R Magazine, Ex-TeenArt_Issue 1_Authenticity Jun. 2015 | Page 116

Can street art forget about colors? Looking at the
colorful murals that flood our cities, one might
think of black and white as too limiting to express
one’s creative potential. The range of possibilities
is wide and even more so when exploiting the
chromatic circle. Nevertheless, some artists choose
to minimalize the use of colors and absolutely
want to immortalize their work in monochrome.

And what about Bansky? His works speak for him.
Is it necessary to add the red blood that has been
shed to fall into sensationalism, when the simple
sight of a girl flying over the wall separating Gaza
from Israel with a handful of handballs is much
stronger? The artist-activist acts anonymously and
maintains the same efficiency. Sometimes, colors
come into play, but in a sober way. The rat, his
totem animal, is an illustration of this minimalist

To restrict oneself? That is not the case, and many
are the artists who prioritize black and white,
starting with Miss’tic. You can come across her
stencils at the corner of many streets in Arles and
Paris. They are sometimes humorous, sometimes
romantic and they are often accompanied by a
sweet and fun pun, which is her trademark. Her
favorite Latin heroine’s face with a dark look has
been questioning us for twenty years without ever
tiring us.
England is no different with the enigmatic Phlegm,
who is currently based in Sheffield. His slender
figures are stretched out on the walls of cities,
disturbingly glancing here and there. With spiders
and crocodiles devouring strange men with long
legs, his installation in London is also deprived
of color. In these three-dimensional decorations
in the manner of Escher, there is not a shadow
of an ocher, but only the disturbing and surreal
atmosphere of its black and white universe.

touch, the discrete witness of the events of our
time.
Behind some names are also hidden communities
of artists for whom black and white is already a
vast playground for pop culture. The Canadian
collective En Masse proves this through its
vigorous and graphic murals. Founded in 2009 by
Tim Barnard and Jason Botkin, and surrounded by
a team with a wide variety, En Masse is a research
laboratory where each artist explores and acquires
new skills, and where everyone’s identity is melt
into common frescoes. The black and white street
art takes the place it deserves; visible in bars, it
even pushes the doors to the city’s headquarters.
Among those who stand out the most is MAZ PAZ
with his ethnic style, an unconscious inheritance of
his Colombian origins that can be sensed through
the generous lines of his graphics. Occasionally, he
also uses color, but when offered the possibility to
freely copy and distribute his message of peace
through his website, he does so in black and white.
Finally, there is already so much to say in black
and white that color would only take the viewer
away from the target, whether it is a political
slogan or a simple catchphrase. No need to drown
the graphics in color; the message is sufficient to

«In black and white, all
colors match.»
Francis Bacon

express and reflect the diversity and contrasts of
our society. By themselves, black and white create
a broad spectrum of tones.