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"When the American graffiti movement emerged, it was 'outsider' art, youth art, and public art all at once. It shattered racial and economic segregation and provoked political and generational reprobation. Roger Gastman and Caleb Neelon's The History of American Graffiti is as sweeping, provocative, and monumental as the movement itself."--Jeff Chang, author, Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation
Product Description
In the scope of human history, graffiti is the only visual art form started by children to have become a globally entrenched medium. With forty years of history as an organized artistic lifestyle sport, graffiti has sprung from the neglected neighborhoods of New York and Philadelphia to cover cities on every habitable continent. It was an amazing formula: fame for your name via effort and style. In the middle of the 1980s, there was a rush of media attention focused on the movement of graffiti, as a part of the hip-hop culture that included rapping, DJing, and breakdancing. The movement immediately spread throughout the world and took immovable root across the United States. Yet despite the early rush and all of its success around the world, the written history of its expansion has remained scant, and to this day, the general public, even the educated general public, has only a faint sense of what graffiti is about, and one often clouded by misconceptions. "The History of American Graffiti" provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the roots of a subculture that, in the last twenty-five years, has managed to move mainstream without losing its edge. Authors Roger Gastman and Caleb Neelon have spent the better part of the last five years interviewing key figures in the graffiti world throughout American-from the bedrock cities of New York City, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles to the lesser-known, but equally important hotspots of Cleveland, Baltimore, and Phoenix. Approximately 90 percent of the art in this book has never been published, and was sourced directly from the artists who lived the scene, giving the book a raw street vibe as authentic as the history it documents.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Saw this on sale whilst on holiday but due to the size and weight of the book decided againt purchasing to carry home. It is a intensive book - plenty to read and plenty of photo's. Can't wait to give it as the birthday gift it was intended to.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
definitely delievers on its title.
7 April 2011
Format:Hardcover
books about graffiti can be hit-or-miss; they vary from the very artistic and beautiful to pop-culture garbage. i'm very happy to say that this book is one of the former. for starters, it's a just over 400 pages long, packed full of pictures and text. while i expect any good graffiti book to have lots of pictures, this one is quite different in that it reads like a history book. that is, it delivers on its title, and this isn't any small feat. it spans the american graffiti world both historically and regionally, including short 2-page articles on most major american cities (the biggest cities, i.e. New York, Philly, LA, etc., have their own chapters). the depth of the information varies, as can be expected by such an endeavor, but the breadth of what the authors undertook is astounding, and far exceeded my expectations and hopes. i highly recommend this book to anyone who is seriously interested in graffiti as the artform that it is.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
knocked me out
29 April 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book is comprehensive, insightful, and profound. takes it's place on the top shelf of hip-hop/graffiti books. The chapter on My home town of East Chicago took me by surprise. i knew all those guys! My son grew up in awe of them and carries the torch with UAE & FTR of Chicago. Highly recommended.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Enthralling....
18 April 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This comprehensive collection of the story that is American Graffiti is great. There are so many stories and links to what spawned this art form that on a whole, graffiti becomes less an act of vandalism and more a lesson in creative self expression. The amount of pictures and personal accounts is astounding. How all of these individuals were tracked down and stories collected is beyond me. Also, the fact that the book revisits cities cited earlier makes a lot of sense. Cities such as New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles have so much information and some great characters emerge. Some cities seem more relevant than others, but even recording the less impactful stories is really important to give a complete view of graffiti in the United States.
I am trying to read cover to cover at the moment- currently in Philadelphia 1980s section.
I am trying to read cover to cover at the moment- currently in Philadelphia 1980s section.
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