Shoe's Black Book - Graffiti in the 1980s

Shoes Black Book Graffiti in the 1980s by Niels Shoe Meulman offers a window into an artists formative years. Before the galleries, the recognition, his development as a typographer and founding the Calligraffiti art movement, there was this a worn and relentless black book filled with tags, pieces and outlines.

Between 1985 and 1987, Niels Shoe Meulman (Amsterdam, 1967) documented his growth from wide-eyed newcomer to an artist who has fully developed his own style.

More than just a sketchbook, this black book is a testament to when Shoe tagged along with New York artists like Rammellzee, Dondi White and Keith Haring. Its a record of learning part diary, part playground, part testing ground. Here is a facsimile of a book that was stolen and mysteriously returned. But its also adorned Shoes additional notes and sharp recollections bring the era into focus.

Each page captures graffiti knowledge, passed down mouth-to-mouth and hand-to-hand. Shoes Black Book is both document and artefact immediate, unpolished, authentic. While other books record a culture, this one helped build it.