stupid that Kyselak was about as gifted as a writer as he was as a student and intern. Absolutely illegible, these "sketches of a foot trip through Austria ...". Luckily for him, Kyselak had a backup plan:he carried his ink and brush with him on his travels and began to leave his name in prominent places wherever he went.
So he traveled the country for three years. Lower Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Bavaria, Tyrol... He left his trademark on walls and wherever it was possible:his own surname in bold, black letters. After just one year, his drinking buddies in Vienna had to admit:he won the bet. News about the mysterious "Kyselak" lettering has meanwhile made the rounds all over the country, its tags have been sighted from the Wachau to the Tyrolean high mountains and the press has puzzled over the background. And all this 150 years before the advent of modern graffiti!
What remains of Kyselak, the first graffiti master in history?
However, Kyselak was not too happy about his new fame and winning the bet. In 1828 he returned to Vienna from Passau and only three years later he died there of cholera at the age of just over thirty. Legend has it that he intentionally contracted the disease by refusing to leave town and deliberately eating unwashed fruit. There you go! So he invented a new method of suicide after all!
However, Kyselak's legacy can still be seen today. His lettering is still emblazoned on a rock face in the Wachau, for example. The first imitators were already in Vienna in the 19th century, so that the name Kyselak can be seen on numerous buildings there today. Some legends have also formed around the graffiti master Joseph Kyselak. According to one of these myths, he was even summoned to see Emperor Franz I, who ordered him to finally stop with the miserable scribbling. Of course, Kyselak swore to get better immediately. A few hours later, the Emperor found the words "Kyselak" engraved on his worktable.
Legends or not:with his intransigence and the then completely absurd habit of leaving the exact same lettering everywhere - sometimes even using stencils - Kyselak is almost without a doubt the first tagger in the history of graffiti. As I said:a problem that the street art scene is still struggling with today. Kyselak clearly won his bet. Thousands of taggers agree.
Whether and what one should learn from Kyselak's story and others can be read in this post, in which I deal with the often claimed repetition of history. Fortunately, Vienna's street art scene today has more to offer than cheap tags. My good friend Thomas recently published the Street Art Guide Vienna - a big recommendation! Art from public spaces can also be seen regularly on the Vienna Murals Facebook page. See you next time!