The Street Artists
- Posted by: SamSchwartz , Serifcan
- on December 13, 2006 at 6:24 am
Sometimes “street artists” are fine artists gone wild, having fled the sterile confines of the gallery to apply their work directly on the urban landscape.
Sometimes they are graffiti artists who have outgrown writing and rewriting their own names. The canvas in both cases is the same—walls, tunnels, bridges, street signs, or most any other stretch of drab concrete that is technically private property but actually up for grabs. The best known of them all is Shepard Fairey’s OBEY campaign, a series of stickers and posters that presented wrestler André the Giant, his fictional “posse,” and the word “Obey” in Soviet propaganda style. Over the last ten years, Fairey’s project has grown from a few Rhode Island art school students to Fortune 500 clients willing to pay the Obey team handsomely for advertising work done in their trademark style. That’s the trouble with many street artists—too often the message is “look at me,” “here’s a joke you don’t get,” or even worse, “I’m for hire.” The best street artists have the power to change the pedestrian experience of the city, like Swoon, who humanizes blank walls with life-sized posters of children at play. Street art is at its best when it’s humorous, novel, mysterious, and coy. When it comes with its own excessively theoretical online manifesto, it can get annoying pretty quickly.
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For Example: BanksyBristol-based street artist Banksy began humbly, making anti-authoritarian stencils, but soon raised his sights to the global stage, covertly installing his own paintings into prominent museums in London and New York and painting ladders and holes onto the side of the Israeli West Bank barrier wall. His first U.S. art show, in Los Angeles, featured a live painted elephant and reaped more than $1 million in sales. That’s a lot of cash to spend on his next stunt. |
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Here’s a tip:The ol’ smile and wave.If some passerby catches you red-handed, don’t let them know it. Pretend you’re official. You’ll be surprised how often they play along with you. Remember, it’s guilt that gives you away. |
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Risk: 4
Cost: 5 P.R.: 7 Cred: 6 Coolness Factor: 6.5 |
DISCUSSION: 2 Comments
I don’t really leave comments on these types of things,but I felt I had to leave one based on the article, “The Street Artist.” I will venture to say that the author of this “piece” knows little to almost nothing about street art or its relevance in the general art movement of the 21st century. To say that Shepard Fairey’s OBEY campaign is “The best known of them all..” is absolute ignorance in the face of urban art. I’m not disputing the fact that Shepard Fairey is a good artist, he is in fact very well respected and has produced a very beautiful body of work. His contributions to the urban art movement are very generous but mearly scratch the surface. If this author was truly a genuine art lover, he should indulge himself with some enlightening research before opening his critical and opinionated mouth. Just keep in mind…unlike most artist, a “Street Artist” will bust you in your chops when confronted. Have a nice day
Its true, its true. A real street artist will bust you in your chops when confronted. This is indisputable. Allow me to explain. Several weeks ago I confronted Old Hobo Bobbo on the streets of New York City. Now Old Hobo Bobbo is best know for his underground poop series. In this particular series of art Old Hobo Bobbo poops on various landmarks in New York City. Old Hobo Bobbo is the truest definition of a street artist because he literally applies his work directly to the urban landscape. There is no middle man such as paint or marker. No, Bob’s art nothing more than him and the window of a taxi cab. Anyway, back to the story at hand. I caught the Old Hobo painting the walls of the Flatiron Building brown. Since I am opposed to the arts I demanded he cease painting. Old Hobo Bob took one look at me at busted my chops right there. The moral of this story? True street art comes from the inside.