contents

Foreword
Worldwide History of Graffiti
10 The Here and Now
14 Th8 APleriCaS
122 Europe
324 Th8 Resto. DF' t.h8 t&lOrld
368 lnformation
374 CrewNames
Glossary
Websites
Select Magazines
Select Bibliography
375 Acknowledgmenls
Photo Credits
Foreworo
Graffiti as we know it today may halle a relatiYely short hiS10fy
but it has managed to loudl almos! r:NefY corner 01 the gooe.
In lhis book, I have allempled the mosl comprehenSive
presentatlOO ever published 01 lhe mos! interesling and
nfluential artiSts in Individual countries. I have roamed the
worId - 6terally. bu! also via lile Internet and a huge range
01 contacts - 10 provide a lruty unique perspectiva
Lellars usad 10 domnate bU! today lhe culture has
(lxpanded: new lorms are e)(pIored, and characters.
symbols and abstracliOns have begun lo proliferate. Ovar
the past few years. graffiti anists have been using a wider
scope 01 expression. Personal style iS free to deveklp wilhout
any coostr8lf'lts, snd stickers, posters, stenci ls, airbrush.
oil-based chalk. al l varieties 01 paint and even scu!pture are
usad. MosI artists have boon libefaled from relying soIeIy
00 the spraycan.
As a restit. many now relar 10 a postgraffrti movement,
characterized by more imOvative approaches lo fOllTl and
technique lha! 90 beyond lraditional perceptions of lhe
classic graffitJ sty\e. To reHect lhese changes in tlle graffili
worId, lhase new directlOlls have become a locus of lhis
book. I llave deliberately nol civided lhe contenls bycomlry.
deciding Instead to orcIer artists Iargety aIphabeticaIIy by
conllnent. Ths Is because nationality, race and sax have
no beanng on!he graffili scene.
NichoIasGanz
Atom.USA.I999 7
8
worldWide OP
Derived rom lhe Italian sgrafflo, meaning 'scratch'. graffiti has
beerl around since the beginning 01 mankind, Pictures, such
as those al Ihe Lascaux Caves in France, were mostly carved
into the cave walls with bones or stooes, bu! early man also
anticipated the steocil artd spray technique. blowing coloured
powder through hol low bones aroond his hands 10 make
sil houettes. In ancien! Greece, fragmenls 01 clay were found
on wt1ich notes had been carved, while excavations in
Pompeii broughl to light a wealth 01 graffiti, includiog election
slogans. drawings aOO obscenities
In 1904, Ihe first magazine 10 focus on toile! graffiti was
launched: Anthropophyteia. Later 00, during the Second
World War, the Nazis usad writing on wal ls for ttleir
propaganda machines lo slir up hatred towards Jew$
aOO However, grafflti was also importan! lor
resistance movements as a way 01 publicizing heir protests
lo Ihe general public, One example is 'Tha WI1ite Rose',
a group 01 German nonconlorrnlsts who spoke out against
Hitler and his regime in 1942 through leallets and painted
slogans, until tOOr capture in 1943, During the sludent revolts
in the 1960s and 1970s, proteslers made lheir views public
with JX>sters and painted words. French sludents often turned
10 lhe pochoir (the French word lor stenci l graffiti) technique,
the precursor 01 the present -day stencil movement
Today's 9raffiti developed towards the end 01 he 1970s
in New York and Philadelphia, where artisls such as Taki 183
Julio 204, Cal 161 and Cornbread painted loor names on
walls or in subway stahons arOllnd Manhaltan. The unique
make-up 01 New York City in which Ihe Harlem slums and
the glamorous wortd 01 Broadway stand side by side
seems to have been a breeding-ground lor the firsl graffili
artists. bringing logeth8f many different cullures and class
issues in ene single place. This environment luellad an art istic
baWe against t he power brokers in society. and a brakaway
lrom poverty and the ghetto. Cornbread, lor example.
became notorious by spray-painl ing his 'tag' (the slriking
signature 01 a grafflti artist) on an eiephant in azoo. Through
these pioneers, American graffiti was bom, sweeping
Davact-oro.NewYO!I<.USA F'inL&Daoger59,NewYO!I<. USA. 200:2 Tracyl68.withacryk:plate.NewYork,USA,2003
Ihrough Ihe world and drawing thousands 01 youngsters
under itsspell.
Inil ially graffrtiartistsoftenusedeithertheirrealnarnesor
nicknames, but SOOIl the fi rsl pseuclonyms started to appear.
The glut 01 newgraffrti artisls brandishing their narnes across
the whoIe city inspirecl writ8fS lo find new ways lo rnake their
work stand out. Tags gol bigg8f and bigger unlil lhe l irsl
'pieces' (short lor 'mast8fpieces') appeared en New York
t rains. Many artists sought recognilion, eilher by spray-
painting lhe mos! trains or the bes! pieces. Stencil and street
artists, meanwhil e, wanl ed lo communicate with the pas5ef-
byor shape tOOr environment without any constraints.
Sean, Lee, Dondi (RIP), Slayhigh 149, ZepIlyr, Blade
and Iz Ihe Wiz became harees through the sheer quantity
and quality 01 thei r work. Mists inilially largeted trains
because thay often travelled through the whole city
and were seen by millions 01 people, By the mid-t980s,
it was claimed, lhere was not a single train Ihal had no!
at one time been spray-painted from top lo bottom
This changed in around 1986, when the NewYork aulhorit ies
took steps lO protecl their property jrom graffiti by pulling
up leneas around statiOn yards and buffing trains regularty,
As the New York wrilers travelled around. lhe graffiti
phenomenon spread throughoul lhe whole 01 the USA. and
soon trains became largets in Europe. At the same t ime, lhe
lirst exhibitions took place in fo.msterdam and Antw8fp. Pieces
slarted lo appear in almost every European city Irom the earty
1980s, although fo.msterdam and Madrid had fost8fed an
earlier graffiti movement that had ils roots in punk.
However. it was only reall y with lhe arrrval 01 hip-hop lhat
lhe European graffrt i scene too!< off. The majorrty 01 graffiti in
Europe was based en the American modeI. which remains
the mest popular 10 this day. With hip-hop, entered
almosl every Western and Western- influenced cOllntry
and Ihen slarted lo edge out l urther alieid. Asia and Soul h
fo.metica caught en lat8f, but their graffiti culture is now
growing at a phenomenal rate and has already reached
a high standard, particularly in Sout h fo.merica.
IllhaWiz&Mickey, New York,lJSA ' LaMaro,8arceIona,Spain,2003 " Miss V1l!l. Supakitch & KomIie,Mootpellier,Frnnce, 2004
9
10
The Here and now
The Na..... York modal 01 graffiti centrad around lhe ootortioo
ollellers. bu! many new approaches have stlce emerged -
pusI'w1g lhe booodaries olgrafflti culture. Over lhe years, lhe
OI'iginaIletter style has deveIoped 10 encompass a whoIe
ranga 01 different typograptic forms: lhe legible 'bIockJelter',
the dislorted and intertwiled 'wilstyle'. the familiar 'bubbIe
style' and '3D'. Characl9r$, wt1ic:h started off as ancillaries
to lelters. ncm IOfm thelr own graffiti group and range lrom
comlCal flQures lO lhose 01 perlecl photorealism, Logo and
icooic grafflli. on lhe other hand, specialize in striking
emblems or respectively.
Allhough l ile spraycan. l he tradit k>rlal graffiti tool, remains
key 10 wril9rS wOl1dwide. lhe choice 01 material avai lable
these days - oil or acryHc palnt, airbrush, oil-based chalk.
posl6fS ane! stickers, lo name a few - is extensive and has
widened he scope artistiCally. TIla sleocil technkue (whidl
invo/ves USing a painlbrush or spraycan lo paint images or
words Ihrough a lemplate) has recently broughllo lhe lore
someof lhe most rec<:lgIizable graffrti ar1ls1$ - such as
anis! Banksy. Wlth his rrlx 01 'rof'iC and JXlIilicalty
molivated pictures, ancI German 'Bananensprayer' Thomas
Batmgartel. wtIo has stenciled his bananas on CCUltless
gallenesand fl'IU$(lUf'I'l$.
The emergence of lhe Internet has also played an
inlerestng role lO the evoIutioo 01 graffiti. AIIIlough sorne
artists shun this new medium, arguing lhal lhe direcl
experi9nce 01 lhe art foml is crucial, many waffiti artists a'ld
lheir loIowers have welcomed it wrth open arms as an
addilional fieId of actiOn. Massive 8fChives hall'9 been se! up
enlhuslasls and artJSIs. One example iS 'M Crmes', whiCh
has become lhe definitive worIctMde s.la for hlQhlighting lhe
talen! ofmanywnters forawider audience.ln manyCOlJllnes,
lhase banks 01 piclures and inlonnalion dala are an importanl
means 01 access lO influenoes from othef parts 01 lhe work:I.
Before lhe Internet revoIulion. differenl conlinents, dlies and
evoo dislricls had thetr" own dislinclive graffiti cultures. Today,
lhose local differences sli ll axisl lo sorne extent but have been
insplred by slyles from all over lhe wolid. For coontries sucIl
as South Alrica and Russia, whiCh artists have tended lo
negfecl on lheir Iravejs, aM where il is oflen impossible lo gel
hoId 01 graffiti magazlnes ar.d books. good-quality spraycans
and caps (Ihe sp!"aycan which determines lhe sp!"ay
width), thelnlernetcanofferinvaluablepossibililies.
The various hislorlcal aspects 01 grafflti broughl logether
in Ihis book. and lhe differenl forms and leclYliQOOS lhal
are arOUld 10day. have made 1I necessary 10 group an 01
lhe style branches under lhe word Many artiSts teod
10 distance themselves from lhIs word because lhay lhink
tila! it is no Ionger conlemporary. Moreover, H often
up images of vandaism and delacemenl, or is trealed as
a generic lerm lor Slreel arto As a resuIt, a 101 01 artisls preler
tolabellhetrworl<as 'aerosolart", 'post-l78.lfiti', 'neo-graffiti'
and 'street art' in orderlo cifferenliata thernselves.1 do no!
Wlsh 10 make any relerence 10vandahsm using lhe lerm
'graffiti" buI, rathef, 10 indude and presenl as many gralfiti
styles as I can, along with thelr most interesting Pooeers.
LJri<norwnartosl..Dog.P<vis.France.2003
FoI:IwngPl'QW00cy.Sid<boySl<l!nz.Bnstol.EngBld.2001