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Emerging on the streets of Paris in the early 1980s, Blek le Rat born Xavier Prou redefined graffiti by introducing the stencil as a precise, poetic tool of urban commentary. His rats, small, stealthy, and omnipresent, became symbols of freedom and contagion, multiplying across the city as both signature and metaphor.
Influenced by Italian political graffiti and the Parisian spirit of revolt, Blek le Rat’s approach fused activism with art history. Where New York graffiti thrived on names and scale, Blek offered narrative and nuance: images of beggars, dancers, lovers, and philosophers, all rendered in stark monochrome. His stencils carried a kind of civic intimacy, art that lived among people, on their daily paths, accessible yet profound.
Critics dubbed him the “God Father of Stencil Art,” but his influence extends further, he is the architect of a visual language that artists like Banksy, Shepard Fairey, and countless others would later evolve. His work translated the urgency of street protest into timeless iconography.
Through decades of creation, Blek’s imagery has danced from the political to the poetic, yet his ethos remains constant: art as a human right. Exhibited internationally but still active in the streets, he continues to blur the line between rebellion and reflection.
Explore studio pieces by Blek le Rat via our online store, or visit the GraffitiStreet Gallery at 25a West Street, Chichester, England, to view them firsthand.
