Download press kit - Opera Gallery
Download press kit - Opera Gallery
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BLEK LE RAT<br />
The Founding Father of Street Art<br />
returns to the UK for an exclusive<br />
exhibition.<br />
27 TH April - 18 TH May<br />
*<strong>Opera</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong> special: 1 free print, signed & numbered,<br />
to the first 100 people visiting the exhibition.<br />
OPERA GALLERY LONDON<br />
134 NEW BOND STREET<br />
LONDON W1S2TF<br />
WHO IS BLEK LE RAT?<br />
Meet the Father of Stencil Art…<br />
Blek Le Rat (Xavier Prou) was born in Paris in 1951. He is a grand master of street art, and considered by<br />
many to be the originator of stencil graffiti. Blek has been adorning the streets of Paris with his hugely<br />
original and intelligent artwork since the early eighties, and he has been a massive influence on today’s<br />
graffiti and guerrilla art movements.<br />
He started decorating the streets of Paris in 1981 with a rat stencil, hoping to create an invasion of rats -<br />
“the only free animal in the city”, while creating a style that would suit Paris and not copy the American<br />
style. His street name is said to originate from a childhood cartoon “Blek Le Roc”, also using “rat” as an<br />
anagram for “art”.<br />
Blek Le Rat’s real identity was revealed in 1991 when he was arrested while stenciling a replica of the<br />
Caravaggio’s “Madonna and Child”. He stopped painting on walls after that, and after he was fined<br />
for ten years worth of graffiti and threatened that he would face jail if caught again. He continues to<br />
produce work in the form of posters and canvases.<br />
Considered to be one of the pioneers of Stencil art, Blek Le Rat was invited by<br />
the Tate Modern to be part of a talk about the Tate’s street art exhibition in 2008.<br />
The same year, the Sunday Times referred to him as “The Rat who gave birth to<br />
Banksy” (Januszczak Waldemar, 8 June 2008).<br />
His social and political works have had a great influence on today's graffiti art<br />
and “guerilla art” movements.<br />
Beyond France and England, Blek Le Rat is now part of the international art<br />
scene. He lives in France with his wife and teenage son.<br />
FOR MORE INFORMATION - 134 NEW BOND STREET – LONDON W1S2TF +44(0)20 7491 2999 london@operagallery.com<br />
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THE BANKSY POLEMIC<br />
French stencil artist vs. British graffiti hero…<br />
In 2008, British Graffiti artist Banksy acknowledged Blek Le Rat’s influence, stating this now famous<br />
sentence: "every time I think I've painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek Le Rat has done<br />
it as well, only twenty years earlier" (first reported by Coan Lee, 13 June 2008, Daily Mail).<br />
In the past, the two have ex<strong>press</strong>ed mutual desire for collaboration and, indeed, in 2011 Blek Le Rat was<br />
witnessed adding to one of Banksy’s murals in San Francisco.<br />
When some claimed that Banksy had copied Blek Le Rat’s work, the latter disagreed and said: “people<br />
say he copies me, but I don’t think so. I’m the old man, he’s the new kid, and if I’m an inspiration to an<br />
artist that good, I love it.”<br />
However, the polemic was reborn when, in the documentary Graffiti Wars, Blek was filmed saying:<br />
"When I see Banksy making a man with a child or Banksy making rats, of course I see immediately where<br />
he takes the idea. I do feel angry. When you’re an artist you use your own techniques. It’s difficult to<br />
find a technique and style in art so when you have a style and you see someone else is taking it and<br />
reproducing it, you don’t like that. I’m not sure about his integrity. Maybe he has to show his face now<br />
and show what kind of guy he is."<br />
OPERA GALLERY AND BLEK LE RAT<br />
Representing the artist for over 3 years...<br />
<strong>Opera</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong> is a global network of 12 galleries. The London branch opened in<br />
2005, and is located in the heart of London’s luxuriously Mayfair.<br />
In 2008, while Blek Le Rat was in London for his talk at Tate, <strong>Opera</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong><br />
Director and Chairman Jean-David Malat and Gilles Dyan met him and Blek<br />
showed enough trust and faith in them to provide the gallery with some pieces.<br />
This is how their collaboration started, and 3 years later the relationship between<br />
the international gallery and the artist has never been stronger: he is shown in all<br />
12 galleries around the world. He is also one of <strong>Opera</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong>’s most successful<br />
artists, and this is remarkable in every country where the gallery is present: <strong>Opera</strong><br />
<strong>Gallery</strong>’s clients and public know Blek Le Rat’s work and know him as the Father<br />
of street art.<br />
Nowadays, it appears absolutely undeniable that Blek Le Rat has gained the recognition that he<br />
deserves after decades of unstinting devotion to the arts in the streets.<br />
Jean-David MALAT, Director of <strong>Opera</strong> <strong>Gallery</strong> London and Curator of this exhibition, was also a contributor to Art<br />
Publishing Ltd’s 30 year retrospective book “Blek Le Rat” - published in 2011 (http://www.artpublishingltd.com/new/blek/)<br />
QUOTES<br />
Blek Le Rat said…<br />
“As an artist I do not think that we truly invent anything at this point. For me it is more about focusing on a memory<br />
that I may have had, than actually inventing anything. People recreate what they have seen but with their own<br />
vision. I do not believe in the painter who says I invent this or that. It does not exist anymore. It is just how you do it<br />
that makes it different than others. I can say I have taken inspiration from many places in my life.”<br />
“I really believe the graffiti and street art movement is the most important movement in art ever. There is not a city<br />
in the world without graffiti now. It has never happened like this with the amount of people involved ever before.<br />
Not even in pop art, which was a big movement. Art should be saved for the future generations, which is why I<br />
think it is important for the gallery end to support street art, if for nothing else than for history.”<br />
FOR MORE INFORMATION - 134 NEW BOND STREET – LONDON W1S2TF +44(0)20 7491 2999 london@operagallery.com 2