Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Shows examples of graffiti from around the world and shares the opinions of graffiti artists about their work.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Using brightly colored pictures, Chalfant and Prigoff depict spray-can art from its beginning in the 1970s with graffiti-based writing on New York City subway cars to its spread in the 1980s throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. They document its progress from subway cars to walls to art dealers, and the changes involved. They give the reasons for its emergence, note the efforts made to combat it, and then, with the eventual trend toward respectability, discuss its use for community projects. The clear introduction includes a glossary of terms used by the artist or ``writer.'' Twenty cities are covered on three continents. The excellent color photographs show both the paintings themselves and the artists in action. The soft-covered book is well made. Chalfant has previously collaborated with Martha Cooper on Subway Art (1984). His black-and-white photos have appeared in Craig Castleman's Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York (CH, Feb '83). The authors' commentary and interviews with the artists give us an understanding of spray-can art and its social and cultural significance. Highly recommended for all libraries.-P. Brauch, Brooklyn College, CUNY

Booklist Review

Dazzling Japanese color printing sets this gallery of international graffiti art ablaze. The follow-up to Cooper and Chalfant's Subway Art (Booklist 81:101 S 15 84) has a brief introduction and minimal notes thereafter. Stress is put on the artists' youth and their admirable realization that they are liberating the art experience from galleries, museums, and other high-culture quarantines. No longer put up on el train cars many cities have none, while others are able to clean theirs off more easily than New York can graffiti paintings now grace or besmirch mostly walls and handball courts. Sometimes they're sponsored by city youth programs or private commissions, but most are still products of anarchic self-expression by poor kids. Quite remarkably, throughout the world they are modeled ultimately on U.S. comic-book styles, especially those of such animated cartoon characters as Donald Duck and Underdog and of 1960s underground cartoonist, Vaughn Bode, creator of Cheech Wizard. RO. 751.49 Graffiti / Street art / Spray painting 87-50389

Author notes provided by Syndetics

James Prigoff has spent decades studying and documenting mural art in the United States. He co-author of Spraycan Art has been photographing street art throughout the United States since the early 1970s. He is a board member of the Social and Public Art Resource Center, based in Venice California.

(Bowker Author Biography)