Street Art
When I was young, I had the luxury of a small concrete driveway and some sidewalk chalk. I would make all kinds of masterpieces (at least that’s what I called them) that generally consisted of nothing more than a few stick figures. I was generally under the impression that not much could be done with chalk. This impression stuck with me until I saw the work of Julian Beever. This extraordinary artist takes chalk to a whole new level. I have shared three of his works below, but I encourage you to look at his website (Reference 1) and see the rest of his work.
Title: Make Poverty History
Artist: Julian Beaver
Created in the Edinburgh City Centre
Title: Spiderman
Artist: Julian Beever
Location and Date Created: Unknown
Title: Batman and Robin
Artist: Julian Beever
Location and Date Created: Unknown
Julian Beever started creating tromp-l’oeil art on pavement towards the middle of the 1990’s. Tromp-l’oeil in French literally means “trick the eye.” Through the use of a style of projection called anamorphosis, Julian Beever’s art appears to be 3D when viewed from the correct angle. This Belgium-based chalk artist “works as a freelance artist and creates murals for companies” (Reference 2). Specializing in more than just chalk art, Julian Beever also paints murals, creates collages, and makes wood paneled drawings.
In addition to the chalk art from Julian Beever, which is unfortunately temporary in nature, Kurt Wenner prefers to use paint as a more permanent medium for his art (although he uses chalk as well). Once again, I have only included three of his works below, but I hope you get the opportunity to view more of his work at his website (Reference 7)
Title: Wild Rodeo
Copyrighted in 2007 by Kurt Wenner
Title: Milagro
Copyrighted in 2007 by Kurt Wenner
Title: Office Stress
Copyrighted in 2007 by Kurt Wenner
Kurt Wenner is “an international master artist who interprets Renaissance classicism with a thoroughly singular voice” (Reference 8). Wenner was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan and “produced his first commissioned mural at the age of sixteen” (Reference 9). “He attended both Rhode Island School of Design and Art Center College of Design” and “was [even] employed by NASA as an illustrator to create conceptual paintings of future space projects and extraterrestrial landscapes” (Reference 9). He left NASA in 1982 and moved to Rome, Italy to study art where he was later “commissioned to create a piece to honor the visit of Pope John Paul II to the city of Mantua” (Reference 9).
References:
- http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Beever
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l’œil
- http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/globe.html
- http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/spiderman.html
- http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/batman.html
- http://www.kurtwenner.com/gallery/Street_gallery/index.htm
- http://www.kurtwenner.com/artist.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Wenner
- http://www.kurtwenner.com/gallery/Street_gallery/pages/6_Wild_Rodeo.htm
- http://www.kurtwenner.com/gallery/Street_gallery/pages/7_Milagro.htm
- http://www.kurtwenner.com/gallery/Street_gallery/pages/8_Office_Stress.htm
Good artwork for your exhibit, I felt a bit shorted on the background of the work. There is always a story behind every piece of art ever done. You also seemed to skimp on the biographies as well. I spend a great deal of time researching for my blog so that they are as close to the assignment description as possible. Your blog was good but someone else also did the exact same artists and their blog was fill with a lot more information. I am not trying to be overly critical. The work that you choose was amazing, I could not imagine myself ever doing anything as awesome as drawing on the sidewalk with such an artistic flare.
I agree with you that there is always a story behind every piece of art ever done, but I found it quite difficult finding those stories for the pieces I selected. Frankly, I couldn’t even find the date and location for most of the works. The information simply didn’t seem to exist. I took most of the information about the artist and their works directly from their websites. I figured if that’s what the artist wanted me to know about them and their art, then that’s what I should share with everyone else.