 Reprint edition cover, 2009 | |
| Author | Norman Mailer |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Jon Naar |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Art/Popular Culture |
| Genre | Essay |
| Set in | New York City |
| Published | 2009 |
| Publisher | Praeger Publishers, It Books |
Publication date | 1974 |
| Media type | Book |
| Pages | 96 |
| ISBN | 0061961701 |
| OCLC | 419852704 |
| First edition published in 1974. | |
The Faith of Graffiti is a 1974 essay by American novelist and journalist Norman Mailer about New York City's graffiti artists. Mailer's essay appeared in a shorter form in Esquire and as a book with 81 photographs by Jon Naar and design by Mervyn Kurlansky. Through interviews, exploration, and analyses, the essay explores the political and artistic implications of graffiti. The essay was controversial at the time of publication because of its attempt to validate graffiti as an art form by linking it with great artists of the past. Some critics also said Mailer was using the essay as a platform to express his political grievances. Faith grew out of Mailer's existential philosophy of the hip, in which a Hipster is guided by his instincts regardless of consequences or perception, and upholds graffiti as a subversive and healthy check on the status quo. Like several of his other non-fiction narratives, Mailer continued his use of new journalism techniques, adopting a persona, the A-I or "Aesthetic Investigator", to provide both an objective distance from the topic and to engender the text with the creative and critical eye of the novelist.