Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond
Text by Franklin Sirmans, Isolde Brielmaier, Bisa Butler, William Cordova, Futura, Debbie Harry, Leslie Hewitt, Jenny Holzer, Barry McGee, Odili Donald Odita, José Parlá, Allan Schwartzman. Photographs by Charlie Ahearn, Edo Bertoglio, Carl Brunn, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Eric Felisbret, Bobby Grossman, Sue Kwon, Jason Mandella, Farrique Pesquera, Adam Reich, Chris Stein, Mattius J. Sic.
A comprehensive monograph on the work of a pioneering New York subway artist
This volume presents a sweeping overview of the monumental work of Puerto Rican–born artist Lee Quiñones over the past five decades. When Quiñones made his first spray paint mural in the New York City subway system, he was just 14 years old. He eventually spray-painted murals on over 120 subway cars, infusing kinetic elements of Futurism into his illustrations. These highly visible graffiti works served as a catalyst for what is now acknowledged as the Street Art movement. Indeed, the artist introduced spray paint-based work to international audiences upon his first formal exhibition, and he also invented the concept of the freestanding urban mural through his handball court piece, Howard the Duck (1978). This book is chock-full of Quiñones’ street art works, paintings and drawings, underscoring the poetic social commentary the artist has incorporated throughout his formal evolutions. Pairing high-resolution images of his works with thoughtful scholarship, the monograph traces his influence on peers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and David Wojnarowicz. An abundance of archival photographs capture the gritty, vibrant New York City of Quiñones’ early career. Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1960, and raised in the Lower East Side, Lee Quiñones is considered the single most influential artist to emerge from the New York subway art movement. In 1980, Quiñones had his first New York show at White Columns, ushering in an important era as the medium of spray paint expanded from public spaces to stationary canvas works.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond.'
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Juxtapoz
Trina Calderón
An inspired outlaw with a meticulous design process and precision painting skills, his voice responded to the social and civil unrest of the era and found expression in painting graffiti, an ancient art form that he and many of his peers had to defend in the larger art world.
Publishers Weekly
This captivates.
Vanity Fair
Brett Berk
He saw a coded conversation among young people, most of them Black and brown, expressing their identity and what he calls 'an urgency for a sense of our belonging.' Quiñones wanted to be a part of the dialogue.
Animal
Miss Rosen
For Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond, Quiñones crafts a portrait of the artist as a boy becoming a man, and taking on the mantle of elder as new generations come of age following in his footsteps.
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Featured spreads are from new release Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond, published by Damiani and launching this weekend at Artbook @ MoMA PS1. The first major monograph on Quiñones—considered by many to be the single most influential artist to emerge from the NYC subway art movement—this book features 180 color images and essays by a dozen leading lights including Franklin Sirmans, Isolde Brielmaier, Bisa Butler, Futura, Debbie Harry and Barry McGee, to name a few. Sirmans writes, “Dig if you will, a picture of early 1970s New York City when digital images were hard to come by except in Times Square, no one had a personal phone or even a beeper, unless you were a cop or a doctor. Drawing on walls may have originated more than 70,000 years ago and the tradition of muralism as a support for mark making is also long but, in the universe of 1970s New York City there was no greater canvas than the moving subway car, seen by millions every day. This is where Lee Quiñones got his start as a precocious, mercurial kid who loved to paint. As a teen¬ager, Lee was struck by the paintings he saw on this most readily available canvas, that of the public transportation system, where no one had to pay to see paintings, a free museum. After painting a car, the young artist would ride the train to watch and listen to people’s responses, a built-in critical apparatus to glean the public’s opinion. The newspaper critics would come later.…” continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11 in. / 192 pgs / 180 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $55.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $79 ISBN: 9788862088114 PUBLISHER: Damiani AVAILABLE: 4/30/2024 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond
Published by Damiani. Text by Franklin Sirmans, Isolde Brielmaier, Bisa Butler, William Cordova, Futura, Debbie Harry, Leslie Hewitt, Jenny Holzer, Barry McGee, Odili Donald Odita, José Parlá, Allan Schwartzman. Photographs by Charlie Ahearn, Edo Bertoglio, Carl Brunn, Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, Eric Felisbret, Bobby Grossman, Sue Kwon, Jason Mandella, Farrique Pesquera, Adam Reich, Chris Stein, Mattius J. Sic.
A comprehensive monograph on the work of a pioneering New York subway artist
This volume presents a sweeping overview of the monumental work of Puerto Rican–born artist Lee Quiñones over the past five decades. When Quiñones made his first spray paint mural in the New York City subway system, he was just 14 years old. He eventually spray-painted murals on over 120 subway cars, infusing kinetic elements of Futurism into his illustrations. These highly visible graffiti works served as a catalyst for what is now acknowledged as the Street Art movement. Indeed, the artist introduced spray paint-based work to international audiences upon his first formal exhibition, and he also invented the concept of the freestanding urban mural through his handball court piece, Howard the Duck (1978).
This book is chock-full of Quiñones’ street art works, paintings and drawings, underscoring the poetic social commentary the artist has incorporated throughout his formal evolutions. Pairing high-resolution images of his works with thoughtful scholarship, the monograph traces his influence on peers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and David Wojnarowicz. An abundance of archival photographs capture the gritty, vibrant New York City of Quiñones’ early career.
Born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in 1960, and raised in the Lower East Side, Lee Quiñones is considered the single most influential artist to emerge from the New York subway art movement. In 1980, Quiñones had his first New York show at White Columns, ushering in an important era as the medium of spray paint expanded from public spaces to stationary canvas works.
