What is street art ?

Welcome to my readers :) Well today, for my first article I’m going to present you what is street art (even if I’m sure you probably know what is it, I’ll go into the details) so, let’s begin: What is Street Art? Street art is a contemporary artistic movement that developed itself at the end of the last century. It is defined as the art of public places, the one we find in our streets, on walls. The one we do not always pay attention to but which can reserve nice surprises, pass messages, share talents or opinion. It comes in a variety of forms: graffiti, stenciled graffiti, poster design, pastel, and even video projection. (All of them are incredible) Street art origins aren't recent, men used to write on the walls. For example, The caves at Lascaux, in southwestern France, have almost 2000 images painted on their ceilings and walls, dating back to circa 15,000 BCE. It was a mix of abstract signs, animals and people. Some specialists think that street art was born in the early 20th century. In Mexico after the revolution of 1910 a lot of mural paintings appeared. In Russia the same phenomenon, mural paintings of propaganda invaded walls, it's the start of an artistic period marked by politics, economic or social protestations. However, we consider that street art really started in New York and Philadelphia in The USA in the 1960s. Well you must know famous street art artists such as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Cornbread, Jean Michel Basquiat or Keith Haring, but I'm going to talk more about the different types of street art. Sooo there are different types of street arts, such as: Graffiti: It consists in spray paint or painting your signature, a message or even abstract things. It was the first art associated with vandalism. You can find different types of graffities: - The tag, which is the signature - The Flop, it looks like the tag but there is a real work on the volume - The Graff, its composition is more complex and sophisticated. - The mural, which is the biggest graffiti of all.

Stencils, they appeared in the early 1880s. It's was a new technique and a new form of expression. In Paris, the artist Blek le Rat started stencils and painted them everywhere on the walls.

Here's the link, you also have plenty of Banksy's work: https://www.nouvelobs.com/galeries-photos/photo/20140522.OBS8235/photos-banksy-legende-mysterieuse-du-street-art.html Stickers or Stick art, they are getting more and more famous because like the stencil it's really easy to do. Besides it's also less damaging than spray painting.

This is a famous sticker by OBEY Street installations, they consist in featuring three-dimensional objects, they play with the space and the public interactions. These installations allow the public to question themselves, to think, certain things shock others call for attention. Whenever I see one I feel so destabilize. <

The tape art: This art consists in making art with adhesive tape. It can be made with brown tape art, which plays with the shades of colors or by mason’s tape and waterproof to do geometric forms. The first street artist to use this technique is Mark Khaisman, but it's the Dutch artist Max Zorn who is the first to expose his work everywhere in the streets.

Street art is used to send a message, share talents or to embellish the street with colors. I think street art is wonderful and I love the fact that it's accessible to everyone. You just need to go out to see and admire some arts instead of buying a ticket to go to a private exhibition. Besides some street artists really inspired me and I would really like to try stencils in places where I can. I think my favorite street artist is Banksy because his work is stunning and it delivers messages that are important and that we need to think about. I hope one day street art will be accepted by everyone, especially in democratic countries because I think it’s a symbol of freedom of conscience where everyone can express their opinion through art. I hope that you learned new things and that you enjoyed the images of these beauuutifal masterpiece 😊 Maïa