Street art paintings

Carré d'artistes presents a wide selection of street-art paintings . Street-art is an artistic movement that began in the United States in the heart of the 1970s, then conquered Europe in the early 1980s.

The birth of street art

The street-art style alone brings together all forms of art produced in urban areas, streets or public spaces. Street artists use different types of techniques such as graffiti (M. Chat), collages (Bansky, Ernest Pignon Ernest), stencils (Jef Aerosol, Miss. Tic), moulding (Gregos), mosaic (Invader), stickers (Obey), giant frescoes and portraits (JR, Keith Haring) or installations (Mentalgassi). Street art is an ephemeral art that arouses opinion and is made available to the general public. An art which is at the same time strong through its message and its political positioning, and fragile through its exhibition. It lets itself be discovered and disappears with the vagaries of time (bad weather, theft, untimely cleaning of the city ...). Graffiti was born in the 1970s in the New York subway. Tags are used as signatures, in line with cave painting. The artists are recognisable by their style, their graphic codes. Street art has been a dazzling success covering trains, subways and wagons with all colours and various illustrative styles.

The 80s

Faced with this resounding enthusiasm, the authorities tried in the early 1980s to sanction graffiti artists. This had the direct effect of boosting the art of graffiti and extending it to all major cities. All street-art artists want to highlight freedom of expression . Jean-Michel Basquiat thus knows a dazzling success with his paintings inspired by graffiti and street-art. In the early 1980s, graffiti became popular in Europe and began to enter art galleries. When the Berlin Wall was destroyed in 1989, it was covered with slogans, stencils and drawings and paintings. Global phenomenon. Street-art becomes a true open-air free forum for artists. The advertising community is trying to seize it to boost its campaigns and speak to as many people as possible. Street-art painting is on the rise.

The years of consecration

After years of prohibition, street art has opened the doors of the art market. Artists like Ernest Pignon Ernest, JR or Banksy have exhibitions dedicated to them. JR is commissioned to make massive installations, in particular to cover the pantheon in Paris. Monographic exhibitions are created in honour of the painter Ernest Pignon Ernest. Bansky generates a resounding buzz during an auction by having his work self-destruct from a distance after it has been sold for a high price.

Street art, a contemporary art inspired by traditions of the past

Stencil technique is a very impactful process for reproducing designs, signs and logos. This graphic medium has been used in typography since the beginning of the 12th century. The artist cuts in a rigid support (wood, cardboard, plastic, metal) then draws or transfers his illustrative pattern. Then, he chooses a space, a place and reproduces his pattern with spray paint or aerosol. The same drawing can thus be reproduced hundreds of times in different places. In some capitals such as Berlin or Lisbon, it becomes a real treasure hunt to find the works of the same artist exhibited on every street corner. Street-art paintings are also stencilled with a brush, ballpoint pen or sponge.

Mosaic

As always, street art is inspired by traditional techniques like the patterns reproduced in mosaic . Indeed, the artist Invader had fun hiding – in thousands of streets, doors, urban recesses – small space invaders in the manner of modern and colourful azulejos. Much more than a pictorial work, these motifs increase in meaning when we begin to "collect" them.

Large formats

If some street-art drawings are in small formats and are more difficult to find, there are also works which are impressive due to their size. For example JR has been able to revive abandoned spaces like disused factories by displaying gigantic portraits of elderly people who have lived in the neighbourhood. Street artists tell militant, strong stories with a political message. These are street-art paintings steeped in history which do not leave the viewer indifferent. At Carré d'artistes, discover street-art paintings by contemporary artists: Graffmatt, Fabien Novarino, Deuz, Cyen ...