Street Art

Parisian street art emerged as a distinct movement in the early 1980s when pioneers like Blek le Rat began using stencils to mark city walls. He chose the rat as his signature motif because it was the only animal that thrived in the city freely, and he noted that the word rat is an anagram for art. These early stencil works were designed to be created quickly, allowing artists to avoid detection while leaving behind complex, politically charged images that challenged the polished image of the French capital.