« White wall, dumb people » reminds us of a saying. And the walls were adorned with ornaments to give the people a voice.
Street art was born and took off in the 1980s. Since then, he has been dressing our walls and sidewalks with his different means of expression.
The stencil technique is part of these street arts. The stencil is a sheet of cardboard or metal cut out allowing to color with a brush or with a spray can the drawing having the outline of the cut out. This technique makes it possible to reproduce characters or patterns on different media and this several times. The street art of stencil appeared at the beginning of the 80s in Paris and does not cease developing through different artists but with a strong sign of recognition: the stencil. Their support of preference, the walls of the city as canvas, their tool, the spray can or the brush but their art is precise, multiple and very often effective.
In order to pay tribute to this art form that is both unknown and known to all, the Cabinet d’Amateur has chosen to exhibit until June 20 five Parisian artists, precursors of the use of stencil.
Miss. Tic is the first but not the least. On a Sunday afternoon, let’s take a little Parisian walk in the streets of the Butte Aux Cailles neighborhood. All along our wanderings appear on different walls silhouettes of women created with spray paint accompanied by tasty puns. These silhouettes are stenciled in a single layer and are the work of Miss. Tic and are emblematic of the stencil style.
Artist, visual artist and poet, she is a committed woman who leaves her mark on the walls of the city. It is everywhere on the walls, it becomes the walls. Initially wild, his works are now exhibited in the largest galleries in the city. His means of expression is simple, inimitable but effective and unequalled: black and red, an image and a text. She exposes herself, puts herself on stage and speaks out. Her lyrics are full of wordplay, taking up the cause of women with a sense of humor, and turning stereotypical images of seduction on their head:« Playing the wall, playing the art girl« ,« The weather’s a bitch« ,« You don’t waste anything waiting for me« ,« To possess is to be possessed« ,« I dominate what dominates me« ,« The masculine wins out but where?
Miss. Tic discovered the art of graffiti in California where she lived for two years. She started stenciling on walls in 1985 and has been painting ever since. Campaign for the car rental brand UCAR, movie poster for « The girl cut in half », her art never stops expressing itself according to her desires as a woman.
Paul Martin is much less known but his work is just as recognizable, much more conceptual and very graphic. He is a figurative artist about whom we know almost nothing. His immobile characters can be found throughout his work and wander through settings that are all different from one another. His palette is precise, the artist masters all techniques: painting, drawing and stencil but with a brush. His work is colorful and lively like his character who keeps moving from wall to wall.
Mr. Lolo is a great discovery. His works are inspired, among others, by mythical characters of the cinema: Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich. He summons them all to proclaim his love of this Hollywood cinema of the 1940s and 1950s, whole in an image very close to photography, very glamorous. His « canvases » are colorful, of an unparalleled precision, mastering marvelously shadows and lights, colors and volumes in a style close to pop art. But his strongest exercise in my eyes are his vanities, brilliant exercise of colorful style and so strong with these insects coming out of these skulls. Everything is done with spray paint and stencil, even the smallest shade of purple…
Sometimes, as I walked along the cobblestones of Paris, at the bend in the road, I found myself face to face with giraffes on the sidewalk. These giraffes were signed Mosko and Associates. Behind Mosko and associates hide two artists, Gérard Laux and Michel Allemand who chose to release the animals of the zoo in the streets of Paris. Giraffes, tigers and gazelles have invaded the walls, bringing life and color back to the Moskowa district, which borders the inner ring road in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. They cover the urban jungle with their colorful animals with a simple message: they want to put beauty, joy and life where there is ugly, dark and ruins. Mosko and Associates has specialized in the painting of exotic animals, thus becoming their trademark. They also decide to put their stencils mainly on places in loss. Thus, these poetic animals give the buildings and the inhabitants their color. Their bestiary is enriched over the years with new specimens for our greatest pleasure.
On the occasion of the exhibition’s finissage, Paul Martin and Mr. Lolo will make live stencils on Sunday, June 20, 2010 from 3 to 7 pm. Go ahead and see the art of stenciling live…
www.lecabinetdamateur.com
Le cabinet d’amateur
12 rue de la Forge Royale 75011 Paris
Tuesday to Saturday, 2 to 7 pm and Sunday, 2 to 5 pm
By appointment by calling 01 43 48 14 06.
Marie-Odile Radom
