#nygraffiti

Disz. The first Dutch writer bombing the New York City subway.

“…New York City is still the capital and cultural center of graffiti. It’s like Mecca to those who worship at the altar of style. Not long ago, a writer named Disz showed up in New York with his camera at the 125th Street station of the Broadway Local. […] What is a young man from The Hague doing bombing the one line in the 145th Street Tunnel with Bodé nudes?”

This text is part of the introduction of the legendary 1987 “Spraycan Art” by Henry Chalfant and James Prigoff, a book which documented the first steps graffiti writers around the globe did after movies like “Beat Street” and “Wild Style!” helped graffiti spread to an international phenomenon.

With the help of his friends and family it was possible to retrace DISZs entrance into the graffiti world from 1983 to 1987. His legacy included a huge amount of photographic footage and a precisely written diary which allowed the authors to exactly reconstruct the writers stay in New York City in 1985 and 1986, his meeting with Henry Chalfant which lead to his contribution in “Spraycan Art” and his experiences bombing the local subway.

Disz does not only include rare, never published New York City subway shots of the golden era, it also gives insight into the important and keen work of the Dutch Graffiti Library whose team put the spotlight on an almost forgotten significant character of the European graffiti scene. Some years later with “SPRAY CITY – Graffiti in Berlin” (the first German picture book on graffiti) from 1994 René Westhoff a.k.a. DISZ would lay the foundation for the famous “GRAFFITI ART” book series and influence a whole generation of writers in Germany.

In 2018 after years or scientific research the Dutch Graffiti Library team finally was able to answer the question which did arise 31 years ago. This book solves the mystery on the identity and intentions of DISZ, tells the story of a passionate writer and researcher traveling to NYC but also is a worthy memorial to René Westhoff who sadly passed away in 2012.