Muelle

A restored Muelle tag on the Calle de la Montera

Juan Carlos Argüello (23 September 1965 - 1 July 1995), known as Muelle [ˈmwe.ʝe], was a Spanish graffiti artist from Campamento, Madrid.

Career

Around 1980, during the Madrilene cultural Movida, Argüello started reproducing the logo he had designed on walls and public spaces of Madrid. It consisted of the word Muelle (Spanish for "spring"), or an R with an enclosing circle (®) and a line in the shape of a coiled spring ending in an arrowhead. At first he used an ink marker, and later spraypainted his signature extensively around Madrid (and to a lesser extent, in other Spanish localities). In the eighties, he improved his technique, using several colours in a technique labelled relleno, wider borders known as grosor, and 3-D effects.

Influence

His innovative style, along with the profusion of his tags made his work popular. Many other Madrilenian youths known as flecheros created their own tags inspired by Muelle's, often ending strokes with arrowheads (flechas). The flechero scene developed at a time of cultural isolation, its practitioners being largely unaware of graffiti in the New York style. The spread of hip-hop culture in Spain in the late 1980s introduced the new graffiti styles developed in the United States, but variations in Muelle's work basically kept his original design. Argüello appeared in Spanish television and newspapers.

Death

Argüello died of liver cancer on 1 July, 1995 at the age of 29. His obituary appeared in El País. In 2022 the Spanish graffiti brand Montana Colors released a special edition aerosol can featuring Muelle's tag alongside a short documentary about him.

See also

• Akim Hoste

External links

• Photographs at Madrid Old School Graffiti, an aficionado's web.
• Muelle, The Madrid Graffiti Legend. Montana Colors documentary about the artist.