He refused to comment on Blek le Rat’s comments in the documentary. He attended one of the best private schools in France.īanksy does not give interviews but in his unofficial biography he says of Blek le Rat: ‘Every time I think I’ve painted something original I find out that Blek le Rat has done it as well, only 20 years earlier.’ His father was an architect and his mother the daughter of a French consul in Thailand. It was always thought that he was a talented tearaway from an underprivileged background on an inner-city estate.īut three years ago, The Mail on Sunday unmasked him as Robin Gunningham, a former public schoolboy who grew up in a middle-class suburb of Bristol.īanksy was still at primary school when Prou's works began appearing on the backstreets of the French capitalīlek le Rat was similarly privileged, growing up in an ‘haute bourgeois’ district of Paris. ‘It’s true that some people say Banksy is a p***k and a lot of young people consider Banksy like a God.’īanksy’s success was built partly on his anonymity and the myths that built up around him. Maybe he has to show his face now and show what kind of guy he is. It’s difficult to find a technique and style in art so when you have a style and you see someone else is taking it and reproducing it, you don’t like that. ‘When you’re an artist you use your own techniques.
‘When I see Banksy making a man with a child or Banksy making rats, of course I see immediately where he takes the idea.
He said stenciling acts as a commentary on our culture of endless image reproduction by allowing artists to paint their images identically wherever they go.Angry: Xavier Prou, aka Blek le Rat has always refused to comment on the likeness of his own work - but he finally speaks out in a Channel 4 documentary “We live in a culture filled with mass-produced images,” Blek explained. Xavier Prou) spoke amiably about his lifelong fascination with urban art, especially stenciling. “I want to bring a simulacrum of the street directly inside the gallery,” the artist said. The exhibition, titled “Art Is Not Peace but War,” features old and new work, including 15 black-and-white tableaux, a series of photographs (to see some, go to /blek) and an installation piece composed of a wooden fence that the artist will spray-paint with his trademark images. solo debut at Subliminal Projects Gallery. On Saturday, the notorious art-world pest emerges from the corners in a belated U.S. To see his work, you had to either fly to Europe or catch an appearance in a handful of group shows. HIS work has influenced Banksy, Shepard Fairey and countless street artists, but French graffiti legend Blek le Rat has remained an elusive presence in this country.
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