Banksy stands out from the crowd for his use of stencils, the heightened definition of his figurative characters helping to increase their impact, but Blek le Rat was doing this well before him, more for practical than artistic reasons. Many commentators have drawn similarities between his work, and that of Blek le Rat, a French artist born in 1952 and who started politicising street walls with his images in the 1980s. His disregard for the rules, on which as a graffiti artist his whole career has been based, was this time channelled against the system of the art market, a system in which Banksy’s influence has been growing for some time as the value of his work has increased in kind.īanksy’s fame as the elusive Bristolian graffiti artist has been cemented worldwide, but how much does he owe his success to lesser known forerunners of the urban / street art movement, and just how original is his blend of humour, social commentary and stencilled designs? To read more about the relationship between Urban and Street Art, take a look!
His pal Shepard Fairey, who designed President Obama's 'Hope' poster, has said of Prou: "Blek le Rat's stencils distill the essence of the human struggle into poetically concise images.In early October, the street artist Banksy destroyed one of his own artworks seconds after it had been sold at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art auction, an audacious prank that sent shockwaves through the art world and made national headlines globally. Several lithographs present violinists and ballet dancers, while he has also made a limited number of lithographs depicting President Obama.
His latest exhibit riffs on a recurring theme of tango dancers, which he first painted in 1986. "It’s very important to be in the street, but also very important for artists to show different work in the gallery." "Its absolutely incredible having a really good piece in the street - the day after it is complete thousands and thousands of people have seen it," Prou explained. The illegal nature of Prou's work and the growing legitimization of street art has led him to exhibit in galleries with greater frequency. (Prou started stenciling rats around Paris in 1981, when Banksy, whose identity is rumored but not confirmed, was reportedly just in grade school.)
"Every time I think I've painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek le Rat has done it as well, only 20 years earlier," Banksy is widely quoted as saying.
0 kommentar(er)
