New York City is where the quintessential contemporary people's art of graffiti was born. The top "writers" go "all city" when their tags can be seen throughout the five boroughs. This exhilarating selection of their work, assembled by Hugo Martinez, a leading authority on the history of street art in NYC, takes the reader on an "all-city" tour of New York, displaying the extraordinary range of its taggers and bombers. More than two hundred photographs showcase the artwork of the most prominent names of the past five years, including CASE 2, KEZ, MOSCO, SKUF, VFR, and MQ. As graffiti comes to be embraced as a medium in its own right, its most important practitioners in NYC confirm the power and creativity of this vital contemporary language.
good book for big pictures of raw throwups and tags in nyc
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Want big drippy tags, outlines and throwups? Get this book. Nice and grimy, with a good variety of stuff and definitely some cool old and new names. I liked the graff quotes section too. My only dislike is that the book at times seems to focus on particular crews and is somewhat ignorant about street art and writers of different styles (photo of a dissed Dalek piece, using the term unknown or quirky for writers they should really know). I'd prefer the book had a more universal target, but maybe they feel that this particular cross-section has the grimiest styles, which is sort-of true, but they're leaving out lots. Still, for such a low price, this is a great book to get for nice dirty graff.
Street Smarts
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
GRAFFITI NYC looks at graffiti, one of the most controversial, and certainly the most prevalent art forms to have manifested itself in the last fifty years. Through text and images graffiti's `ground zero', New York City, comes alive through the eyes of Martinez, who has been part of the `scene' for more than thirty years developing and documenting the cities street art since its inception nearly 40 years ago. His work, along with that of artist and photographer NATO and editor/curator Antonio Zaya, highlights the vocation of over 150 of today's best contemporary graffiti artists, or `writers'. There are quotations from a wide range of individuals involved, including those occupied in law enforcement, cultural commentary, and politics, along with those of the artists themselves. This is, without a doubt, an unapologetic celebration of contemporary graff. "The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance"
GRAFFITI NYC
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
Mr. Martinez hits the spot with this true-to-the-game pictorial of recent and current writers in NYC. It's drenched and drippy with no-excuses, raw street, straight up. The quotes by various writers are just as raw. Only trouble I had was navigating from the index to un-numbered pages when I wanted to reference particular photos. Aside, a must-have for anyone down with the most relevant art form of our day.
good book.
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 16 years ago
If you are looking for a book about pretty, glossy full color murals and pieces, don't buy this book. If you want a book about dirty, illegal, real graffiti, keep reading. The book is more of a photo essay on bombing, and the quotes throughout are great. I would recommend the book to graffiti fans, more casual readers should probably check out graffiti world or something like that.
Good overview of NYC Street Art
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
Although one would think it is no longer questioned as a "legitimate" genre of art, Graffiti NYC seeks to further document this deep and powerful movement. The book is beautifully designed and provides an interesting look at the recent history (21st century) of graffiti.
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