Street Art and graffiti are a tough nut to crack for art historians. Not attached to any specific era, Street Art is a phenomenon that takes place on the street, in full public view, far from all the galleries and on the margins of the law. This art is characterized by its unofficial character. It appears in all periods and in all places, from the images, names and messages of Pompeii to the elaborately sprayed and pasted walls and train carriages of our own time. Ubiquitous, honest, indestructibte, anonymous and young-- this controversial, art is produced by people who want to create non-academic images, to convey messages. Readers of this book learn about Street Art in its various dimensions and points of view, its history and its peculiarities, and gain a profound insight into the beauty and wit, the provocations and arguments of what is possibly the most elementary of all forms of art.

Prelude: An Idea without an Era

The Mother of All Pictures

Graffiti as a Research Subject

"Hello, here is my Name"

Memorial Graffiti

The Magic of the Name

Important Signs for Art

Talent and Ferocity

Signs of Bad Company

Why Art History has such Trouble

with the Phenomenon

The Politics of Street Art

Not Everything that can be interpreted as Political was

intended to be Political

Street Art in Old Europe

What and Where Exactly is the Public?

New York Graffiti

Every History has its Pit-falls.

On some Strange Rules of Canonization.

Worldwide Street Art

Hip-Hop

Graffiti in the Media and Information Era

5treet Art vs Globalization

Fashion

Moving on

Graffiti as an Educational Objective? Some Questions

Glossary

Further Reading

Index of Names

Picture Credits

Publisher's Information