Upon its original theatrical release, the film was a critical and commercial failure, and it marked the end of the resurgence of African-American films that began with the blaxploitation movement of the early 1970s. A handful of new songs, written by Jones and the songwriting team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, were added for the project. Brown's Broadway libretto by Joel Schumacher, and Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross' songs for it. Produced by Rob Cohen and directed by Sidney Lumet, the film stars Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor. Befriended by a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion, she travels through the city to seek an audience with the mysterious Wiz, who they say is the only one powerful enough to send her home.įilming took place in Queens, New York from October to December of 1977.
It follows the adventures of Dorothy, a shy, twenty-four-year-old Harlem schoolteacher who finds herself magically transported to the urban fantasy Land of Oz, which resembles a dream version of New York City. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz featuring an all-black cast, the film was loosely adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name. Most recently, he impoverished more and more, and went to his brother in Florida.įive 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.The Wiz is a 1978 American musical adventure fantasy film produced by Universal Pictures and Motown Productions and released by Universal Pictures on October 24, 1978. With him a kidney damage was diagnosed in 1996, probably a result of spraying without protective mask, which forced him to dialysis. 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 The mid-80s were the authorities in New York stronger against graffiti in the subway before. He also had a small role in the film Wild Style in the same year. Iz the Wiz in 1983 occurred in the Style Wars documentation. His motives were mostly colorful, wagon filled lettering, but also portraits such as John Lennon.Īs 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.
One night he could be so over 100 Throw -ups, quick paintings with one color shaded fill arise.īut he was also known for its large, elaborate designed pictures. With trains his name pulled through the city, and made him known. In the New York City borough Queens he preferably brought his works to the metro line A, but also on walls.
Iz the Wiz has been active since 1972 in the graffiti scene.Ī poster of the Broadway musical The Wiz in 1975 inspired him to his stage name Iz the Wiz.
He was one of the first and most famous graffiti artist in the 1970s and 1980s in New York. Iz the Wiz (actually Michael Martin, born November 30, 1958, † 17 June 2009) was an American graffiti artist.