Portraits d'Artistes

Last september during one Saturday away in Bordeaux ("la belle endormie", gorgeous, charming French city) I chanced upon a pretty nice Library/Cafe La Zone du Dehors. It's a rather bobo (I use this calificative with a positive connotation, I don't mix it up with "hipster" stupidity) place located close to St Michel, a very interesting area (typical old neighbourhood that got populated by maghrebian immigration and now also hosts "alternative types" and some very nice cafes, like "La mere Saint Michel", that boasts one of the most stylist toilets I've ever seen!). One could maybe compare it to Arnaud Bernard in Toulouse, but A.B is rather less pleasant (way much more racaille scum...)

They had a pretty good selection of Art books, and among them this one particularly caught my eye (and my credit card...) This second edition of "Street Art, Portraits d'Artistes" is a real must for anyone interested in Street Art. An excellent guide to 50 of the best street artists in the world, portraying some of their works and providing interesting bios.

There are long and interesting sections devoted to icons like Banksy and Shephar Fairy. Blek le Rat (probably the "father of everything") has also a long and very informative section. Obviously Os Gemeos, Blu and ROA could not be absent, and their pages add value to the book. Of course I was delighted by the pages for the French genious of C215 (I would say he's currently my favorite artist, amazing works and one of the best attitudes one could think of)

I also felt lucky to discover the Parisian artist JR and be remembered of the genious of Miss Van (she's originally from Toulouse, and comes back on occasion to gift us with some piece of her art, so well, she has a status in town).

Another amazing French artist that I've discovered through this book is Hopare, really beautiful creations.

And for sure the "Norwegian Banksy", Dolk, has a more than well deserved section.

The only flaw that I find in this book is that the Berlin scene is rather unrepresented. There are only 2 Berliners in the book (one of them, Evol, is pretty amazing with his "plattenbau homeage" works). It's odd not to find entries for Bocho, Alias, Alice or Lake to name just a few. Anyway, these 200 pages are an excellent piece of beauty.