The next big subway art book is on its way out. Poster Boy: The War of Artis a collection of Poster Boy’s best works. There aren’t too many details available yet, but the following description is floating around:
His cut and slash mash-ups of subway platform billboards only exist in New York City, but Poster Boy’s artful and funny appropriations of advertising have gotten him attention the world over. The New York Times dubbed him an “anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage”; the Guardian UK said of his work, it “is witty, web-savvy and economical . . . and the only materials it requires are chutzpah, imagination and a 50 cent blade.”
Poster Boy tweaks corporate copy, replacing it with incisive and playful puns and turns of phrase rich with innuendo and political punch. Beautiful models turn ghastly and iconic spokespeople become the mouthpieces for Poster Boy’s ideas. Poster Boy: The War of Art collects his best work yet.
The book is set for release on March 2nd, 2010, but you can preorder it on Amazon. I did as soon as I found out about it. Check back in March for a review!
We’ve mentioned Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant’s Subway Art book a number of times here on The Subway Art Blog. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the initial publication. To commemorate this, Chronicle Books is releasing a 25th Anniversary Edition of the book. The new release features 70 new photos, updated text and a larger size. We highly recommend this book for the Graffiti lover in your life.
And now for my exceedingly long-overdue, yet brief, first post.
In our research to find out if a Subway Art Blog already existed prior to creating our own, we came across the Subway Art book. The book consists of hundreds of images of colorful graffiti on New York subway trains captured by two photographers in the 1980s, accompanied by short back stories. Subway Art provides a glimpse into what is unfortunately a bygone era when the exteriors of so many subway cars became animated canvases.
A very cool virtual experience of the book can be had here.
