artist/ Blek Le Rat

France

Blek the rat is a French artist who initiated Urban Art, born in 1951. He began his studies at the School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1972. He attends the engraving workshop “Lucien Coutaud” and lithography workshop “Atelier Dayez”. He obtains the higher diploma of plastic arts DSAP in 1976.

In 1977, he began studying architecture at the Architecture Pedagogical Unit 6 “Paris La Villette”. He began painting 1981, first with a friend under the collective name of Blek, then all alone.

During the years 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010, he never stopped intervening on the walls of cities all over the world. Today his work influences thousands of artists around the world and it is not surprising to find artists in London, New York or Tokyo who claim to belong to his school. Among them, the English artist Banksy: «Every time I paint something, I discover that Blek the rat has done it just 20 years before!».