#amsterdamagain

BACK IN STOCK! AMSTERDAM ON TOUR – The early signs of Dutch graffiti

“The year is 1983 A.D.. New York graffiti occupies the globe, the Old Europe is entirely clean and name writing does not exist on the continent. Well, not entirely… One small village…”

If you ever did research on the origins of graffiti, several forms of name writing culture such as hobo writings, the carvings of Pompeii or Mr. Joseph Kyselak might have passed your way. All of these historic examples of name writing have one thing in common: there is no direct link or coherence leading to the traditional New York writing culture. However Amsterdam is the prime example of how the cities historic writing groundwork was connected with new influences from oversea and finally lead to a continuation of an existing movement.

The history of public writing in Amsterdam dates back to the sixties. Political slogans have been executed with paint and spray paint, during the seventies punk era tools like stencils, stickers and markers were added. Besides bands which promoted their names, single writers began to develop figurative elements, logos and started working on the visual appearance of their names by using calligraphic and typographic influences.

The major advantage of AMSTERDAM ON TOUR is its author: AGAIN, maybe the cities most hardcore bomber ever, proves to be the perfect choice to put together a book on the local history. After eight years of intense research the result is a book, far beyond expectations: it includes texts by e.g. VENDEX, Hugo Kaagman, N-POWER, THE DUMB, DE ZOOT, ANUS PELIKANUS, EGO, DR. AIR, SHOE, WALKING JOINT, DR. SMURRY, HIGH, GASP, DELTA, Yaki Kornblit, QUIK, BLADE, JEZIS, JOKER, ZAP, RHYME, JAZ and CAT22.

Although the written contributions give a pretty good insight into the time between 1975 and 1985, the photographs are treasures at least of the same value. On 202 pages you can join THE DUMB catching tags in 1979, observe DR. RAT leaving marks on doors or watch DELTA tagging the tram. AMSTERDAM ON TOUR is a milestone and the new standard in books on the history of graffiti. We are proud to offer you a small stack of the last available copies.