I am always fascinated by street art. I’m going to have to go to Lyon now, lol). There’s an artist in NY named Paul Richard who does beautiful drip portraits in black paint. There’s an artist in London whose name is out of my head that is everywhere and they also pop up in downtown NY. I’m also fond of Stik. Even what others condemn as just graffiti and not art I find fascinating- the need to express. What passion, need, longing drives someone to take can to wall to share what they are feeling. How invisible does someone have to feel in order to start tagging to say “I am here!” I am always moved by the response to social change expressed in paint - the pandemic, George Floyd, the housing crisis, Ukraine, reproductive rights. The street cleans up and then something happens and voila - opinions start to be expressed. It is usually the very people who need to hear what’s being said who are the most “outraged” by the desecration. Viva le artiste!
Everything you just said. And you are a bit of a street artist yourself. It's the streets that draw your eye and your camera. If you get any photos of Paul Richard's drip portraits or this artist, Stik, I'd love to see them. In today's Cappuccino on Giorgia Meloni, there's an Italian muralist who did a fabulous political piece you should see. Viva le artiste indeed.
I've probably told of the experience of the artist doing a chalk "portrait" on a sidewalk in Westwood (UCLA's neighborhood in west L.A., for those who don't know) because it is always the thing that comes to mind with these stories. I couldn't tell if it was from a classic painting or simply from the artist's mind, but it was beautiful and moving. Something very sad and lonely in the woman he was drawing, but also the "meta" consideration of the art work itself: this was work was a Mayfly that would vanish entirely with the next rain (never mind the feet walking over it once the artist himself was gone.)
Also brings to mind the buskers I've encountered: the famous jazz saxophone quartet doing a Bach Brandenburg on a street corner in San Francisco; the haunting acoustics in the subway stations. Again, though, all of it transient, discovered only because of an accident in time and space such as only a city ever makes possible.
I know exactly what you speak of. Saxophones in particular impart that haunting quality in subway acoustics, all the more beautiful because it is ephemeral.
There's a pronounced difference between graffiti and street art. Graffiti is too often the pointless vandalistic attempts of someone with precious little talent to attract attention. Street art, however, while often equally unauthorized, often is an outlet for legitimate talent. Ememem is an example of someone of surpassing and unique talent who uses blight as his canvas, where graffiti too often creates blight.
Art can indeed be a revolutionary act. It can also be, and too often is, vandalism. And too many "artists" seem unable to discern the difference.
I don't disagree with that. Random tagging can be an eyesore, absolutely. But I do empathize with the need to "own a piece of the world" that often compels it.
There is a VERY fine line between art and vandalism. There are some who might say art IS vandalism ;-)
I'd disagree with the "art IS vandalism" claim, but then who decides what art IS? Who's the ultimate arbiter? Your rapturous piece of Renaissance slice of life might be something I'd put up over my toilet to cover an unsightly hole in the wall.
I am always fascinated by street art. I’m going to have to go to Lyon now, lol). There’s an artist in NY named Paul Richard who does beautiful drip portraits in black paint. There’s an artist in London whose name is out of my head that is everywhere and they also pop up in downtown NY. I’m also fond of Stik. Even what others condemn as just graffiti and not art I find fascinating- the need to express. What passion, need, longing drives someone to take can to wall to share what they are feeling. How invisible does someone have to feel in order to start tagging to say “I am here!” I am always moved by the response to social change expressed in paint - the pandemic, George Floyd, the housing crisis, Ukraine, reproductive rights. The street cleans up and then something happens and voila - opinions start to be expressed. It is usually the very people who need to hear what’s being said who are the most “outraged” by the desecration. Viva le artiste!
Everything you just said. And you are a bit of a street artist yourself. It's the streets that draw your eye and your camera. If you get any photos of Paul Richard's drip portraits or this artist, Stik, I'd love to see them. In today's Cappuccino on Giorgia Meloni, there's an Italian muralist who did a fabulous political piece you should see. Viva le artiste indeed.
I've probably told of the experience of the artist doing a chalk "portrait" on a sidewalk in Westwood (UCLA's neighborhood in west L.A., for those who don't know) because it is always the thing that comes to mind with these stories. I couldn't tell if it was from a classic painting or simply from the artist's mind, but it was beautiful and moving. Something very sad and lonely in the woman he was drawing, but also the "meta" consideration of the art work itself: this was work was a Mayfly that would vanish entirely with the next rain (never mind the feet walking over it once the artist himself was gone.)
Also brings to mind the buskers I've encountered: the famous jazz saxophone quartet doing a Bach Brandenburg on a street corner in San Francisco; the haunting acoustics in the subway stations. Again, though, all of it transient, discovered only because of an accident in time and space such as only a city ever makes possible.
I know exactly what you speak of. Saxophones in particular impart that haunting quality in subway acoustics, all the more beautiful because it is ephemeral.
There's a pronounced difference between graffiti and street art. Graffiti is too often the pointless vandalistic attempts of someone with precious little talent to attract attention. Street art, however, while often equally unauthorized, often is an outlet for legitimate talent. Ememem is an example of someone of surpassing and unique talent who uses blight as his canvas, where graffiti too often creates blight.
Art can indeed be a revolutionary act. It can also be, and too often is, vandalism. And too many "artists" seem unable to discern the difference.
I don't disagree with that. Random tagging can be an eyesore, absolutely. But I do empathize with the need to "own a piece of the world" that often compels it.
There is a VERY fine line between art and vandalism. There are some who might say art IS vandalism ;-)
I'd disagree with the "art IS vandalism" claim, but then who decides what art IS? Who's the ultimate arbiter? Your rapturous piece of Renaissance slice of life might be something I'd put up over my toilet to cover an unsightly hole in the wall.