Pavement Art. Taking chalk drawing to a new level.

So, pavement art is kind of boring isn’t it? Usually an out-of-work artist of dubious talent, or a struggling art student trying to pay the bills, sets up on a city pavement somewhere with a box of assorted broken kids chalks, does a few scenes with a limited range of colours and then puts out a hat, hoping to garner a few pennies from disinterested passers-by. Or perhaps it’s a primary school project where a bunch of small kids do chalk drawings that, while no doubt cute, only the mums and dads think are brilliant.

Okay – think again.

There is a new type of pavement chalk art that is simply astonishing, taking the genre to a whole new level. The third dimension. The techniques employed in this type of street art encompass fine art, pop art, graphic design, anamorphic art, and trompe l’oeil, to produce images that have real depth and realism, creating fake under-the-pavement levels and objects which seem to “grow” out of the pavement. It’s more an organic art installation/performance art event than a mere street painting.

At the forefront is English artist Julian Beever, whose clever use of anamorphic art techniques and style of realism creates new levels below the pavement which confuse the eyes, and towering structures which grow out of the ground level and seemingly provide solid platforms which people can “stand” on. 

Anamorphic images

The work of Julian Beever features extensive use of anamorphic artwork to achieve the 3D trompe l’oeil effects. An anamorphic image is an artistic projection which requires either specialised equipment in the form of cylindrical mirrors to view the image correctly, or to be viewed from one particular vantage point to make the image work. This type of distortion is famously seen in the 1533 painting “The Ambassadors” by renaissance artist Hans Holbein the Younger. This painting features a strangely distorted shape floating above the carpet in the foreground, which, when viewed at the correct angle, reveals itself to be the image of a skull, possibly intended as a memento mori.

The projection

The two images on the right demonstrate how a reflected projection works. This type of anamorphic image is projected around a central point and is viewed in the surface of a reflective cylinder or tube. The artwork, when viewed directly, makes little sense, the image being splayed out in an arc, but when viewed in the surface of the cylinder makes a cohesive picture.

Kurt Wenner

Where Julian Beever employs a super-realism in his anamorphic art, sometimes using real structures, such as the steps in the image on the right as a jumping-off point to create hidden depths within the pavement itself, blurring the interface between real and artwork, Michigan-born artist Kurt Wenner re-interprets the renaissance in his street art, bringing to life in three dimensions biblical scenes, souls in torment in subterranean chambers, and beautiful figures reminiscent of renaissance marble statuary, such as we see in "The Herculean Giant". Originally employed as an illustrator by NASA, Kurt Wenner decided he needed to study art in Italy, so in 1982 he sold everything to move to Rome where he immersed himself in painting and sculpture, and the work he did there led to the commission in 1991 of a special piece in Mantua to celebrate the visit of Pope John Paul II. This was a huge  street painting measuring 15 feet by 75 feet based on the “Last Judgement” and took Wenner and 30 of the best street artists in Europe working under his direction 10 days to complete. The visit was a televised event broadcast all over Italy, which led to global recognition for Wenner and his art. This media attention has led to hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles, television features and documentaries in countries all over the world, and Masterpieces in Chalk, a 1987 National Geographic documentary featuring Wenner’s work, took first prize in the New York Film Festival’s fine arts category. In 1991 he was given a one man show at Washington’s Kennedy Centre, and many other awards have followed.

German artist Edgar Müller was inspired as a schoolboy by an international competition for street painters which took place near his school. At the age of sixteen he took part himself for the first time, going on to win the competition at the age of nineteen with a copy of Caravaggio’s “Jesus at Emmaus”. Since then he has won many competitions, taking first prizes in festivals across Europe, and in 1998 was awarded the title Maestro Madonnari, Master  Street Painter, at the world’s largest street art festival in Grazie, a title held by a very few artists worldwide. At the age of 25 Müller became a full time painter and travelled Europe making a living from his street art, opening his “studio in the street” where he created perfect copies of Old Masters at the feet of his audience, and also running workshops in schools, teaching, and organising and running street art festivals.

There are many other artists working in the field, such as Los Angeles-born Maestri Madonnara Melanie Stimmell, the only female street painter to win the title in Italy and Germany, whose gorgeous street paintings are like renaissance canvasses spread on the pavement. Previously a technical director in the animation world, Melanie is now a full-time painter and has exhibited at many of California’s prestigious art galleries.

The work of the screever, or traditional pavement artist, has come of age, and there are now many artisans of immense talent and skill working in a field which encompasses fine art, draughtsmanship, signwriting, technical drawing, the skills of portraiture and anamorphic projection, and the talent to render a flat image so that it appears to occupy three-dimensional space. I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the works of these talented artists, and are as astounded at their skill as I am.