The 6 types of urban art (and their characteristics)

Art has had different definitions, styles and representations throughout history. One of the most democratic forms in which the artistic world manifests itself is in urban art, that is, one that is not represented in galleries, museums or specific places in the art world, but in the city itself, in the Street.

From stencil art, through graffiti and reaching muralism, there are several artistic expressions that we can identify while We walk through our municipality and, regardless of whether they are legal or not, these works give personality to the streets, breaking with urban monotony. Let's find out what they are the main types of urban art.

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The Most Important Types of Street Art (Explained)

Urban art can be understood in many ways, but one of its most widespread definitions is the one that encompasses all expressions art made in the street that has to do, in one way or another, with the world of crafts such as the pictorial and the sculptural.

Thus, a graffiti on the walls of the subway, the stickers on a traffic sign with a certain pattern, a mural painted on the wall of a community of neighbors with their consent and the feminist posters pasted on the headquarters of a party not related to the movement are, all of them, examples of urban art.

On many occasions, urban art is made with a goal, with a political ideal behind it. This is implicit in the artist's own activity since many of the ways in which urban art is expressed, especially the format graffiti, are illegal if they are made on a wall of private property or that the municipality has indicated the express prohibition of putting anything there. An artist who you risk receiving a fine he does it not because he wants to vandalize the city, but because he wants his message to get across, and is willing to risk legal consequences for it.

Urban art takes place anywhere in the city. It is carried out on the streets, on public roads, on billboards, in abandoned vehicles, floors and, of course, on the walls, both of residential buildings, abandoned houses or blocks of flats for build up. This art requires a lot of space to work, a concrete canvas of metric proportions and in where many people pass by, thus ensuring the artist that his work will not happen unnoticed.

1. Muralism

Muralism, in its most basic sense, can be understood as any pictorial expression made on a wall. Murals are one of the oldest means of artistic expression, carried out in prehistoric times by our ancestors on the walls of caves. as we see in cave paintings such as Lascaux, France or Altamira, Spain.

As the centuries have passed, those who have been able to afford to hire renowned artists have turned to painters to turn the walls of their luxurious mansions into murals with all kinds of representations. This practice was especially common during the Renaissance, being carried out by both nobles and clergy and proof of it we have it in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, a beautiful example of interior murals (frescoes) made by the great artist Miguel Angel.

But the modern idea of ​​mural as urban art is quite recent and comes from Mexico. The definition of the mural as we know it is influenced by the Mexican Diego Rivera who managed to create a school among his contemporaries in the decade of 1920, facilitated by the Mexican secretary of public education José Vasconcelos as part of the modernization of the State of Mexico after the revolution of 1910.

Originally, Mexican murals were intended to reinforce Mexican identity and collective memory, create a strong sense of nation and thus possessed a strong nationalistic and political. With the passage of time, this type of art became universal, giving rise to new currents muralists each with political or apolitical ideals already far from the original objective of the years 20’.

There are those who consider murals as a type of graffiti, although it does not always have to be that way. They differ from graffiti expressions in the fact that the murals imply a very well worked design and with which it is intended to convey a message. They are also usually more legal, sometimes even paid for by the government administration itself by hiring professional artists and exhibiting his works in well-visible places in the city, from a white wall of a neighboring building to the walls of his own city ​​Hall.

Muralists are creators of paintings, only of colossal sizes, and it usually happens that this type of work is highly respected by the world, even by those who do not consider themselves adherents of urban art who do not see them under the stigma that any drawing made on a wall is vandalism. There is no major European or American city that does not have more than one mural on its streets.

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2. Graffiti

Graffiti is probably the most recognized type of urban art in the world because it is the one that has been practiced the longest and one of the most chosen by urban artists when it comes to exposing their feelings and artistic style on public roads. The graffiti that we know today arose in the 60s, had its growth in the 70s and its final development in the 80s and 90s, being loved and hated alike.

But this style of urban expression is not really as new as it might seem. It was already practiced in Ancient Rome and, although it was not done with sprays or aerosols, in essence it served the same purpose: to spread a message and show that the artist was there. In fact, its name comes from the Latin verb "to record", derived in turn from the Greek "grapho", understood as writing.

Graffiti It is an inscription or drawing that is made in a public place and that, in general, is usually done without authorization. We can see graffiti on walls, sculptures, statues, vehicles and garbage containers and, generally, they keep an intention critic or satirical, although it is also done to indicate that whoever made the inscription was there, either with their initials or with a pseudonym.

While there are many illegally done graffiti, painting them on private properties, churches and government buildings, in other cases there are individuals and public bodies that give walls to artists so that they can create these urban works in them. Although many graffiti artists do it with all the necessary permits and without spoiling the city, the fact that most of graffiti are done illegally have made this type of urban art stigmatized and considered pure vandalism.

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3. Stencil art

Stencil art, also called stencil art, is a technique that involves reproducing designs by passing ink or paint over holes cut in a sheet of cardboard or metal. The origin of this practice is uncertain and it is known that it has been carried out in many places simultaneously.

Rome, China, Japan, the Inuit of Baffin Island... all of them have used this technique since time immemorial but the Oldest evidence of the stencil is found in Spain, a panel of hands with about 66,000 years of antiquity.

But despite its great antiquity, this technique achieved great popularity in the United States during 1960. It was in that decade when many artists used pure colors and silhouettes with marked contours as a means of expression, something that has ended up being a symbol both in universal pop culture as a prototypical representation of urban art beyond the graffiti. One of the best known artists in this technique is Banksy, along with Blek le Rat and Shephard Fairey.

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4. Sticker art

Sticker art began to become popular in the 1980s thanks to skate companies and punk rock bands.. It consists of sticking stickers on any urban surface, allowing whoever sticks them to make their name and work known easily and quickly.

Since it is not a very complex type of urban art, sticker art has always had a low profile among street artists, Although the sticker culture is quite widespread throughout the world and has references such as Shepard Fairey, Marc Ecko, 14 Bolt and CJ Ramone.

What the sticker brings with it may be an image or a phrase, which can be pasted anywhere in the city and, in case of being mass-produced, it allows to reach many corners, although many of these adhesives are prepared at home. There are several reasons why it has gained fame:

• They offer the possibility of applying a graphic design on any wall.

• It takes moments to stick them, you don't have to watch for the police.

• You can express messages, images or advertise anything.

• They can be mass printed and pasted throughout the city.

• They last a long time glued.

• They are a way to reproduce ideas cheaply.

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5. Sculptures

Sculptures are also urban art. Here We are not only referring to the marble or concrete figures that decorate squares and streets, but also sculptural, temporary or permanent performances, that invade the public highway using all kinds of material, shape, color and roughness. Many of them are governed by the theory of intervention in urban spaces, with the intention of attracting the attention of the passerby but without hindering their journey by becoming an obstacle.

There are those who call this type of sculpture "structures" because, in reality, it is intended to create an art that plays with the city, with its imperfections and forms. It may consist of adding a humorous touch to a fire hydrant, a bent railing, a pivot fallen or broken fences, making a bland and merely functional urban element into a piece of art modern.

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6. Street poster

Street posterism is also considered a type of urban art. It is not only about placing pieces of paper on walls, but about doing it in a way that does not go unnoticed, both because of the design that is in them and in the invasive way that these posters can be placed.

This peculiar type of art is said to be a polyphonic and complex phenomenon, in which issues such as the use of public space, freedom of expression and the essence of art overlap.

They usually bring with them political messagesFeminists, anticlericals, communists, anticapitalists, animalists and philosophicals are frequent, although it is not a method exclusively of left movements and progressivism.

Whatever the message of her behind it, the idea is that an image is worth a thousand words and expressing it in the form of a poster or poster is sometimes more effective than a political meeting.