Customer Reviews

Graffiti World: Street Art from Five Continents

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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!

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

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.

To the previous reviewer:

Quote "It just goes to show how brainwashed everybody is into thinking this act of vandalism is an artform"

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, however the sad thing is that you are actually the one who is brainwashed. I guess it is not your fault that years of conditioning have created a closed mind that is unable to appreciate art in forms other than a nice little square canvas hanging on your living room wall.
Try to remove those blinkers once in a while you may be surprised.

peace

OK, as for the book itself.....
Pros: It covers a good spectrum of street art from many countries and is loaded with thousands of photos, making it a great coffee table book. When you open the book and flick through a few of the glossy pages the quality is obvious you really feel like you got your moneys worth.
Pretty good mix of moonlight pieces and the legal stuff.

Cons: The text is pretty minimal and offers only a brief intro to the artists, but I guess most people will be buying this book for the pictures anyway.
I also thought it could have included some larger format pictures considering the page size, pretty minor complaint tho.

Most people will find it a nice gentle intro in to the world of graf art, others a useful reference.

Being an artist myself I found this book to be very "different" from all of the other books out there; say Subway Art which is the from the old school artist like SEEN, BLADE, STAY HIGH 149, LADY PINK, SMITH, and the list goes on.
In this book, you get style's from all over the world; Europe, Asia, North America, Africa (though South Africa is the ONLY country on the continent that has a graffiti scene), and the list goes on. In this book you get different styles from all types of artist's like DAIM (who's beautiful 3D pieces are just AMAZING and very realistic), ROSY (from Switzerland), GREAT, BATES, MISS VAN, and the list can go on through Europe (there are just too many to name in Europe).
This book is just simply AMAZING because the pieces in this book are just amazing, and the styles are mind-blowing. So if you are interesting in getting into graffiti, I suggest you study the books like The Art Of Getting Over: Graffiti At the Millenium (which has the history of the urban art form), this book is definitely for more advanced arists like myself who can definitely use this as a stepping stone. Check it out.

I couldn't believe the reviews I read about said book and the book itself were the same work because, quite simply, I was stunned by the sheer amount of time/ talent that went into some of the displayed pieces herein. When I thing "graffiti" I used to think kids on the corner trying to make blocky letters to say "this is my world," but books like this one have totally redefined the perception I harbor therein.
Totally.
Photo-realism, the evolution of stencils and the proclamations of people with messages and skill; it sleeps in picture after picture until the reader finds themself thinking on thing.
Amazing.
American Crews, European showings, "the rest of the world; there seems to be a universal song being sung in cans of paint and it sleeps in the 2000 + pictures here made by so many. 3A Crew, Binho, Dzine, Herbert, Siloette, Stayhigh, 123 Klan, blade, blef, Cheba, Dut, Jazi, KTo; each artist gets at least a page layout and there are oceans of names involved here.

Check it out if you want to lose hours in observing something different and if you want that the stereotypical spraycan.

It is always interesting to see how different cultures handle the same medium. Plus any book with this many pictures and creative minds displayed is a winner with me. The colors are great too. It's actually overwhelming and I can't flip through the whole book in one sitting because there are so many examples to see. I'm no graffiti expert, but it's great to see how people choose to modify their surroundings with color and imagery.

I am really interested in graffiti of the world and have found it somewhat hard to find good books on the subject. Overall this is a good book with many full-color illustrations along with text giving credit to the artists. Since there are not that many graffiti books out there I believe this one is one of the best I've read yet. Although many of the pictures in this book are really good, they are basicly the same works that you can find images of online and through other resources. What I'm tring to say is that I wish there could have been some more never before seen illustrations, not the same old stuff I've seen a million times!

I bought this for my 14 year old daughter and would recommend this for any urban artist. It captures so many excellent murals and other types of graffiti from around the world. Just when you think you've found your favorite artist, you turn the page to find another. Regardless of how you feel about scripture on walls, trains and buses, the art and freedom that exudes from each picture is awesome and beyond the descriptive word. They just are!

I got this book last year the WHOLE thing is art down to the cover (I had framed). It shows many styles of art from walls to ships postboxes the list would go on .........anyway great fo the end table or for ideas