Ten years after he made his first piece, Blek le Rat was eventually discovered and caught by the French authorities. He creates most of his stencils by hand, crafting each to perfection to allow for the best detail possible upon application, and works mainly in black and white.īlek le Rat - Melbourne, Australia, photo credits Until Never Revealing the Artist's Identity Today, Blek is credited as the first to transform stencil from basic lettering into imagery, and the one to invent the life-sized stencils.
By that time, Blek was already making rats, but when he saw Hambleton’s large shadow human figures, he got the idea of making bigger pieces, so he soon began doing larger works, as well as self-portraits. In the early 80s, American artist Richard Hambleton came to Paris and brought his work over from the US. His pseudonym, Blek le Rat, originates from a childhood cartoon "Blek le Roc", using "rat" as an anagram for “art” because, for him, the rats symbolized both freedom and the spread of art throughout the city as an invasion.īlek le Rat - Early work The King of Street Art
His black painted rats which began to appear on the street walls of the city would mark the beginning of the transformation of Paris’s visual landscape and identity. What he did that no one artist in France had was the utilization of pre-stenciled posters and images allowing the application of paint to be a lot speedier, mostly because he didn’t want to stay a long time on the streets because of the police. Inspired by the NYC graffiti, he returned to France and began his artistic career in 1981 by painting stencils of rats. Before his graduation, Prou visited New York and developed a fascination with the city’s street art. He studied fine art and architecture at the prestigious École Des Beaux Arts in Paris, graduating in 1982.
The father of stencil graffiti, Xavier Prou was born in Boulogne-Billancourt, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris in 1951. Through his work in his hometown, the artist established a style of urban art that rapidly spread throughout the continent and beyond.īlek le Rat - Paris, France Blek le Rat & Stencils The true pioneer of street art, he is often cited as a major influence of artists like Banksy, Space Invader, Shepard Fairey, and Icy and Sot. One of the first artist who started decorating the streets of the City of Light was legendary graffiti artist Blek le Rat who has inspired generations of graffiti artists across the globe.
France's capital may be the world renowned for the invaluable pieces of art that reside in such museums as the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, but it is also home to some of the most exciting street art in Europe.
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