Towards the end of the 20th century a new form of contemporary art appeared, one that wasn’t contained within four walls but rather was placed on walls in outdoor public spaces. This art form that we hear so much about is called urban art, more commonly known as street art.
Today many street arts have a desire to make art accessible to as many people as possible and is there a more place more accessible than the street to make sure that people take notice of art?
At the dawn of street art, in the 60s, the graffiti artist Cornbread began leaving his mark by signing his name around Philadelphia to get the attention of a girl he was in love with. His actions quickly gained a lot of media coverage and new fans of “tagging” soon began to imitate him.
This new form of vandalism reached New York, where urbanisation was in full swing. Working-class neighbourhoods adopted the practice and covered the city’s walls in lettering and signatures. That was when prominent figures of graffiti art were born, such as Quik,
Futura 2000, and Phase 2.
Urban art spread throughout the whole world in the form of tags and murals. This new form of painting used new techniques such as spray cans, paint guns, stencils, and even stickers. In the 70s, street art crossed the Atlantic and arrived in France, but the practice only really took off in the 80s, represented by artists such as Blek le Rat and Jérôme Mesnager. Street art
artworks took new forms from very large murals to very small paintings of few inches.
Police control tightened in the 1980s and 1990s and street artists tried more often to preserve their work. Some of them decided that they would stop signing their artworks in the street to avoid being held responsible and to discourage the theft of their artworks that was starting. Art galleries started to become interested in their artwork and began to set up the first exhibitions of street art. Some of these galleries even specialised in Street art.
Although some saw the introduction of street art in
art galleries as going against the very nature of street art, it became more and more common. It meant artists needed to have two bodies of work: one on the street and then one created in the studio, often on canvas.
Urban art was not considered by many as part of contemporary art for decades but it has slowly gained its nobility and its reputation grew. Some street art artworks have a value of tens of millions such as the paintings of
Jean-Michel Basquiat , Untitled sold at 110,5 millions of dollars.
The value of contemporary street artists on the art market continues to increase every year and they attract more and more collectors. On Artsper, you can buy contemporary street art canvases by the movement’s most prominent artists:
JonOne, Shepard Fairey, Blek le Rat,
Jef Aérosol , Banksy,
Miss Tic, and more.
