The legendary SUBWAY ART illustrated book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant was the first to summarise graffiti writing, documenting the initial simple name-writing and the subsequent development of the motifs into masterpieces on the New York subway. Alongside films […]
Preparing the graffiti history of a city is a major project. Although the first graffiti in the style of the New York model appeared in many major European cities in the early 1980s, they were only sparsely documented, if at […]
You can find our reading room in the first floor (on the level of the gallery) it is open Tuesday 10:00 am – 3:00pm and Thursday von 12:00 am bis 3:30pm We used the closing time for the museum renovation to […]
Martha Cooper was the first female staff photographer for the New York Post, capturing everyday situations on the streets of the metropolis for the daily newspaper since the mid-1970s. In 1979, while photographing children playing in the Bronx, she noticed […]
In spring 1994, the exhibition SPRAY CITY – GRAFFITI IN BERLIN took place within the framework of the “X 94 – Young Art and Culture” festival of the Akademie der Künste. The book of the same name was published by […]
STREET WRITERS. A Guided Tour of Chicano Graffiti. Gusmano Cesaretti. 1975. The roots of the global graffiti movement lie in New York in the late 1960s. Over the years, the simple lettering first developed into simple, quick pieces and, by […]
Getting Up. Subway Graffiti in New York – Craig Castleman, 1982 While teaching at the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan in the late 1970s, Craig Castleman helped his students produce a booklet (NASTY STUFF) on their favourite subject: graffiti […]
MCL PRESENTS #1: E=MC² MADC AND MARTHA COOPER – „FROM STREET TO CANVAS”
Parallel to the art world’s growing interest in graffiti, street art, and urban art, scientific research on these fields has also increased steadily in recent years. While standard works can be found in specialized libraries, more in-depth texts and primary sources […]
In June 1982, KUNSTFORUM International devoted an entire volume to the subject of graffiti (vol. 50 “Wilde Bilder. Graffiti und Wandbilder”). At the time, the vague term encompassed both ancient commemorative writings, political murals, facade art, ironic slogans, and several […]
