Carolina A. Miranda, a journalist and blogger based in New York, has written an article about street art for the well-known American contemporary art magazine ARTnews. The magazine has been published since 1902 in 120 countries and is an influential media in the art world. Publication for the first time for a long time published a detailed material on street art, which, of course, indicates the growing interest of the global art community in this topic.
Carolina A. Miranda is a journalist based in Brooklyn. Writes about culture, art, and travel for Time, ArtNews, Budget Travel. Runs a program about cultural events on New York Radio WNYC. In 2010, the New York Times named her one of the 9 people to follow [on twitter](https://twitter.com/cmonstah). She has written a number of research papers on street art. He maintains an art blog (http://c-monster.net/), which was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times among the recommended ones.
Thinking about street art, people immediately imagine cartoon characters or constructivist patterns: the ubiquitous and stern black-and-white face of the giant wrestler Andre "Obey" by Shepard Fairey (Shepard Fairey), depicted on the streets of the world; portraits of impudent rats from Briton Banksy (Banksy); or an endless number of symbols of various street artists flaunting illegally all over the world.
Trends are changing. Now young artists are moving from endless mindless tagging to more conceptual and rich in meaning, abstract and voluminous works.
Franco-Spanish artist Eltono draws geometric labyrinths that resemble a tuned fork or fantasize the name "Ton". Gabriel "Specter" Reese, a Canadian-American artist, turns urban waste into sculptures by installing them in abandoned places in New York and Toronto. Brad Downey, an American by birth and living in Berlin, dismantles paving stones and builds all sorts of geometrically ordered structures from it. The objects are part of a long series of "Spontaneous Sculptures", the logical conclusion of which will be the release of the book of the same name.
As in most street art objects, the main idea of this "reorganization" is opposition to the law.
“The original idea was to add something bright and colorful to the urban environment,” Downey says of her work. “Now I think the best thing to do is to change the meaning of what is already there, to reorganize the existing information.” As in most street art objects, the main idea of this "reorganization" is opposition to the law. Downey was repeatedly detained by the police.
Despite various vandalism laws, new school street art attracts increased attention international curators. In 2008, Tate Modern presented an exhibition featuring many street artists. Last year, Fundación Caixa Galicia organized a city-wide exhibition "Post-graffiti, Geometry and Abstractionism", which was attended by artists of the abstract-geometric style. And finally, in January 2011, Long Live the Revolution: A Dialogue with the Urban Landscape, featuring works by Akay, a Swedish artist who once built his own home on a median of the road.
Street art is more than the brainchild of graffiti: it contains cultural and historical value.
Interestingly, aesthetic theories some forms of street art look, in fact, quite academic. Studio artists John Baldessari, Joseph Beuys and others were doing illegal street installations as early as the 1960s. What makes street art special is that it was inspired and developed from graffiti. Most of these artists have at some point taken spray paint and tagged the walls.
“These artists brought graffiti materials, techniques and ideologies that are extremely ambitious,” says Cedar Lewisohn, curator of the Tate Modern street art exhibition and author of Abstract Graffiti (to be released by Merrel in March). “But street art is more than the brainchild of graffiti: it contains cultural and historical value.”
Artists came to new forms of street art in a variety of ways. MOMO is a New York-based artist who has been creating collages of vibrant paper and paint since 2004 in swirls of color and clear geometric shape. Like most street artists, he started out inspired by traditional methods, from tagging to freight trains and portraits of acquaintances on abandoned walls. (MOMO is a childhood nickname, like many interviewed artists, he prefers not to give his real name).
Back in 2003, with the Iraq war looming, MOMO was increasingly uninspired by its own work.
“It was a moment when I felt cut off from society as a whole. I didn't want to indulge him with figurative drawings. I didn't want to evoke a sense of nostalgia."
As a result, his work on the streets turned into pure abstraction. At that time, he created a number of canvases commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts and Sound in Sao Paulo (Museum of Image and Sound) and the Caisa Foundation (Fundación Caixa Galicia). Like many street artists, working in the abstract and conceptual scene, he did not exhibit in the gallery and lived on commissions from the sale of works in small galleries, showrooms and museums.
Of course, the fact of the departure from the figurative principle of the image is due to the fact that many of today's street artists have a minimal artistic education. Downey has a master's degree from the College of Fine Arts in London (Slade School of Fine Art in London), Eltono has a diploma Polytechnic University in Madrid. Others, like MOMO, were graduating from art school.
"These guys aren't just trying to 'rise up'," says New York art critic Carlo McCormick, who has supported urban guerrilla art since the early 1980s. “There are much deeper roots here, which makes me think of artists like John Feckner and Gordon Matta-Clark as people who came to this conceptual way.”
"Abstract art doesn't try to get the message right out of the throat, it's more poetic." C. McCormick, "Infringement: A History of Forbidden Urban Art."
McCormick explores street work in his new book Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned UrbanArt .htm)) co-authored by Marc and Sara Schiller of the popular street art blog Wooster Collective. “Most of what was done in street art and graffiti was declarative,” he says. - We can talk about abstract art that it doesn't seek to rip the message straight out of the throat, it's more poetic." For many artists, moving away from words and figurative images has been key. “This is not to impose an idea,” says Madrid-based artist Nuria Mora ((http://www.nuriamora.com/)), whose angular abstractions are chaotically intertwined with floral elements inspired by textile patterns. - It's quiet work. I try to create a little silence in the city.” For a Johannesburg art gallery, she built a dirty pink wooden structure inside the museum, then took it apart piece by piece and rebuilt on the streets of the city center - sometimes with the appropriate permission from the authorities, sometimes without.
The new wave of street art tried to create something different from the abundance of illegal tags left on every accessible surface of the city. For many years, Eltono bombed the tunnels around Paris with tags, but when he arrived in Madrid in the 90s, he found that the whole city was filled with graffiti.
"On the streets, the spray can is the devil." Eltono.
Then his recognizable today was born form style- multi-colored straight lines and figures. (Today, Eltono primarily creates art objects and installations, his work appears in galleries such as Tate Modern and Miró Fundación (Miró Foundation).
The attitude towards technical materials also played a role in this evolution. In many cities spray paint associated with the most destructive example of vandalism. According to Eltono, he changed from a spray can to a brush, not only because it gives an expressive and clear line, but also because "on the streets, the spray is the devil." But if you paint with a brush, then “no one touches you. It doesn't look aggressive." Often, on the contrary, this gives him the opportunity to argue with ordinary passers-by, as some people begin to argue with the person painting the wall.
"If you're going to do street art, I think it should be more street and less art." Ad Deville.
The illegality of street art is a far-fetched issue for many of the artists interviewed. They see their creativity as an interesting way to communicate with the urban environment. Skewville is a duo from New York whose ironic voluminous installations flirt with the architecture of the city (their work has been exhibited in galleries in London, Dublin and Lille). They taunt passers-by with carved wood Snickers on power wires and make sculptures out of cable ducts that they mount on building facades.
“If you're going to do street art, I think it should be more street and less art,” says Ad Deville, one-two of the duo. “For us, it means staying real – but literally, playing with real streetwear and embedding it into the urban environment.”
Reese, whose work has been shown at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, says he started out with more conceptual and larger-scale projects. For the Canner Tribute series, he designed a pedestal with a supermarket cart filled with empty boxes. glass bottles, as a sign of respect for people who recycle aluminum cans. He installed art objects without permission in unused spaces near bridges and railroad tracks in New York. “I want to create an object as a sign of respect. But I also like its aesthetic. I'd be lying if I said I didn't think about it."
"The streets are for cars, not for art." Patrick Miller.
As work moved beyond the established boundaries of graffiti and street art, the question arose among artists as to what to call it. The term "street art" is blown out of proportion. "I struggle with the idea of 'street art,'" says Patrick Miller, a member of the New York-based Faile collective, who started out with stencils in the '90s before diving headlong into 3D installations. “The streets are for cars, not for art.”
In 2009, Faile installed two large prayer wheels carved into the streets of Brooklyn depicting consumerism and greed. They were inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels. On the streets, the installations offered an unexpected neighborhood: a ritual object illegally and suddenly installed in the middle of a shabby cityscape.
In general, Faile's work is at the intersection of partisan and visual arts, pop art and conceptualism, sculpture and architecture. Despite the fact that the duo are involved in illegal art, they are the only artists mentioned here who have their own representative in galleries in New York and London. Their wood collage is valued at over $60,000. Last year, the couple completed a major commission - a historical copy of the temple in mall in Lisbon - as participants in the Portugal Arte 10 festival. "This is a blurred area at the intersection of street and public art and intervention in public space. Somewhere in between."
Javier Abarca, curator, critic and lecturer at the University of Madrid who runs the graffiti blog Urbanario, says it's time to rethink the street art system. While graffiti is a term for spray-paint tagging, street art, accommodating everything-that-is-implied-by-street, becomes too unwieldy a concept. Abarka uses the term "post-graffiti" to refer to any kind of iconic street tagging.
"If we have problems with words - how to drink, something new is coming." MOMO.
At first, the term referred to such figures as the 80s pop artist Keith Haring, who came up with a clear vocabulary inspired by graffiti, but not copying it. Today, post-graffiti can include the work of artists such as MOMO and Eltono (as well as Fairey and Banksy), who have completely expanded the set of visual symbols. To classify more environmentally dependent objects as Downey's or Reese's, Abarka uses the term "intervention" - the intrusion of an art object into the street environment.
Of course, it is not always possible to clearly define the typology of street art. Almost all artists talked about shifting boundaries and moving from one category to another, avoiding categorization: from the street to the galleries, from graffiti to post-graffiti and intervention. “I'm attracted to this vague zone, where words don't play a big role anymore,” says MOMO. “If we have problems with words - how to drink, something new is coming.”
Every time we walk around Moscow, we find something new and interesting in it. Street art belongs to the non-banal objects of the city, we are already. Today we will show drawings on the walls of houses, outbuildings and other structures, painted by various street artists. Such drawings are divided into illegal, that is, made without permission, and legal, made with the permission of local authorities (or commercial structures that legally coordinate their order with local authorities).
The most interesting graffiti in Moscow in 2016 —>
Today I will show you illegal street art that appeared in 2016. As you can see, illegal immigrants in Moscow are not only vandalism, not only painted electric trains, tags polluting the city walls, not only endless fences painted with the same tags along railways. I note that at present there are no places in the city allocated for the placement of a “permitted illegal immigrant”. I will not touch on urban graffiti festivals, when a wall is given to those who are thirsty to draw in a specially designated reservation, on which you can draw anything. I do not consider these works to be illegal. Usually illegal drawings exist in "informal courtyards" mainly in the center of Moscow, where such works are not painted over by local authorities. In addition to Zoom, whose work, hundreds of other street artists draw in the city. I believe that the creations of some of them deserve attention.
In January, the Kinchev wall appeared on Pokrovsky Boulevard. The drawing on it is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the Alisa Army fan community, created in 1991 on the initiative of Konstantin Kinchev, the leader of the Alisa group. In May and October, the wall was painted over, but the fans restored the painting each time.
Alex214 painted several garages in Kuzminki, resulting in a subway train. Among the figures is Martha Cooper, a legendary character for street art lovers. She is known worldwide as a photographer who captured the beginnings of graffiti culture in New York in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Portraits of girls by Keirs from the Insmut team. Some street artists criticize the way he works. They believe that the meaning of street art is to come and draw. And when the author comes several times to finish the work, uses tape to draw straight lines, this is no longer street art. I take such arguments lightly. It's just strange to me that some girls come out at Keirs some kind of masculine.
Akor (Artem Korotkov) paints in the south of Moscow, and I usually don't get to see his work. An ironic drawing on a building in the Biryulevsky Forest Park.
Akor on Shipilovsky proezd.
In the same place, on Shipilovsky passage, a fox from Choys. Interestingly, he is one of the few who writes his nickname in Cyrillic - Choice.
Bear from green leaves from Choyce s Mendeleevskaya.
Choys said that in this drawing he wanted to show the emotions of the students from the arrival on September 1st.
Musician from Choys.
Antonia Gapotchenko, who chose the nickname Lev, came from Lipetsk in 2011 to study as an illustrator and stayed in the capital. She is educated Graphic Designer. He considers himself an illustrator, he always has been and remains, but now he also draws on the walls. It is surprising that she did not write her nickname at all, but immediately started with drawings. The first of them appeared in May 2015 in St. Petersburg near the railway tracks. Antonia has her own recognizable style, her favorite character is a naked girl in the jungle, bursting with beauty and health, and drawn without excessive realism of forms. And although a girl who draws girls is usually not taken seriously in the graffiti community, for short term she managed to gain prestige. A year and a month after the start of her career, she was already instructed to paint an 8x5 meter wall, for other authors, this path takes a decade. True, the Outline festival, for which the wall was made, did not take place, so the audience did not see this work.
Sometimes men appear in her drawings.
Antonia likes to find some kind of “abandoned place”, as it is important for her to combine the drawing with the environment around.
Street artist Frankie, like Banksy and Zoom, works in the stencil genre. The nickname F20 once stood for the name of a two-piece band. Over time, the composition of the group changed, and now only Frankie remained under the nickname F20. He received an architectural education and works as an architect. “But I still want to do something like that, where you can do whatever you want, without approvals - you just want and do it.” Franky began to draw a long time ago, but he feels like an artist since February 2010, when he found his own style. He is currently pursuing his second degree in Graphic Design.
Two of his works of 2015 are near MPEI. From an interview: “Sometimes the place itself dictates the desire to draw. Next to MPEI, between the buildings there is a very slum alley - you won’t even understand that this is a university - and there I did three jobs. Two of them still remain, no one touches them, although the tags around are painted over. Maybe the university administration is not against the fact that they hang there, I don’t know.”
Children's imagination on Maroseyka.
Work on the Arbat appeared on Valentine's Day.
"Is that right, dear?" at Ogorodnaya Sloboda.
The stork is a symbol of new life in many cultures. Waste barrel as a symbol of the detrimental impact of the man-made factor on nature. The stork built a nest on an old barrel, nature won. In the courtyard in Pechatnikov lane.
And again the stork and modern civilization.
Miracle-yudo fish-whale. Instead of a village - a panel microdistrict.
Lost girl with a bear on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard.
Often listened to by Frankie, Magnetic Poetry in Seliverstov Lane.
Sourt is a master of the genre, which is called "black and white photorealism". His works can be found in the south of Moscow, which is far from me. The first time I went in the winter, and found only one of his works of 2014 - a portrait of Mayakovsky, the rest were painted over. An interesting character - imagine, someone took and painted Mayakovsky illegally on the fence of the park!
In 2016, not far from the Begovaya metro station, Benicio del Toro appeared as Gonzo in Terry Gilliam's film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
Yuri Nikulin appeared not far from the Mendeleevskaya metro station.
I did not recognize this man on Shipilovsky Proezd.
Actor Anthony Hopkins, near the Oblaka shopping center on Orekhovy Boulevard.
Actor and musician Pyotr Mamonov, writer Viktor Pelevin on Veselaia Street (there is one near the Tsaritsyno metro station).
I will finish the review with the works of two street artists who, by status, have already become just artists, although sometimes they continue to paint on the streets.
Alexey Mednoy was born in 1985. He graduated with honors from the Ivanovsky Design Department. art school named after Malyutin, but later moved to Moscow, the city in which he was born. The first facade in Moscow on Tsvetnoy Boulevard was created as part of the festival " Best City Earth" (2013). In his picturesque and graphic works the formed author's style is confidently read, expressed in characteristic techniques. He uses an achromatic range of colors, broken shapes, crushed images. Mosaic compositions, as if assembled from colored glass fragments, refer to the tradition of modernist artists.
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Andrey Berger was born in 1986 in Barnaul. He is known under the nickname Aber, the origin of which is clear without explanation. By education he is a designer of the architectural environment, he graduated from the Altai State Technical University. Andrey became interested in street art in 2001 and since then he has been painting on the walls and is actively engaged in creative work. He lived in Novosibirsk, now lives in Moscow, heads the First Graffiti Agency.
His first notable work on the facade of the capital's house "Inspiration" (2013) is located near the metro station "Prospect Mira" and was done together with Marat Morik from Novosibirsk. The girl on it is realistic, but Andrei himself prefers geometric abstractions. I managed to photograph his illegal work. Well, do you like this style?
Later in 2016 Andrey will perform works in the same style in Denmark at the Aarhus Art Convention, and in Germany (Munich) at the Stroke Art Fair. Porcelain plates for the five-star Silken Puerta America hotel in Madrid were painted with the same graphics in 2016. More precisely, specifically for one of the floors of this hotel, which was designed by the great Zaha Hadid. The other floors were designed by Norman Foster and Jean Nouvel.
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Publication prepared by: Vasily P. Photo by the author.
The concept of "street art" is translated into Russian as "art of the street" and in a broad sense means the creation of art objects right on the streets of cities.
streets?
Many artists believe that such a phenomenon as street art cannot be defined in principle. This phenomenon is too complex and multifaceted. Nevertheless, it is possible to single out the general. Firstly, street art is the fruit of the work of a street artist, and secondly, it can only exist on the street. There are four sides to street art: the idea and the place, the reference to the external or internal, the claim to eternity or its absence, intimacy. For every job, these components are as important as windows are needed for a house. There is a popular phrase among artists that the work you have completed will remain only yours until dawn, and then it will become common. This is the essence of street art. But this frankness leaves its mark - the artist often has to open his soul, expose his own feelings in front of strangers.
Art in action
How does street art work? Photos, anime, comics, celebrity portraits, current events in the world - all this does not go unnoticed by street artists. The plots of art objects located on the streets in all parts of the Earth are extremely diverse. One thing unites them - this is the opportunity to convey the idea to the widest circle of people. Therefore, the artist has such a responsibility, because he creates art for the masses. And it resonates in the hearts of the citizens. Today, museums are opening around the world, festivals, meetings the best craftsmen and ordinary lovers of urban beauty.
How is street art made?
Artists know that sooner or later the idea will take over the heart and thoughts completely, so much so that it is unbearable to do nothing. This means that it's time to pick up paint and go outside. Even those who have long ceased to consider themselves a beginner know that anyone healthy person it's scary to start. This fear is normal. And in some ways even necessary. The main thing is to overcome it in time and decide on the execution of the idea. One of the most important tools of a street artist is not a spray gun or a brush, but a generous dose of healthy irony and sarcasm, devoid of obtrusiveness and arrogance. It is humor that allows you to achieve the effect when everyone sees and discusses the work itself, and not whether it was possible to paint something on this wall. No less than the right attitude, important and technical means. Artists have a rule: take with you twice as much as you need. Then they are enough. And professionals joke that the best cure for the looks and distracting questions of the curious is the phrase: "We are making a movie." As a rule, after such onlookers leave the artists alone.
A bit about street artists
And now about those who, thanks to talent, a share of adventurism, a sense of humor, have acquired world fame. However, "famous" is not quite the right word. After all, it often happens that the creation of a master is seen by millions of people, the fame of him spreads all over the world, and no one really knows anything about the artist himself. Something like this happened with Banksy from London. His famous "Nude" (pictured) is famous all over the world. And all that was known about the master was a short pseudonym. Now Banksy is coming out of the shadows, participating in international projects, travels around the world. One of the admirers of his talent is Angelina Jolie.
Portuguese Alexander Farto (Vhils) amazes the public with incredible plots, huge works, intricate interweaving of many tiny details. A peculiar feature of the artist is a partial mechanical effect on the surface. One of his "autographs" is also in Moscow.
Californian Above creates on the topic of politics, society, culture. His works can be found in more than fifty countries around the world. In the photo - the work "First Love".
Portuguese artist Peter Roa also loves to travel. He draws black and white pictures of animals. On one of the Moscow walls, squirrels painted by him flaunt. But such a giraffe settled in Africa.
Our contemporary and compatriot from Simferopol in just a few months acquired world fame. Someone with the pseudonym Sharik paints his street canvases condemning the war and murders, showing the whole unpleasant side of the Ukrainian conflict. Sharik's works can be seen in many cities of Crimea.
Nikita Nomerz creates interesting images from buildings and structures. His works shock, amaze and bring a constant smile to the inhabitants of several Russian cities.
Philosophy of street art
Street artists make the black-and-white world colorful, faceless walls of housing estates are turned into objects of art. But main value street art is not in its aesthetic side, but in the fact that thanks to it people think about modernity, about eternal values and their role in this world.
Street art ( street art) is a type of contemporary urban art. It is difficult to determine when wall paintings first appeared, such fine art is one of the oldest. But, despite this, disputes regarding this activity do not subside, because many people believe that street art is an act of vandalism. But is it? Let's dive deeper into the world of street art and try to figure out what it really is.
What is street art and how does it work?
Street art translated from in English means "street art". This direction means:
- Wall drawings;
- Images in in public places and on various objects;
- Street installations;
- Stickers;
- Posters, etc.
Everything that is an urban style of fine art can be attributed to this direction. There is a widespread misconception that graffiti is the only manifestation of street art. However, it is not. Graffiti is just one type of street art, but far from the only one.
The history of street art from its inception to the present day
It would be correct to note that street art has existed since the advent of Homo sapiens. At first, creativity manifested itself in the form rock paintings. Later, already in a civilized society (in Ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt, etc.), people began to express their thoughts through the application of graffiti on the walls. These were advertising messages, declarations of love, expression of political thoughts, etc.
Street art, such as we are used to seeing it today, supposedly appeared during the Second World War. The first case is considered to be the appearance of the viral inscription “Kilroy was here”. It was applied by a certain Kilroy, who (presumably) worked at a bomb factory in Detroit (USA). At first, the inscription appeared on all the boxes with bombs made at this plant. Then the phrase was supplemented with a drawing and further distributed by American soldiers.
The heyday of street art in the 1960s was in Philadelphia. This place is still considered to be the historical center of graffiti culture. In the 1970s, localization moves to New York. It all started with a Manhattan neighborhood called Washington Heights. At this point, “tagging” was invented. Then there was a tradition to put the street number next to the nickname. The first to do this was Julio 204. Among the graffiti artists of that time, rivalry broke out for recognition as the best. This prompted the writers to develop new style performance - this is how codes and styles of graffiti appeared.
It is also noteworthy that until 2012, no street art museum was created anywhere in the world; there were no departments that could present this style to the public. For the first time, the Museum of Street Art was opened in St. Petersburg. main goal this museum is to provide information about street art and graffiti. The museum also provides assistance in organizing modern projects, is engaged in support of young artists. Museum representatives are trying to introduce a new approach to the development of creativity, using industrial facilities located far from the city center for this.
Types and techniques of street art
The division into styles can be observed mainly among graffiti. The following techniques stand out:
- Writing- the process of applying graffiti without reference to style. Includes absolutely all varieties;
- bombing- fast drawing extreme conditions;
- Tagging- the signature of the artist, his nickname.
In addition to the application technique, there are also types of graffiti that differ in style:
- bubble letter– graphics using capital letters and volumetric forms similar to bubbles;
- Throw up– New York style, which involves the use of two colors and simple shapes;
- character– depiction of characters in the style of a graffiti artist;
- wild style- one of the most common types, involving the application complex drawings. Requires high level skill;
- 3D style- 3D style image, as well as optical illusions.
There is a huge variety of techniques for applying drawings and performing installations. New directions appear regularly, artists try to find their own own style and stand out from the crowd of other writers.
Famous representatives of the direction
In street art, as in any other direction, there are famous representatives:
- Banksy - this artist is called the "gold standard" contemporary art. His identity has never been revealed. Many of his works are included in the register of protected objects. Originally from Bristol, works and exhibits around the world;
- Vhils - Alexander Fartu, originally from Portugal. In his technique, he uses an electric drill. Collaborated with legendary band U2;
- Above (TavarZawacki) - started in the US, but then moved to Berlin. The subject of his work are the themes of injustice. modern system, as well as poverty of certain segments of the population;
- Roa - in his works depicts animals, often exhausted, with organs, open eyes. He tends to imitate the X-ray effect in his works;
- C215 is a French street artist who travels the world and decorates the streets. His favorite subject is his own daughter Nina, who can be seen in the images, sometimes as a little girl, sometimes transformed into a young woman;
- Jean Michel Basquiat is a late artist who left a bright mark on history. Started as a graffiti artist, during the prime of his career he completed many stencil projects in collaboration with Andy Warhol.
Contemporary street art has many manifestations. Sometimes writers are affected difficult topics. But, the work of writers does not become less beautiful from this. Now we can see how many works are turned into national treasures, and artists from all over the world realize their creative potential.
