ESMoA Scratch (Getty Black Book) Exhibit Preview
Interview with Eye One about the upcoming Getty Black Book launch at ESMoA (http://esmoa.org).
Experience 11: Scratch — Jun 8 until Sept 21, 2014
Many of LA’s most influential graffiti and tattoo artists will cover the walls and floors of ESMoA to publicly launch their 21st century encounter with an artistic tradition: The Getty Graffiti Black Book.
In 2013 more than 150 of LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book and created the Getty Graffiti Black Book. Street artists have used black books for decades to create a visual memory of drafts and to serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The extraordinary competition that occasionally arises among such artists can also lead to respect as rivals invite each other to “hit” their black books with original works. The contributing artists decided to give the Getty Black Book the title, LA Liber Amicorum, to capture the spirit of its transformation of rival ‘writing-crews’ into a Los Angeles Book of Friends. (from ESMoA.org)
