In recent years more and more people have taken a shine to the art of sneaking around at night and painting your chosen image onto brick walls. From palaeolithic cave paintings to Banksy, the art of graffiti has been pretty popular for many years.
Parietal Art
Parietal art is also known as cave paintings and is often referred to as the original form of graffiti. This palaeolithic form of art is dated to about 40,000 years ago, and much like the graffiti of today consisted merely of images drawn onto the wall. Many different versions of this kind of art pop up often throughout history, found also in the Catacombs of Rome or at Pompeii.
Cornbread
Cornbread marks the beginning of modern graffiti and street art. It is the nickname of Darryl McCray, who is regarded as the father of modern graffiti. The story goes that Cornbread fell in love with a girl called Cynthia Custuss, and so in order to win her affections he wrote Cornbread loves Cynthia all over his local area.
Blek Le Rat and Stencils
After years of modern graffiti being centred on ‘tagging’ your name across many creative places, Xavier Prou came onto the scene. As Blek Le Rat, he created art on the streets of Paris and became known as the father of stencil graffiti. Inspired by the work of early New York graffiti, Blek Le Rat set about taking his art to the public of Paris, often using themes of social consciousness. It is of popular opinion that Banksy was heavily influenced by Blek Le Rat’s work.
Banksy
Banksy transformed street art and graffiti in the 21st century. He started as a freehand graffiti artist in the 90’s within the famous underground graffiti scene in Bristol. By 2000, he had switched to stencil art, making him one of the most talked about graffiti artists in the art and wider world. His artwork is now worth a small fortune, and demand for his work is high.
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