Thames & Hudson Ltd

Bomb It! - Balthazar Pagani

This non-fiction graphic novel follows the story of graffiti art from the early days of 'bombing' the NYC subway in the late 1960s to present-day art galleries and millionaire homes.Follow the odyssey of graffiti art from its rise in 1960s New York City through to the explosion of tags and ‘bombed’ subway trains of the 1970s, to the rise of hip hop and street culture and its dissemination across the globe, from the streets of Paris to the skyscrapers of Sao Paulo, from illegality to museums and galleries, and from dark train terminals to brightly lit millionaire homes.Bomb It! begins with the rise of rap, break-dancing and hip-hop culture in the 1980s. The story follows the Style Wars period, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s rise and fall, the romance between Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee, Kilgallen’s untimely death, and the commercial 1990s, with Futura and other graffiti artists working for record and fashion labels. At the turn of the millennium graffiti culture spread all over the world, from Space Invader and Blek le Rat on the streets of Paris to Os Gemeos painting skyscrapers in Sao Paulo.The book ends with the ‘art turn’, where artists became separated by ‘those who stayed and those who went’ – those who stayed true to street culture and those who integrated into the commercial art world.

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