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Do you embrace this title? Is it accurate?īlek Le Rat: Yes I You’ve said that you first saw graffiti in New York City in the early 70s. Our own sat down with Blek to discuss his past, his current, and his future as well as his thoughts on street vs galleries and which of his peers he keeps tabs When your name comes up in conversation about “street art” it’s usually followed by the title “Father (or Godfather) of Stencil Art”. “Ratical” includes works on canvas, wood, paper, and even a bronze sculpture. His first ever solo show in Chicago, “Ratical”, opens at Vertical Gallery on April 1st at 6p. Blek’s travels have taken him now to Chicago, where he will work outdoors on walls and open an ambitious gallery show. His stenciled works have covered many themes from the beauty of a young couple dancing, the plight of the homeless, and of course the rat. He’s the unquestioned original stencil pioneer, his early works paving the way for so many who have come since.īlek started painting stencils of rats on the walls of Paris in 1981 and has been bringing his art “to the people” ever since. He studied fine art and architecture at Beaux-Arts in Paris, but the the confines of a studio or classroom couldn’t contain him. He’s influenced generations of graffiti writers, street/urban artists, and vandals all around the world. Physiological Psychology, 1980, 2, 280–288.Blek Le Rat (born Xavier Prou) has been painting on walls longer than most reading this article have been alive. Stimulus control of spatial behavior on the eight-arm maze in rats. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1974, 87, 598–604. Factors in the reasoning performance of the rat. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 1978, 92, 609–618. Food searching strategies in young rats: Win-shift predominates over win-stay.
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Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 1976, 2, 97–116. Remembrance of places passed: Spatial memory in rats. Characteristics of spatial memory and optimal foraging in rodents. Spatial memory and radial arm maze performance of rats.
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The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1979, 2, 313–365. Honig (Eds.), Cognitive aspects of animal behavior. Journal of Comparative Neurology, 1932, 54, 47–55. The effects of cerebral destruction on reasoning and learning in rats. Visual cues fail to attenuate deficits on a spatial-integration task following septal or fornical damage. Herrmann, T., Doherty, D., & Ellen, P, Places vs.
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