Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its now-familiar presence in art galleries, advertising and pop culture around the world, it can be hard to remember that graffiti was once outlaw art. Art critic Ivor Miller takes us back to the New York City of the 1970s and '80s, where "writers," as graffiti artists called themselves, used the subways as canvases and mayors spent millions of dollars trying to erase their work. Based on interviews with the most prolific and talented aerosol artists of the era, the scholarly Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City looks at the evolution of graffiti art, its role in hip-hop culture and the various social forces that led to its creation from white flight to the mass marketing of spray paint.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Though much of the graffiti in New York City has been cleaned up since its heyday in the 1970s, it is still easy to see evidence of the "aerosol kingdom" throughout the city. What might not be apparent are the influences, motivations, and social conditions that stimulated the first graffiti artists (or "writers," as they call themselves) to consider the city's subways as moving steel canvases. Miller, who has published in such journals as Third Text and African Studies Review, provides a somewhat haphazard examination of various facets of the aerosol culture, including the influences of modern vernacular on imagery, the historical inspiration of the train in America and Cuba, and the history of the movement's artists and styles. The words of the graffiti artists themselves infuse this book with a gritty, often angry flavor that reflects the gulf between established art forms and aerosol art. Graffiti still shares a hazy boundary with vandalism, but several recent works (Art of Getting Over: Graffiti at the Millennium and R.I.P.: Memorial Wall Art) have also reevaluated street art in terms of its artistic and societal significance. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.
Kraig A. Binkowski, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 218 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi; illustrated edition edition (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578064651
• ISBN-13: 978-1578064656
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,345,656 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Introduction into the realm of graffiti culture, November 8, 2009

By	C. Wys (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Aerosol Kingdom: Subway Painters of New York City by Ivor L. Miller has served my purposes perfectly: I required an introduction into the realm of street art, or, what Miller rightly terms, aerosol (or graffiti) culture. This book does not represent a comprehensive history of graffiti art -- that would be difficult to do as the movement and "period" of this form of art is hardly finished and can hardly be evaluated from beginning to "end" -- rather, this book represents a touchstone of investigation into the subject of this movement, importantly, in the terms of a self-contained culture and not just a style. It should also be expressed that "graffiti art" is not synonymous with a far more general heading "street art" -- rather "street art" is a recent phrase to signify, among graffiti, a plethora of varying styles and concepts "performed" on the streets.

It is difficult now, in 2009, to think of graffiti as anything but art. Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring are artists that have helped make the notion of graffiti a well-recognized form, if not a mainstream consciousness, of painting (and even personal style) and it is difficult to look at such dazzling and creative visuals in an art historical context and not consider it, intrinsically, an incredibly important artistic movement. However, Miller reminds us, by tracing the roots of the New York City street art scene to the mature stages we now find the once-rare, now-popularized, art form in, that it was not initially received (in fact, not received for a great deal of time) as legitimate or creative -- it was once nothing but a nuisance to transit authorities and an "eye sore" to busy business men and women (not that it still, shamefully, isn't perceived in that way today). Miller informs us that even from its first wave (its first "generation") graffiti was entirely about expressing the views of the oppressed and, as a gathering force all its own, actually caused a graffiti culture to be born that people around NYC could identify with. Indeed, it was a culture with its own language (both visual and semantic) and message (frequently political, occasionally personal, and sometimes a markedly unique blending of both).

Miller writes: "My project follows the culture from its emergence in the frontier days of early signaturing, to the golden age of whole-car murals and letter technologies, and to its global status" (9).

Miller's book is important because it focuses an eye on the beginning stages of a culture that has, over the course of nearly 40 years, manifest itself into dozens of sub-categories and sub-cultures in every cranny of the globe. The globalization (and I use that term so affectionately) of graffiti art is a remarkable aspect to follow. What began as an incredibly isolated and specific visual and textual rhetoric of borough (and "ghetto") life in NYC has become a means of expressing and orienting oneself to very universal ideologies of political subjugation, capitalistic tyranny, and the residue of colonial oppression that exist virtually everywhere people do.

Though I am fresh to the subject, a unique examination found in Miller's book appears to be the careful consideration of graffiti's ethnic roots. The culture, according to Miller, is deeply submersed in a hip-hop mentality that features significant aspect of African, African-American, and Caribbean traditions. Tethering graffiti so closely to these ethnic traditions is, in many aspects, irrefutable, though some of the artists interviewed for the book appear to resist the implications. Some view their roots in aerosol culture as something indicative and loyal to NYC life rather than outside or "foreign" ethnic forces -- though Miller does well to steep NYC history itself in African-American and Caribbean tradition (the city as a melting pot). Great comparisons ensue, like the references of graffiti to jazz, blues, and gospel music as art forms intrinsically American. In a far broader sense, Miller eventually asserts that an understanding of graffiti is, "central to a contemporary dialogue on issues of race and class" (14).

In addition to the visual and textual rhetoric of graffiti, Miller frames his research with important examination of the technology used and -- crucially -- developed by the early street artists. Custom spray can tops; the appropriation of words and language and the creation of new words and meanings; the reinvention of the signature, of the name, as crucial expression of identity; the use of city technologies (such as the train systems) act as canvas, metaphor, and vehicle for transporting the artwork to multiple segments of the population. Every aspect and technology used by the graffiti culture helped to frame and further their concepts to a broader and, ultimately limitless, audience.

The book is rich with many interviews with first- and subsequent generations of graffiti artists. Because so many of the artist are still alive, still active, and still eager to communicate the story of how the movement began, Miller's book is greatly enhanced by a tender and compassionate interest in receiving first-hand information and critique on the subject from those who lived -- and created -- it. The book is filled to the brim with great images, great quotes, and great analysis of graffiti art as it progressed from the early 70's to the early 00's. A must read for the novice art historian, like myself, for a foray into the world of graffiti. It will be impossible to understand great artists like Basquiat or Banksy without an understanding of street art's roots. Miller takes us there.