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.
