Street art was born in Philadelphia in the United States during the 60s, driven by the momentum of artists like Cornbread and Cool Earl. Looked down upon for years, this art style consists of tagging walls, public transport and buildings… Illegal and fleeting, because of the ease to cover it up, street art has nonetheless managed to conquer the hearts of many artists. The objective is to make this art accessible and visible to a large number of people, as a way to communicate deeper meaning and make people think. Today, some street art can be valued at millions of dollars and are renowned works of art. Artsper presents the 10 most famous pieces of street art in the world!
1. Banksy, The Little Girl with the Balloon
He is the most famous street artist in the world. The anonymous Banksy has been creating works of art all over the world for more than 23 years. The primary characterization of his work? Its ability to provoke. The British artist works mainly with spray cans and stencils that he prepares before he begins painting. In 2002, he created one of his most https://www.bee-bubble.com/ recognisable works, The Little Girl with a Balloon, in London. This little girl in a black dress lets her balloon fly away, and Banksy writes next to the tag “There is always hope”. It’s his way of saying that we should never give up even when everything seems to be at its worst. In 2018, during an auction for the silkscreened version, the work self-destructed a few seconds after the auctioneer’s hammer hit. This is one of the biggest artistic scandals.
2. Keith Haring, We the youth
This American pop art artist is known for his colorful drawings of stylized characters. Keith Haring began his career alongside Jean Michel Basquiat. In 1988, he was diagnosed HIV positive and decided to fight his battle through art. In his work, he fights against drugs, AIDS, and many other adversities. He painted a mural in 1987 in Philadelphia that he named We the youth and was one of the first artists to create a mural. After several months of scouting for the perfect location, he painted this mural, which became world famous, with 14 high school students. The work is located in an underprivileged area and aims to encourage its development.
3. Combo, Coexist
Born to a Lebanese Christian father and a Moroccan Muslim mother, Combo officially began his career as an artist in 2012. This committed street artist decided to pass the forbidden zone of Chernobyl in order to stick up his advertising posters. In 2015, he was inspired by a Polish logo created by designer Piotr Mlodozeniec: COEXIST.
Coexist is illustrated through different religious symbols: the crescent, the Star of David and the Christian cross. This street art calls for the tolerance and the respect of all beliefs. Since the attacks against Charlie Hebdo, Combo has displayed his art in the streets of Paris. Unfortunately, he has already been attacked whilst creating his art.
4. Shepard Fairey (Obey), Marianne
A committed artist since 1993, the American Shepard Fairey began to take an interest in the street art world at an early age. As a teenager, he created drawings for t-shirts and skateboards. Influenced by artists such as Andy Warhol or Diego Rivera, he decided to create stickers that he stuck around his city. The face of the wrestler André The Giant has been stuck more than a million times. For him, it is a good way to be known in the world of street art. One of his multiple works which is renowned worldwide is a mural tag located in Paris in the 13th district. This work in the colors of France represents Marianne (a personification of the French republic). It was painted following the attacks in 2015.
“Action is worth more than words” is the motto of this street art work
5. D*Face, Love Won’t Tear Us Apart
Dean Stockton, also known as D*Face, is an English pop art artist born in the early 1980s. Initially, he drew characters on pieces of paper to fight boredom. Over time, his little drawings became his passion. He then started to draw on different medias and create stickers. These later became posters, which then grew even larger to end up on the walls of Paris. In 2017 he made a street art fresco in the 13th arrondissement of Paris that he named Love won’t tear us apart. D*Face paints a couple to evoke love. The man with the skull face symbolizes the old relationships that are no longer in our lives but still very present in our thoughts.