A wall to paint

Painting on the walls is not new.

The first material on which man began to draw was the wall of a cave.

Later, when artists became professionals, the walls were those of rich aristocratic residences and churches.

We all remember the wonderful frescoes by Raphael, Michelangelo and Veronese.

Later, for practicality, the painters turned to other supports such as tables and canvases.

They are easier to paint and can be moved and transported.

With a leap in time we arrive in the 80s.

This time the walls are the external ones of barracks and suburbs.

They are ugly, gray walls, which sometimes host advertising billboards, but which are often the pure envelope of metropolitan hives.

In these spaces the "graffiti artists" begin with their fancy alphabets and colors in spray cans.

This activity is not only illegal, but unwelcome to everyone.

Graffiti artists are considered vandals and their drawings of horrors. They smear.

The road, however, is marked.

The idea that walls can become a public exhibition for everyone, that this art is unsellable because it cannot be transported, which has no client, but is a pure expression of those who draw, fascinates many.

In addition, the elite "tour" of the art of museums and gallery owners is contested.

Fascinates Keith Haring, Basquiat, Black Le Rat and other “street artists”, who find an immediate audience in every person who passes by.

In Mexico the "Murals" also propagate political and social ideals.

Everything nice. The only problem is that no one pays the ticket and the street artist is left in misery.

There is nothing to worry about.

Keith Haring in the lead was not long in making room in the "circle" that counts and the much hated "art system" found a way and way to restore order and money to the category.

We need a somewhat strange pseudonym Banksy, Orion, Neve, Nuriatol, Spok etc.

(if you think I invented them, look here: https://www.biennalestreetart.com/gli-artisti-2021/)

They alternate the wall with other traditional supports in order to organize their traditional exhibitions thanks to traditional gallery owners.

The "Street Artists" have their "biennial" and, thus, return from the main entrance even to the much-despised Museums.

The game is done. Good wall to all.

Andrea Giuseppe Fadini