Specification
Book
Description
Norman Mailer was one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century. By 1973 he had shot to international fame after his account of Muhammad Ali and George Foreman’s Rumble in the Jungle boxing match. His keen eye for a story drew him to an emerging trend in dilapidated 70s New York – graffiti.Mailer’s thoughts originally appeared as an article in Esquire and were expanded into this book. All the stuff you hear about the cultural implications of graffiti come from it: the artistic act as a romantic counter-attack to modern life’s assault on the psyche, the urban environment as a public canvas, the re-appropriation of personal identity… it all comes from here.
Mailer interviews both the most OG artists you can imagine and representatives of the NY authority. Moreover, the photos by Jon Narr are an unparalleled record of this emerging art form that would go on to produce the most famous artist of his generation.
Mandatory for collectors or indeed anyone who likes books and graffiti. Original early 1970s edition, sold as seen.