Is it vandalism or just art?

Breaking a long silence(sorry, folks, life just caught up with me is all!) to ponder a bit after the Banksy/Robbo fracas, whether this kind of thing(illustrated) which devours one of Mosko's artworks in Belleville, is vandalism or just another layer of art..Was discussing this with some friends the other day and everyone was very divided on the matter. Me, my instinct is to feel uncomfortable--like it seems aggressive to me, what's happening here--but other people think it's cool, that this art is living art, street art that's not just frozen in an art gallery or museum but lives out there taking its chances..Yeah I know I sort of came down on that side, kind of, earlier, but now I've sort of changed my mind..I think it SOUNDS cool, but in reality it's not really that cool, but more of a power play thing, like saying, you're not relevant any more, shove over! Which I don't like. And the tagging and stuff that goes on like with this Nemo one too makes me feel mad, I'm sorry if that's uncool but that's the way I feel!

Joyeux Nouvel An! Happy New Year!

To all my readers and all my family and friends and to everyone who just chances on this blog!

And my new year's resolution is:

Try and write more posts! (Notice I said 'try')

An interesting snippet from New York Times

Many of the new art hotels are springing up in the Boulevard Montparnasse area on the Left Bank. During the 1920s, you might have found Picasso drinking at the Café Select, Ferdinand Leger painting in the La Ruche studio complex or Man Ray holing up at the Hôtel Istria. Today, the small lanes around Place Pablo Picasso — famous for Rodin’s statue of Balzac — hide newfangled art havens like the Hôtel des Académies et des Arts.
Its pedigree is impressive. According to Henry Mona, the hotel’s director, the building once housed the studio of the celebrated Japanese painter Tsuguharu Foujita, a friend and colleague of Picasso and Man Ray, and the street was at one time home to Modigliani.
Paying tribute to the spirit of the avant-garde, the hotel hired the French urban artist Jérôme Mesnager, who has gained fame for painting his signature “white bodies” — sinewy humanoid forms — on city walls from Togo to Tokyo, including the Great Wall of China and Red Square in Moscow.
Mr. Mesnager has installed the spectral creatures in each of the boutique hotel’s 20 rooms, on the building’s facade, in the courtyard, on the wall of the lobby (chock full of books about Montparnasse’s artistic heyday) and even the elevator shaft (visible through a glass wall in the elevator).
“They’re the hotel’s permanent guests,” Mr. Mona joked.

(from New York Times, Dec 18 2009)

Nemo's new work in Belleville

This month saw a most exciting happening: a new Nemo fresco created by the artist on the wall of a 7-storey apartment block at 146 Rue de Menilmontant, looking over the Menilmontant-Oberkampf crossroads. It features all his most loved elements: the man in the black raincoat with his suitcase, the red balloon(inspired of course by Lamorisse's film of the same name), a kite, and a rocket which Nemo says is inspired by the amazing adventure-in-waiting that are the first commercial rocket flights(Virgin Galactic's ones, I suppose!)

Beautiful, airy, dreamy and charming as ever, this is a fresco that already takes its place amongst Nemo's great works, and inspires local inhabitants.

There's a piece about it here in the local paper Belleville Magazine:

http://www.belleville-village.com/spip.php?article2059

The Banksy/Robbo feud

Everyone's talking about this story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6970944.ece

Thing is, I'm not sure what I think of it--I mean, it was pretty rude of Banksy to paint over Robbo's art but on the other hand what the whole thing ended up creating was a really really cool bit of art(once Robbo had his final word on it!) and also of wit, it really made art feel alive and not something static and hushed like it was in a museum or something. So I veer between thinking, cool, it's really exciting stuff, to thinking, hey, you shouldn't ever do that to someone else's art and not quite making up my mind.

Anyway what's great is it's got everyone not only in london but all over the world(at least people who are interested in the subject!) talking about street art, what it is, what it means, how different it is from gallery art etc. And I think that can only be a good thing.

In London

A very quick post from London where I'm visiting English relatives and catching the chance to have a look at some street art. Banksy of course is the best known--though ironically he's of course the enigmatic incognito artist whose real identity nobody knows(or so they say). And he also happens to be the one most influenced by the classic French street artists(he's cited Blek le Rat as probably his greatest influence). He is very cool, a sharp eye and fine wit and mostly with lots of social and/or political engagement, but not always obvious. Sometimes like with the kids with the no-ball sign, it's just joyous and poetic. Always, it's cocking a snook at dull and dulling authority and pompous little napoleons and empecheurs-de-tourner-en-rond, as we say in France!

Banksy's website: http://www.banksy.co.uk

I must say though that while I really love a lot of what he does and he's very clever and imaginative, there's a certain slickness about the way he operates which is sort of different to how the Paris street artists operate. I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing but there's a lot more hype around him than there is say around Nemo or even Blek le Rat, there's a lot more commercial razzmatazz which is maybe not of his manufacturing but I can't help feeling it goes against the grain of street art. Or maybe I'm just biased cos the Paris street artists are my first and true love!

New street art friends

Been meaning to say for a while how cool and exciting it is that some great street artists are adding me as friends on Facebook. It's a big honor for me as a big fan of street art and really makes me feel part of the scene.

There's VLP, Vive La Peinture(that's at the top), two fabulous artists who have an awesome expo called Wall Street Art going at the moment at Galerie Keller, 13 rue Keller, 75011, Paris. They had the launch on November 5 which also was the launch of a really cool book about them as well as the expo, I couldn't go to it cos I was away but I've caught up with it since, it's fantastic, you should go!! It's on till December 5 so still a few weeks to go.

Then there's the great stencil and graffiti artist(and photographer) Jinks Kunst with his bold, creative works, which have so much to say(see bottom pic). Have a look at his site at http://jinkstencil.jimdo.com/