It was in the 1980's that the work of the artists I'm especially interested in began. In Anglo-Saxon countries like Britain and the USA and Australia, graffiti of the American-inspired urban 'hip-hop' style and tagging became popular but in France it was rather different. One of the very first of the pochoir artists, Blek le Rat, said he tried out that style in Paris but it didn't work, it somehow didn't suit the place. So instead he turned for inspiration to the work of people like Ernest Pignon-Ernest, and decided to use stencils(pochoirs in French)for his street art. At first he began with a group of friends stencilling little rats all over the place(hence the name) but then graduated to much more ambitious stuff.
About this time too there began to appear on the walls of the 20th arrondissement in Paris(an area that has always sported the work of my favourites)modest little stencils based on 'Little Nemo' and signed 'Nemo.' This was the humble beginning of one of the most beloved of Paris street artists, Nemo. In the book about him written by the French novelist Daniel Pennac, it says that Nemo started creating his stencils inspired by the fact he was re-reading a childhood favourite--Little Nemo--to his own young son, who was starting school and was a little overwhelmed by it all(and who doesn't remember that feeling!) To make him feel better, his dad created these modest little street artworks all along the road to school so he could feel a comforting sense of familiarity and imaginative freedom too. Who wouldn't want a dad like that!
About this time too there began to appear on the walls of the 20th arrondissement in Paris(an area that has always sported the work of my favourites)modest little stencils based on 'Little Nemo' and signed 'Nemo.' This was the humble beginning of one of the most beloved of Paris street artists, Nemo. In the book about him written by the French novelist Daniel Pennac, it says that Nemo started creating his stencils inspired by the fact he was re-reading a childhood favourite--Little Nemo--to his own young son, who was starting school and was a little overwhelmed by it all(and who doesn't remember that feeling!) To make him feel better, his dad created these modest little street artworks all along the road to school so he could feel a comforting sense of familiarity and imaginative freedom too. Who wouldn't want a dad like that!
But as his son got older and school less traumatic, Nemo stopped doing his Little Nemo stencils. Pennac writes that after a silence of a few years, suddenly Nemo started appearing again on the walls of the 20th arrondissement and beyond--the now-famous black silhouette, reminiscent of detective-fiction and film noir, delightfully and incongruously pursuing dreamlike adventures all over the place. They have a kind of fairytale quality, a unique combination of wistful, dreamy sadness and tenderness and joyful humour, that really capture people's imagination--children and adults. They also celebrate the poor but community-rich areas where Nemo has always lived and which he loves. I'll write more on what I see in his art--probably my favourite of all-- in a later post.
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