Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents [Hardcover]

Nicholas Ganz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 26, 2004

Ever since anonymous spray-can art began appearing on city walls in New York and Philadelphia in the late 1960s, graffiti has been a ubiquitous presence in the urban landscape, its artists largely unsung heroes. 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 and one of the most potent influences on youth-oriented marketing and design. With more than 2,000 illustrations by over 150 artists from all over the world and interviews with many of them, this visually arresting book is the most comprehensive survey of graffiti art ever published.

Today's young 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 earned graffiti the respect of the art world and guaranteed its long-lasting influence on art, graphic design, and style around the world. Great fun for graffiti and pop-culture buffs, the book is also an essential reference work for anyone involved in the visual arts today. AUTHOR BIO: Nicholas Ganz (also known as Keinom, his pen name) is a graffiti artist who has traveled around the world to gather material for this book. He lives in Essen, Germany. Tristan Manco is a graphic artist and director of Bristol-based Tijuana Design. He is the author of Stencil Graffiti and Street Logos.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following the unrelated project Autograf: New York City's Graffiti Writers (powerHouse), which also took an auteur-based approach this past season, Granz (whose pen name is Keinom) widens the scope to present those he sees as the world's top graffiti writers, offering alphabetical sections of artists from the Americas, Europe and "The Rest of the World." Short prefatory histories put New York at the center of the modern graffiti world, with South American countries like Brazil later having "reached a high standard." The work is beautifully photographed throughout; multiple pieces by each artist are laid out appealingly over verso-recto spreads, along with a paragraph by Granz detailing the artist's origins and the main thrust of the work (and occasionally a photo of the artist him or herself). From gigantic murals to tiny stickers, Granz has seen and photographed it all and talks knowledgeably about everything from "wildstyle" fontage to the non-orthographically based "character culture," where artists create (and replicate) cartoonish figures in various figurative exploits. Striking a colloquial balance between insider's knowledge and thoughtful presentation, Granz's book should be durable for its cohesion of vision, if not for the scale of presentation of each artist.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–This book is packed with full-color photographs representative of graffiti styles and artists from around the world. Though there is still a level of lawlessness involved in some who practice in the traditional way, many of the murals shown are commissioned works of "urban art." The frequent use of nicknames and disguised photos shows that often these artists are still "underground" even as their art form becomes more recognized. The encyclopedic arrangement, first by continent and then by artist's nom de plume, serves the book well. Each continent also gets a foldout that demonstrates the best local artwork. Most of the textual information about the artists and their work is contained in a back "information" section, keeping the focus of the book on the art. This beautifully designed volume is respectful and knowledgeable about its oft-misunderstood subject matter. Budding artists everywhere will be thrilled to see the level of expertise that can be achieved in the graffiti format.–Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Harry N. Abrams; First Edition edition (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0810949792
• ISBN-13: 978-0810949799
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #360,358 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best global outlook of Urban Art, April 23, 2006

By 

Manny Hernandez "@askmanny" (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents (Hardcover)

Nicholas Ganz has done a great job at traveling the world to capture in this book the state of street art everywhere. Taking the reader through it by continents (Americas, Europe, Rest of the World), the book takes you on an in-depth, visually-loaded trip that highlights the work of the best street artists around these days.

If you are looking for an in-depth look at the origins of this genre, you won't find much of that in "Graffiti World". However, if you want to compare street art between, say, Denmark and Sidney, or see how the New York style has had an indelible influence in places like Brazil or South Africa, this book will delight you as you learn all about it. Five stars job!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Extensive Survey of the Art of Graffiti, November 22, 2005

By 

Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents (Hardcover)

Nicholas Ganz has researched the topic of Street Art known in some circles as Graffiti and in this comprehensive book has gathered images not only from the United States but from five continents, images identified by artist with a brief biography accompanied by panorama shots of the larger scale works coupled with details. The result is a complex, lavishly illustrated survey of the art form of the streets and the people who create it.

Graffiti is still a controversial subject. The one form of graffiti which simply marks gang areas or swiftly splays across windows and freeway overhangs and covers billboards is not the issue here. Yes, there is a destructive force to some forms of defacement known as tagging. But that is not the subject of this book. Not unlike the fine little Indie film 'The Graffiti Artist' by James Bolton, this book follows the art forms developed by various artists which are more like the murals of yesteryear that are now hallowed as masterpieces. Think Orozco, WPA, etc.

Ganz writes well and his commentary, while mostly descriptive, does delve into some of the philosophical elements of Graffiti Art. Perhaps to those who view any art from a spray can as defacement and the work of hoodlums, this book will open the mind to a popular art of the street. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: perhaps that eye will benefit from this well-designed, well-written, and well-documented survey of international graffiti art. Grady Harp, November 05

22 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Graffiti World, January 28, 2005

By 

Fredric Auguste "Slick" (Cali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents (Hardcover)

This book is insulting to those of us who actually have a pre-existing understanding of graffiti. Since it's inception in the mid 60's or early 70's depending on who you ask (Corn Bread or Taki 183) graffiti has become a global phenomenon probably why the book is called "Graffiti World". This book fails to answer who were some of these people that have helped make this culture as popular as it is? Every region of the world with an active graffiti scene has it's own pioneers (their own Corn Breads, Taki's and Phase 2's) respectively. Why are NONE of these people represented in his book? As far as research goes it's a very lazy effort. I can honestly say there is nothing in this book you could not find on ArtCrimes.com for free. If indeed your looking for a real graffiti book (of subsatnce) please pick up: "Subway Art", "Getting Up", "Dondi White", "The Art Of Getting Over", "Spray Can Art", "All City", "Taking The Train", "Aerosol kingdom" or "The faith of Graffiti" (if you can find it). Nothing personal but if I could of rated this book a zero I would have.