Born in the Streets

Published to accompany the exhibition Graffiti, this book re-examines the birth and evolution of the graffiti movement in early 1970s New York, as well as its appearance in Paris, a city which became the nerve centre for graffiti in Europe in the 1980s.

A great many photos by such leading historians of the street art movement as Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant and John Naar, as well as press articles and piecebooks, document graffiti’s beginnings at the moment when pioneers like Lee, Seen and Lady Pink were tagging New York City subways and challenging city authorities.

In order to account properly for the global scale of the movement and its continued vitality, Graffiti juxtaposes the different aesthetics of big cities like New York, Paris, Berlin, as well as Sa~o Paulo, comparing each city’s style as well as the diverse practices of contemporary graffiti artists. This catalogue also features several interviews with artists who influenced the movement and of other people involved in its development, such as gallery owners. These texts shed new light both onto this artistic movement and onto the major stages of its evolution, while also reinserting graffiti within the context of urban street culture (hip-hop, break dancing, skating) of which it has always been part.