Street painting - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Street painting, also commonly known as pavement art, chalk art, and sidewalk art, is the performance art

Performance art

In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...

of rendering original and non-original artistic designs on pavement

Pavement

Pavement may refer to:* Road surface, the durable surfacing of roads and walkways* Sidewalk, a walkway along the side of a road, in British English or Philadelphia/Baltimore dialect* Pavement , a floor-like stone or tile structure...

such as streets, sidewalks, and town squares with impermanent and semi-permanent materials such as chalk

Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

Origin

Street painting has been recorded throughout Europe since the 16th century. Street Painters, (also called chalk artists) a name these performance artists are most commonly called in the USA are historically called I Madonnari in Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

(singular form: madonnaro or madonnara) because they recreated images of the Madonna. In England they are called Screevers and in Germany Strassenmaler (street: straßen, painter: maler).

The Italian I Madonnari were itinerant artists, many of whom had been brought into the cities to work on the huge cathedrals. When the work was done, they needed to find another way to make a living, and thus would often recreate the paintings from the church onto the pavement. Aware of festival and holy days in each province and town, they traveled to join in the festivities to make a living from observers who would throw coins if they approved of the artist's work. For centuries I Madonnari were folk artists, reproducing simple images with crude materials such as tiles, coal and chalk until World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

disrupted their tradition and reduced their numbers.

In 1972, a street painting was being promoted again by the formation of a festival in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy and today the performance art-form is recognized all over the world.

In the 1980s, Kurt Wenner

Kurt Wenner

Kurt Wenner is an artist with an international following. He is best known for his invention of 3D pavement art. Wenner was inspired by anamorphic perspective, but had to invent an entirely new geometry in order to create his stunning 3D pavement art images.-Career:Kurt Wenner produced his first...

invented 3D pavement art, or one-point perspective art, inspired by anamorphic perspective, which appeared as proper perspective only when viewed from a specific angle.

Painters

The first known street painter in the US was Sidewalk Sam

Sidewalk Sam

Sidewalk Sam is the pseudonym of Robert Charles Guillemin , a Boston-based artist who resides in Newton, Massachusetts. He is best recognized for his reproductions of European masterpieces, chalked or painted on the sidewalk...

, who began painting in the streets of Boston

Boston

Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...

in 1973.

In 1982 Kurt Wenner

Kurt Wenner

, an American, began street painting in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. By 1983 he took the already-existing anamorphic art form to the street by drawing, then brushing, his home-made pastels into a painting. In 1984 he was documented by National Geographic in their film Masterpieces In Chalk. That same year he won the title of "Maestro Madonnaro" ("best" or "featured" chalk artist) at the Grazie festival.

Later in the early 1990s Michael Kirby

Michael Kirby (artist)

Michael Kirby is a street artist who was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. His work has been featured and exhibited across the world for governments, cities, museums, and corporations.-Biography:...

began to work in Europe as a street painter creating more original work based on contemporary issues and not on classical ideas and designs. He would go on to become a master street painter in all the major festivals across Europe including Germany, Italy, and Holland. He would later bring the art form to other countries such as Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Ireland, Canada, and various parts of the United States. His work was featured at the Smithsonian Institution in DC, National Geographic, David Letterman Show, North Carolina Museum of Art, Rai Television, and others. Today his studio, Murals of Baltimore, is hired to create public art around the world and is considered the leader in street painting.

Festivals

In 1972 the first International Street Painting Competition was held in Grazie di Curtatone

Curtatone

Curtatone is a comune in the Province of Mantua in the Italian region Lombardy, located about 130 km southeast of Milan and about 7 km southwest of Mantua...

, Italy. The goal of the competition was to record and publicize the work of (those thought to be) the last practitioners of this traditional art form.

In 1987, Wenner and Manfred Stader introduced street painting to Old Mission Santa Barbara

Mission Santa Barbara

In 1840, Alta California and Baja California were removed from the Diocese of Sonora to form the Diocese of Both Californias. Bishop Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, established his cathedra at Mission Santa Barbara, making the chapel the pro-cathedral of the diocese until 1849...

, California. This was the first of numerous events in the United States to be modeled on the Italian festival.

One of the largest events in the United States is the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival, held in Lake Worth Florida. Started in 1994, it attracts 100,000 visitors over the weekend to see 250 works of art come to life by 400+ artists.

In 2010, the First International Street Painting Festival in the United States was organized by Denise Kowal, President of the Avenida de Colores, Inc.

Avenida de Colores, Inc.

Avenida de Colores, Inc. was founded in 2010 by Denise Kowal as a 501 nonprofit corporation based in Sarasota, Florida in the United States. The corporation is organized for the purpose of providing students with experiences and instruction in the visual and performing arts and to enrich...

501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation that produced the Sarasota Chalk Festival. Over 250 street painters attended the Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

-themed festival attracting some of the best street painters from around the world.

Origin

Painters

Festivals

See also

Notable artists