Being that we all live in and around New York City, I’m assuming that everyone has seen graffiti many times. The question is, have you ever passed what is technically vandalism and considered it artwork? Today, I discovered an artist by the name of Blek le Rat, who creates graffiti art–specifically, stencil graffiti. The difference between Mr. le Rat and most of the graffiti artists who leave tags along the city’s bridges and walls is that he does graffiti legally. He has been appointed the job of making a mural for Details magazine, which has been trying to find innovative works of art to feature.
Blek le Rat (whose real name is Xavier Prou) is not just any street artist, which there are plenty of in NYC. He is considered the founder of stencil graffiti. He is originally from Paris and got the idea to do stencil graffiti while visiting New York City in 1981. He saw American graffiti and interestingly decided to create his own twist on the artwork–by using stencils. Le Rat’s first works were of rats that he chose to depict because they are the “only wild living animals in cities [that] will survive when the human race will have disappeared and died out.” This statement of his, along with a wealth of information about Le Rat, can be found on his website here.
Check out the NY Times article about him here.
Below is one of his works of art called Lady Diana.
This is a very interesting post. Do we know more about Blek le Rat? More specifically, did he always do graffiti legally? Or were the rats he portrayed an act of vandalism like the countless other graffiti artists of the city? Either way, I think graffiti art is a great way to make your art shown and get your name out there. (Although I don’t condone the illegal act.) Needless to say, not all graffiti artists are particularly note-worthy but Blek le Rat obviously is, as you can see from his Lady Diana piece.
I have always had an interest in graffiti because I believe it takes alot of skill to create, but I never knew of any famous graffiti artists until I did some research on Blek le Rat. I checked out some of his work and it is truly amazing. Many of his works are of people and I believe that he is commenting on society, whether it is about media or issues the world is currently dealing with. What looks even more stunning is that his works look almost 3D to me and that the figure is almost coming out of the wall.
I don’t disagree that some graffiti artists are quite talented and some of the works that adorn the streets, walls and surfaces of the city are quite interesting and even beautiful, but I am not in favor of guerrilla art. Unfortunately, there are more artists than there are talented artists.