The “Father of Graffiti” (Silver, 2014), Blek Le Rat (or Xavier Prou) (Sherwin, 2011) is a notorious street artist who innovatively used the Urbanscape as a mean for presenting his art through stencilling as a form of replication. BLR took his inspiration from 1970s street art and graffiti he was inundated with in New York and adapted his own theme of art he believed suited Paris from it. His rat stencils brought rise to fame as he painted them around France during the beginning of his career. (McNamara, 2011) (See appendix A). The rats were his first stencil he mass painted around Paris, this is what brought him his initial notoriety. His use of the alias “Blek Le Rat” was instigated by a cartoon he watched as a child “Blek Le Roc”. (Stencil
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In his rat stencil works BLR uses a mixture of these specific two colours to imitate the “ambience of the street” (Stencil Revolution, n.d.). The location of the stencils would vary through the slum areas of town as they suited his urban canvas narrative. The acute number of rats that have been bunched up together are reinforcing his message of the invasion of marginalized creatures and is using it as a matter of reinstatement of his viewpoint on society. BLR’s works have inspired famous works by other reputable street artists after his highly influential era of art. Although BLR was well known for his use of the street as his canvas for his works, he was subtle and attempted to be relatively apolitical compared to another street artist Banksy who is much more deliberate with his depictions and messages in what he believes. }
Banksy is an infamous street artist who similarly uses the Urbanscape as a canvas for their art and opinions but in a very critical way. They have been referred to as “Britain’s Andy Warhol” (Coan, 2008) due to the cultural difference he has made in using Urbanscape. Banksy keeps his identity a secret and this has contributed to the many theories that have developed over who it may be or whether it’s a group of people who spray the stencils around the UK in the name of Banksy. …show more content…
His art focuses on anti-capitalism and is quite to the bottom-left of the political compass and often seems quite socialist and anarchist (see appendix D and E). His arts have sometimes been controversially labelled plagiarism due to the very similar works to BLR (see appendix F). In Banksy’s unofficial biography he responded to this by explaining that “Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that BLR has done it, too,’ he says, ‘only Blek did it 20 years earlier.” (Coan, 2008) He also has a similar fascination with rats like Blek, he uses them to symbolise the lower class in the UK (see appendix G). This is another suspiciously similar style that is associated with each other. They seem to take advantage of the over-saturation of black and white to create a contrast and a static feeling unlike other artists who may use these colours to display emotion depending on the variance. This technique has worked well for both artists, especially Banksy as he is almost a household name when it comes to
In his rat stencil works BLR uses a mixture of these specific two colours to imitate the “ambience of the street” (Stencil Revolution, n.d.). The location of the stencils would vary through the slum areas of town as they suited his urban canvas narrative. The acute number of rats that have been bunched up together are reinforcing his message of the invasion of marginalized creatures and is using it as a matter of reinstatement of his viewpoint on society. BLR’s works have inspired famous works by other reputable street artists after his highly influential era of art. Although BLR was well known for his use of the street as his canvas for his works, he was subtle and attempted to be relatively apolitical compared to another street artist Banksy who is much more deliberate with his depictions and messages in what he believes. }
Banksy is an infamous street artist who similarly uses the Urbanscape as a canvas for their art and opinions but in a very critical way. They have been referred to as “Britain’s Andy Warhol” (Coan, 2008) due to the cultural difference he has made in using Urbanscape. Banksy keeps his identity a secret and this has contributed to the many theories that have developed over who it may be or whether it’s a group of people who spray the stencils around the UK in the name of Banksy. …show more content…
His art focuses on anti-capitalism and is quite to the bottom-left of the political compass and often seems quite socialist and anarchist (see appendix D and E). His arts have sometimes been controversially labelled plagiarism due to the very similar works to BLR (see appendix F). In Banksy’s unofficial biography he responded to this by explaining that “Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that BLR has done it, too,’ he says, ‘only Blek did it 20 years earlier.” (Coan, 2008) He also has a similar fascination with rats like Blek, he uses them to symbolise the lower class in the UK (see appendix G). This is another suspiciously similar style that is associated with each other. They seem to take advantage of the over-saturation of black and white to create a contrast and a static feeling unlike other artists who may use these colours to display emotion depending on the variance. This technique has worked well for both artists, especially Banksy as he is almost a household name when it comes to