'Meeting of Styles' is the offspring of the legendary 'Wall Street Meeting', an international graffiti and Hip Hop event in Germany, where graffiti artists from all over the world gathered in the spirit of collaboration. In the late 1990s this legendary event welcomed hundreds of artists and more than 25,000 international visitors to enjoy the art in process. After this gathering made waves worldwide, its offshoot, the 'International Meeting of Styles', was founded in 2002. Inspired by a passion for art and brought to life by an international network of graffiti artists and enthusiasts, it has become the biggest event in graffiti culture worldwide. Meeting of Styles has launched more than 130 events and attracted more than 150,000 spectators across cities such as New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Venice, St. Petersburg and Sofia.

The story of, and images from The Meeting of Styles is the offspring of the legendary Wall Street Meeting, an international graffiti and Hip Hop event in Germany, drawing 25,000 artists. The International Meeting of Styles, founded in 2002, now the biggest event in world graffiti culture with 130 events and 150,000 visitors across New York, Chicago, London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Venice, St. Petersburg and Sofia.

This collection of unique works by 150 Los Angeles graffiti and tattoo artists represents an unprecedented collaboration across the city’s diverse artistic landscape. Many graffiti artists carry sketchbooks, called black books, and they ask crew members and others whose work they admire to inscribe their books with lettering or drawings. A few years ago, the Getty Research Institute invited artists, including Angst, Axis, Big Sleeps, Chaz, Cre8, Defer, EyeOne, Fishe, Heaven, Hyde, Look, ManOne, and Prime, to consider the idea of a citywide graffiti black book. During visits to the Getty Center, the artists viewed rare books related to calligraphy and letterforms, including works by Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci. The artists instantly recognized the connections to their own practices and were particularly drawn to a liber amicorum (book of friends), a form of autograph book popular in the seventeenth century. Passed from hand to hand, it was filled with signatures, poetry, and coats of arms, like a black book from another era. Inspired by this meeting of minds across centuries, these artists became both creators and curators, crafting their own pages and inviting others to contribute. Eventually 150 Los Angeles artists decorated 143 individual pages. These were bound together into an exquisite artists’ book that became known as the Getty Graffiti Black Book. This publication reproduces each page from the original artists’ book and recounts the story of an unprecedented collaboration across the diverse artistic landscape of Los Angeles.