Blek le Rat

 

Blek le Rat (Xavier Proux) has been called the godfather of stencil art and is certainly a street art veteran.

 

A Parisian, he first encountered “artistic” graffiti on a visit to New York in 1971. However, he wanted to produce his own style of graffiti rather than imitate the American version. In fact, it wasn’t until a decade later that he began to stencil black rats on the walls of his native Paris. He adopted his nom de plume partly because of his original subject matter but also as a reference to Blek le Roc, a comic book hero from his childhood.

 

His images have developed and diversified over the years, sometimes having a political theme and sometimes being more poetic.

 

His work has been a source of inspiration for many artists who have wanted to bridge the gap between street art and the mainstream art world.

 

From 1971 to 1976 he had studied printmaking and painting at the Ecole National Superieure des Beaux arts de Paris and then studied architecture until 1982.

 

Using a stencil to produce an image is perhaps one of the oldest art forms. Prehistoric artists produced some cave painting by taking pigment into their mouths and then spraying it over a stencil, such as their own hand. Modern screen printing is also essentially based on the stencil.

 

Blek le Rat has exhibited in galleries and on the street throughout the world.