Graffiti Wien #1 – 1984–1999

After more than ten years of intense research the illustrator Maike Hettinger and art historian Stefan Wogrin, founder of spraycity.at and publisher of OFFLINE magazine, finally published Graffiti Wien #1 in January 2024. Austria’s capital Vienna has long history in writing and similar phenomena, which has extensively been in focus of the editors’ research. The 272-paged large format hardcover is the first part of a series of publications spotlighting the city’s vivid graffiti past, that comprises more than four decades.

Starting with historic forms of writing like Joseph Kyselak, political slogans in the 1970s or early 80s punk graffiti, the book mainly features traditional namewriting following the New York tradition. Besides common influences through the classic books and movies, Vienna looks back on a specific connection to the mecca overseas with visits from Henry Chalfant (Subway Art), PHASE2, RAMMELLZEE, ERO, DELTA2, James Prigoff (Spraycan Art) and Keith Haring in the mid 80s.

Events like these sparked the fire for the city’s scene. In more than 1000 photographs (often with the exact year and location) the editors managed to amazingly retrace the first steps from local writers in detail. The chronological structure describes each decade as well as almost every single year in separated chapters. Major incidents like the first painted subway by ZEBSTER, SHORE and CHINTZ have been pointed out as well as jams, exhibitions, flyers or newspaper articles.

This high quality publication joins the top notch lineup of excellent researched books on the regional graffiti history like titles from the recent years on Hamburg, Basel, Amsterdam, Oslo or Belgium. Graffiti Wien #1 is a must-have for anybody who is interested in the European graffiti history. It features local heroes like KERAMIK, DIABLO, SKERO, SECO, CALIF, SETAROC, SAND, MAZE, ZEK, ASK, REZ, NAKED, and IKRUZ, as well as visitors like MASON, LOOMIT, TILT, STONE, BATES, DELTA, MODE2, THEK, OPAK, ESHER, INKA, BEN, RASTA, FIASCO, BOMBER, HONET, VINO or KOBOLT.

272 pages, 26,2 x 31,5 cm, hardcover
Language: German/English
Release date: January 2024
Editors: Maike Hettinger and Stefan Wogrin
Publisher: SPRAYCITY.AT