Product Description

A special two-book set exclusively available to Amazon.com customers: the bestselling book on the fascinating world of graffiti art, and its new companion volume dedicated to the most talented female graffiti artists from around the world.

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, Graffiti World 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.

From the author of the enormously successful Graffiti World comes this spectacular follow-up celebrating the contributions of women to contemporary graffiti and street art, Graffiti Women.

Female writers have always been in the forefront of the graffiti movement, though often shunted to the sidelines by their male counterparts. This exhaustive volume places them front and center, featuring 1,000 full-color illustrations from some of the world's most prominent artists, including Brazil's Nina, Japan's Sasu, Mexico's Peste, and the Americans Lady Pink, Swoon, and Miss 17. Two eight-page fold-out collages, a fold-out poster jacket, and an authoritative text round out the impressive package. The first and only comprehensive survey of its kind, Graffiti Women is sure to attract and expand upon the wide and enthusiastic readership that made Graffiti World such a runaway success.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1305193 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-01
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Hardcover

About the Author
Nicholas Ganz, aka Keinom, is a young German graffiti artist who has traveled worldwide to become the leading authority on the graffiti scene. He lives in Essen, Germany.

Customer Reviews

Two Great Books for One Great Price
First of all, the total cost of these books at retail value is $65, and they're being offered together for $20. Any bargain that good is worth a look at the very least. But I would be willing to buy both these books at list price or even higher, and there are many reasons why. Let's start with Graffiti World.
Graffiti World is the most all-around, full-circle comprehensive book on graffiti I have ever laid my eyes on. Every image is bursting with detail and gives clues as to the style of both the region and the artist. Many people have said that it does not cover every artist, and leaves ones completely out from the past, but the fact of the matter is that graffiti evolves at such a rate because of the fact that it is constantly being covered over and taken down. There is less reference the further you look into the past and as a result the art form evolves at an astonishing rate. This is the primary reason that artists from older generations are not mentioned; few of their works remain and to take pictures from another source would just be making someone pay for images they could have obtained otherwise.
There are a few debatable incongruencies with the history of graffiti, such as Ganz implying that it started in New York at the same time as Philadelphia, when it actually started in Philadelphia first and then moved on to New York.
What I love about the book is that it doesn't just showcase the artists, it hand picks the most influential and unique that are known the most throughout the world and shows their specific style and also commonalities in the region in which they produce their art. It also shows people who came from another field into graffiti or people who were into graffiti at one point but are now in a different field of art or design. Most of the readers who flip through this book will recognize some of the names, a few will recognize most of the names, but I doubt there are many who will recognize all of the names, and that's what makes it so great.
Graffiti Women is a vital book in showcasing the talent of graffiti all over the world because moreso than many other forms, the gender divide has created individual styles that are very distinctive. Also, just as with males, specific people have created styles which are like none other, most famously Swoon, who was actually a co-author of the book, and uses the medium of paper in Brooklyn as well as London, Berlin and other areas.
In short, the two books are vital because they look at every aspect of the art form-all mediums, all regions, all artists, abstract artists and even artists that could be classified as minimalistic. It looks at the world of graffiti as a whole and then breaks it down to show how each part became the style it is known for now. It analyzes every artist, every region. It opens up an underground world for the public to see.

Open the door
I was always interested in street art but had only really been exposed to a small amount of it. These books gave me path into this world. Upon deciding to buy these books I was concerned that it would be an annual of the same bombing you might see fresh on the side of the train tracks, however I was pleasantly surprised to find that It depicted a vast array of work with theme of the medium not just the style.

Truly Inspiring
This is the new face of street art and in particular the new face of a growing movement among female street artists. This book will inspire you and also give you a new perspective on graffiti, street art, and art in general. If you have teenagers, this is a great way to show them that art does not have to be in a gallery to touch it's viewers. These books are truly inspiring and provacative.