Art Books: Explore the World of Graffiti & Street Art

Arabic Calligraphy | German publisher “From Here To Fame” is going to release a new book about “Arabic Graffiti”, for what reason there are some release parties planned in Berlin! The book features artworks and thoughts of local and international urban artists, graffiti writers and calligraphers, like Hassan Massoudy, Malik Anas Al-Rajab, eL Seed, Hest1, Julien Breton, L’Atlas, Aerosol Arabic, Native & ZenTwO, Zepha aka Vincent Abadie Hafez, Typism, Akut and many more! ...

Some days ago, I received an interesting book about street art in South America or more precisely Buenos Aires! Matt Fox-Tucker and Guilherme Zauith present in “Textura Dos - Buenos Aires Street Art” their impressions from the streets of the Argentinian capital and its neighborhoods on about 140 colorful pages. After “Graffiti Argentina” this is just the second book I know which documents the colorful urban artworks in Argentina. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city with a vibrant street art scene attracting some of the world’s best graffiti artists. Matt Fox-Tucker has spent more than six months exploring the city’s 48 neighbourhoods documenting and photographing the incredible murals, stencils and graffiti textures that decorate the surfaces of its offices, shops, factories and homes, and touch the lives of the people around them. (buenosairesstreetart.com) ...

Urban Art Books | Because it’s almost Christmas, I had the idea to give you a small list of books, I recommend as a Christmas present. The following three books are in my opinion the top urban art books of 2010 and for that reason I’m pretty sure, the presentee will be also happy with them. Here we go… Art of Rebellion 3 - The book about street art For me, it’s worth having all the three “Art of Rebellion” books by Christian Hundertmark aka C100. The latest one was published in November by Publikat and includes photos of urban artwork by the most famous street and graffiti artists around the globe. For more info, read the small review I already wrote about this book! It’s possible to grab it for about 30 Euro on Amazon. ISBN: 978-3939566298 ...

Street Art Book | Some weeks ago, when I was still in London, Publikat Publishing sent me the latest of Christian Hundertmark’s books about street art: “The Art of Rebellion 3”. Again it’s an outstanding book about the best art form worldwide, presenting a collection of the finest in street art from all over the world by the who is who of international urban artists on about 200 colorful pages. ...

Urban Exploration Book | Every time I visit old, abandoned factories and warehouses a cold shiver runs down my back. It’s that great to explore those decayed buildings, to find about 20 years old jackets and trouser, to inspect crazy cupboards and machines. Yes, I really love abandoned retreats especially when they’re in a highly populated area. In my opinion you can find some real beauty in decay! That’s why I want to inform you about this new incredible photographic book by one of the greatest urbex photography protagonists, London-based photographer Romany WG - Its name: Beauty in Decay! ...

…is the name of the third book of the “Untitled” book series. After “Street art in the Counter Culture” (2008) and “The Beautiful Renaissance” (2009) this 192 pages book again is about the most important art movement of our time and features artists from around the globe including Banksy, Dan Witz, Ron English, Obey, Mark Jenkins, Elbowtoe, Swoon and many more. But it also covers this year’s “Fame Festival” (Do you remember that brilliant animation Blu and David Ellis did last year?) and the “Ghost Village” project and discusses the hot question: “Is Street Art an extension and evolution of Graff or a corruption of Graff’s pure rebel yell into an easy to swallow rebel lifestyle?” ...

Today you can win one of five books about one of the most famous street artists worldwide on Urbanartcore.eu - “Banksy - Wall & Piece”. Update: The lottery ended, so any further comments won’t be accepted! The winners will be informed… Street Art Lottery | From now on Banksy’s so called street art documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” is also shown in German cinemas! For that reason I will give away five issues of Banksy’s “Wall & Piece” book! ...

Graffiti Legend | Everyone who has something to do with graffiti or urban arts in general should have heard about Mr. Jon Naar. Naar is, in addition to Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, one of the first photojournalists who documented graffiti and its environment in New York City! His legendary book “The Faith Of Graffiti” was published about 35 years ago and has been re-released in an expanded edition earlier this year. For that reason there were again a lot of specials about him and his book, his photographies and his opinion about the entire graffiti world… ...

Last Friday, I visited the launch party of the new and really recommendable urban art book by Tristan Manco called “Street Sketchbook: Journeys”, which is something like an extension of the original “Street Sketchbook” from 2007. Street Sketchbook: Journeys continues the theme of an artist’s creativity by looking further at the idea process. Featuring in-depth interviews and illustrated with sketchbooks and behind the scenes photographs this book follows the artistic journeys of thirty extraordinary artists from around the world. (press release) ...

There are a lot of good and often interesting street art and graffiti books out there, but another one you should keep in mind until its release in October, because I highly recommend it, is “Trespass - A History Of Uncommissioned Urban Art”! That book contains not only street art and graffiti but with interventions, artistic protest and propaganda art a more general urban art context, a bit like I do on this blog…At the moment, a lot of people around the world, including the Wooster Collective, Martha Cooper and WK Interact drum up business for the book and that Banksy has written the introduction should also be not that bad… ...