Aerosol in pursuit of the “Masters” (Eurocentrically speaking) is a permutation of Street Art and the mural making tradition going back decades, including murals made directly by “Masters” (Latino-centrically speaking) like Rivera or, say, those of the Olmec civilization in the pre Hispanic period, for example. In the last decade Frenchman and Street Artist Julien de Casabianca has documented, printed, and wheatpasted large-scale reproductions from classical painting upon city walls as part of his “Outings Project” in multiple countries.
Today we see an Italian former graffiti writer who went to university to study fine arts in Milan take his aerosol spray technique to a wall in Corbeil-Essonnes, France (population 50,400). Painted as part of the ongoing “Wall Street Art Festival”, the new mural may inspire the next generation of artists here as well.
Andrea “RAVO” Mattoni sings praise to a slice of Mona Lisa on this school building as his reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s original, which is much smaller, hanging in the Louvre Museum about an hour’s drive north of here. The 38 year old artist, who was born in Varese and comes from a family of artists, including his father and grandfather, decided to leave the painting as an in-process “unfinished” work that shows a grid pattern and da Vincis background color for educational purposes.
“It is a good teaching aid for the school’s teachers,” says the walls’ artistic director, the gallerist Gautier Jourdain, “which they now use to explain the process to their students.”
If Gautier had any doubts about Mattoni’s qualifications with the spraycan, he was likely persuaded by the artist’s Caravaggio reproduction on the side of the Gemelli Hospital in Rome two years ago. More recently, as part of the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death, the artist created 5 large paintings at the Château d’Amboise. So this is number 5.5 perhaps.
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Scope! The verb, not the art fair. We will be hitting SCOPE shortly but in the interim we’ve been scoping for action or trouble; trolling around the streets of Wynwood and other selected odd locati...
You are invited Thursday to join BSA Founders Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo for a very special BSA TALKS program with the conscience-raising and conscious Street Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh as ...
What is #keepfighting? Street Artist and activist Abe Lincoln Jr. is one of the growing ranks of subvertising executives on the streets today who are flipping the script on public messaging. Phon...
Street Artist Aiko worked with the Younity Collective to put up a large mural as a gift to the community recently right next to the Williamsburg Bridge. The all-woman collective, started in 2007 by...
Mark Rigney, photographer, writer, founder of London-based Hooked Blog Looking back it was for me a year of adventure and travel as I continue my ongoing journey to document the ever-changing and evol...