Hello boi77, have a look at this gallery

www.springmann-kunst.de/index.php?werke&kuenstler&id=84

They have also a photograph from the check point charlie in berlin where blek le rat add spraypaint.

sales quote of the day!

lol at least your honest...I have to say ive never been overly impressed with the bleks ive seen in person

i always liked the texture of the inks in the beggar with the french flag behind him. i'd have that a nice painted white frame.

mmmm. how much do they go for now?

I love my one and only Blek. Beggar canvas. Would add Space Cowboy canvas if I could get it.

A close up of the blek at red house......it really looks like a piece of wall and its huge!

i agree, he's at that point where his next release/show needs to be very strong to restore belief

doo like the beggar in paris though, any1 got 1 for sale??? ;D

his Levine show was poor too

Both of those Beggar canvasses look great

I got a 6 foot angel print of his framed on my wall and its stunning. Definitely not edgy, but gorgeous piece. The key is that its universally liked - my current girlfriend loves it, my grandmother likes it, my friends like it. Basically perfect urban art to stand the test of time and sit in a common room - whereas other pieces I own are a little bit too edgy.

If I had a working camera, I'd take a picture of it.

Fact is, I've been a bit disappointed with BRP's handling of Blek's career as of late and some of his artistic choices in his last show - namely going the exact opposite direction than where I would like him to head with the Sponge Bob inclusion in certain work.

If you ask me, Blek should embrace his place as an elder statesman of Urban Art and "godfather of stencil art" and continue to do politically conscious pieces and works with relevancy to current events today - works in the vein of what he did with the Florence Aubenas piece.

Because of his age and reputation, he doesn't have to outdo the young guns of the art scene by being edgier or more innovative - and in this market, its increasingly harder and harder to do so. Blek merely has to continue producing highly palatable, but strong messaged pieces of considerable variety. His biggest failings in maintaining and growing his market in the last two years was releasing too many prints in too high of editions and plus the over repetition of his stencil images.

Honestly, I blame Black Rat Press a lot for poorly steering his career.

Up through his show at Shepard Fairey's gallery, Blek was doing pretty well, but just 3 months later - he had the BRP show and suddenly his prints weren't worth half as much because the edition BRP released went unsold for something like 2 years. That does not inspire confidence in your marketplace. (Many remain unsold today - essentially icing Blek's print market) I'm a bit down on BRP in general because I've noticed they flooded the print market for several artists, thereby destroying their market (Logan Hicks ed 150 for Sunset Apartment!?! Matt Small ed 165 on Saul?!? This is not the smart management of emerging careers - I half wish artists would yank the rest of the unsold edition and just burn them so that they can once again have pent up demand and excitement for when they drop new works)

At this point, a smart move for Blek would be to do a series of collaborative pieces with the bigger named artists out there, further cementing his place as elder statesman.

But at the end of the day, Blek has largely achieved all he needs to achieve in an art career. His importance to the history of Urban Art exceeds that of 90% of the artists talked about on this board, many of whom will be forgotten over time.

Not to take away from the art itself, because the piece I own I love, but in addition to aesthetics, you're buying Blek Le Rat partly for the retrospective value. If (likely more like when) a museum has a retrospective of Urban Art, they would be remiss if they didn't include 1-3 Blek pieces.

Someone say Space Cowboy canvas


The only Blek piece I own.

Blek is at his best with the simple stencils

His rats are the best for me, I only own the small single rat print that came with the BRP book but after umming and arring about keeping it after getting it as part of a trade its one of my favourites its simple and reminds me of what inspired banksy with all his rats

The BRP boys didnt do any favours for Blek at all

Me too G-Man.

The Book Is TIGHT if you don't have it pick one up for sure.