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Bomb It!: The Story of Graffiti Art

by Damiano Restivo

Graffiti’s journey from subway tunnels to galleries

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Graffiti’s journey from subway tunnels to galleries

Damiano Restivo traces graffiti from its New York beginnings in the 1960s through its spread around the world, using a photographer’s view of the scene from that era to the present. The account connects tags and painted subway trains with the growth of hip-hop culture, including rap and breakdancing, then follows graffiti’s changing place in the art world and commercial culture. Along the way, it covers Jean-Michel Basquiat’s career and the work of artists such as Futura, Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee. The book frames graffiti as both an underground practice and an art form that later entered galleries and museums.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • People interested in graffiti and street art history
  • Readers curious about the connections between graffiti, hip-hop and urban culture
  • Those interested in photography’s documentation of art scenes

Themes

Graffiti and street artHip-hop and urban cultureArt, commerce and institutional recognitionPhotography and cultural history

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

Follow the odyssey of graffiti art from its beginnings in 1960s NYC to the explosion of tags and "bombed" subway trains of the 1970s, and from the rise of hip-hop and street culture to its dissemination across the globe. Bomb It! tells graffiti's story through the eyes of a photographer whose lens captured the graffiti scene from 1960s New York City through to the present day. It follows the history of graffiti from an activity condemned by authorities as criminal in nature to its emergence as an art form celebrated by museumgoers and gallery owners.

This exciting volume takes readers to the dark subway tunnels and train cars where graffiti flourished as an underground art. It follows the birth of rap, breakdancing, and hip-hop culture in the 1980s and how these urban art forms grew out of the graffiti movement. The story chronicles artist Jean-Michel Basquiat's rise and fall, the fated romance between West Coast artists Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee, and the commercial 1990s, with Futura and other graffiti artists working for record and fashion labels.

At the turn of the millennium graffiti culture had spread all over the world, from Invader and Blek le Rat on the streets of Paris to OSGEMEOS painting skyscrapers in S

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