Art has always known forgers: they imitate the works of known painters, to the point that even museums validate their fakes. The paradox is that some fakes are now selling for more than original works.
For several years, we have been witnessing an outbreak of forgers: forgers of Basquiat, trying by all means to imitate the painter. Forgers of Haring, of Picasso. All embarked with more or less success in grotesque imitations of these artists. Grotesque because they are few to intellectualize the work of an artist. Street Art has become a big scam. Artists now only offer copies of copies. How many put Basquiat’s crown in their painting? How much surrounds their elements a la Haring? How many attempt Picasso-style cubism?
They are few who propose. Unfortunately, many buyers jump on the first imitations without fully understanding what they are doing: they are not buying art, but artists’ copies. Besides that, some artists, real ones. Not consensual, offering a true vision of the world, far from the political correctness advocated by a generation that only knows how to make Picsous, Mickeys, Supermans, ultra colorful on a background of splashes of color.
Some, however, know how to recognize real artists, street art, the abstract in its excellence. It is obvious, challenges, sometimes disturbs. He breaks the codes, is less peaceful, more intellectualized. He sometimes fails, he is sometimes ugly, but he always asserts himself, and that’s the important thing.
Find the street artists of tomorrow
If neophytes will not know how to do it, then there are many tips to take here. First of all, the Street Artist, the real one, sends a message. A global message on the moment that will seem relevant to him. He goes there by feeling, and his works are sometimes flawed, sometimes ugly, but he always shows something logical, clear in his vision of the world.
The real artist is not in a consensual approach, aiming to give the public what it wants. He is not in a productivist approach aiming to earn more money, the artist wants to express what he cannot through his art.
Some will work on absolute abstraction to convey an emotion, others will work on words to convey an idea, some on colors, and others on techniques mixing elegance and violence to send this message.
A message that Basquiat, Picasso, Haring or Marcel Duchamps via Manzoni sent in their time. Sometimes, we come across people like them: capable of lavishing an uneasy feeling, a hatred, an appeasement, capable of giving what art is made for, a kind of elusive vision of the world which, on the moment, will appear clear to one or more people feeling understood by the artist himself.
