In this quarantine period we thought to recommend some interesting and useful books about graffiti and street art!
01. Graffiti School
Although the public perception of graffiti has changed radically over the last fifty years, few would have predicted that it would become the subject of this major new textbook.Christoph Ganter covers the history of informal mark-making in the public realm, from the first unauthorized characters inscribed on the ancient walls of Egypt and Pompeii to nineteenth-century Vienna, where Joseph Kyselak established himself as the father of graffiti; from New York’s “Taki 183,” the first modern graffiti writer, to more recent developments brought about by the Hip Hop revolution. The effects of the 1980s films Beat Street, Wild Style, and StyleWars are examined, as is the influence graffiti experts on today's subculture through books, magazines, and the Internet.The practical elements of graffiti are considered in later chapters, which combine tips on handling a spray can, creating a unique tag, and getting work up safely and legally with step-by-step diagrams that show how to achieve effects such as bubblestyle, blockbusters, oneliners, and wildstyle. A teacher’s manual features sample plans for a single lesson as well as guidance on structuring a longer course.
02. Subway Art
In 1984 the groundbreaking Subway Art brought graffiti to the world, presenting stunning photographic documentation of the burgeoning movement in New York. Thirty years later, this bible of street art has been updated with over seventy photographs not included in the original edition and new insights on an incredibly rich period for urban art and its legacy.In new introductions, authors Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant recall how they gained entry into the New York City graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s. New afterwords continue the story, tracing the decline of the subway and graffiti scene in the late 1980s to its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement. The authors reveal how the lives of the original subway artists have unfolded and mourn the loss of several to the darker forces of the street.
03. Street fonts: graffiti alphabets from around the world
Classic graffiti lettering and experimental typographical forms lie at the heart of street culture and have long inspired designers in many different fields. But graffiti artists, who tend to paint the same letters of their tag again and again, rarely design complete alphabets. Claudia Walde has spent over two years collecting alphabets by 154 artists from 30 countries with a view to showing the many different styles and approaches to lettering within the graffiti and street art cultures. All of the artists have roots in graffiti. Some are world renowned such as 123 Klan (Canada), Faith47 (South Africa) and Hera (Germany); others are lesser known or only now starting to emerge. Each artist received the same brief: to design all 26 letters of the Latin alphabet within the limits of a single page of the book. How they approached this task and selected the media with which to express their ideas was entirely up to them. The results are a fascinating insight into the creative process.
04. Graffiti Cookbook: The Complete Do-it-Yourself-Guide to Graffiti
The complete DIY bible of graffiti. Now in softcover!A rich source of inspiration for anyone interested in do-it-yourself culture. Graffiti Cookbook is a guide to the materials and techniques used within today̢۪s most creative and progressive art movement. In hundreds of pictures and illustrations and a dozen of interviews with some of the world̢۪s most famous artists the authors show how graffiti is made. From spray techniques and hand styles to tools and style analysis, Graffiti Cookbook takes us on a trip around the world in the search of the tricks and trades of graffiti writers. After hundreds of books filled with pictures of graffiti published in the last few years finally one is showing how the artists work. Graffiti Cookbook is filled with tips and examples of how to create your own piece, tag and throw up. These techniques can be used on all kinds of materials, textile, glass, metal, concrete or wood. Graffiti Cookbook gives an unique insight in the alternative art world and is a rich inspiration source for those interested in do-it-yourself-culture. Swet, Jurne, Mad C, Egs and Chob are some of the featured artists in the book.
05. Dumbo. Acts of vandalism and stories of love.
"I dare anyone who has been to Italy, and especially Milan, in the past 10 years to claim that they have never seen the word 'DUMBO' written on the city walls. It's impossible!" Here, the artist behind those five obsessively repeated letters--who has brought the question "art or vandalism" to a country better known for its Renaissance painting and streamlined design--reveals himself and the enigmatic art underground that has nurtured him over the last decade. Photographs depicting the clandestine routines of graffiti writing for Italy's most popular street artist accompany almost 200 color pictures of Dumbo's work all over Italy and Europe. Artist Barry McGee--who honored Dumbo in a piece done for the European opening of the American street art show Beautiful Losers--says in a preface here, "Dumbo represents everything right in this world by doing everything we are told is wrong."
06. The Faith of Graffiti
A rerelease of a classic assessment of graffiti as an art form pairs evocative photography with the Pulitzer-winning journalist's 1974 essay evaluating street art as an expression of identity, politics and urban existence, in an expanded volume that includes 32 pages of additional photos. Simultaneous. 25,000 first printing.
07. Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents
Graffiti World, now updated, is the most comprehensive and bestselling survey of graffiti art ever published. The original collection of more than 2,000 illustrations by over 150 artists around the world is joined by a new section devoted to work created in the five years since the book's first edition.
Graffiti has long been a ubiquitous aspect of the urban landscape, since anonymous, largely unsung spray-can art first hit city walls in New York and Philadelphia in the late 1960s. As hip-hop culture spread from America, graffiti became a worldwide phenomenon, emerging in the 1980s as the symbolic artistic language of young people everywhere.
Today's graffiti artists incorporate a variety of mediums, including stickers, stencils, oils, acrylics, and oil-based chalk, as well as an ever-expanding range of social commentary. This evolution in style and subject matter has guaranteed graffiti's long-lasting influence on art, graphic design, and style around the world.
08. Style: Writing from the Underground
"First of its kind. A different look at the technical aspects of Writing, its primary causes, the various effects, and after effects. In forcing on its beginnings in NYC, the book examines the blueprint and links that has provided the extensive traditional chain upheld and regarded as "STYLE". A history and analysis from those who have lived and made this movement what it is today. The book's photo documentation spans three decades (70's, 80's, 90's) and consists of rare gems, mostly by writers themselves. Together they reveal a living archive that makes for an unprecedented incredible pictorial of the writers' as well as the culture's growth."
09. Alphabeatz. Graffiti alphabets from A to Z.
Graffiti writing was born in the streets of Philadelphia in the late 1960s. But it was in New York in the early 1970s that it became a full-fledged urban art, gradually taking over the landscape of the city, from its walls to its subway cars. In these years when this art form was emerging, graffiti pioneers laid its foundations through the constant game they played with the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, which they distorted and highlighted in the tags that they painted on walls. In the first section of this book, Woshe recounts the incredible story of the birth of this culture. He then offers us a detailed examination of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, their structure and the ways in which graffiti writers have made them evolve. This study is enriched with a wealth of illustrations and examples of the customizations that artists add to their letters. At the end of the volume, ten of the international scene’s most talented graffiti creators answer Woshe’s questions about matters that include their practice, their relationship with letters and their backgrounds.
Interviews to: BATES (Copenhague, Denmark); DARCO (Paris, France); DEMS (Elche, Spain); GESER (Connecticut USA); JURNE (Oakland, CA,USA); LOKISS (Paris, France); SERCH (Zwolle, The Netherlands); SWET (Copenhague, Denmark); SYE (New Yor, NY,USA); ZOER (Grasse, France).
This is a writing manual, an inspiring collection of ideas and a beautiful book on the world of graffiti, but above all it is a declaration of love for this culture that mixes urban performance and mastery of letters. It includes a map of New York with the sites where the most important graffiti are located.
10. From the Platform: Subway Graffiti, 1983-1989
See the New York City transit system at a time the Metropolitan Transit
Authority (MTA) has tried hard to forget. In the early '80s, graffiti
writer Paul Cavalieri, who writes "CAVS," was drawn to the colorful tags
on trains. He started learning train schedules so he could snap works
by many writers of the time. This is a compilation of subway graffiti
from 1983 to 1989, when the MTA announced that its fleet was entirely
graffiti-free. More than 325 color photos capture everything from
motion-bombed train interiors riddled with pilot marker tags to epic
works covering whole exteriors, top to bottom. Artists tell their tales
of adventure throughout and reminisce about working on live third rails,
navigating the complex subway system to find their works, and
witnessing graffiti's gradual disappearance from the trains. This book
presents a nostalgic look at 1980s New York City and the street artists
that gave it soul.