Urban art honoured in the CAPITALE(S) exhibition

Artcurial is a partner of the exhibition entitled CAPITALE(S), dedicated to urban art and presented until 25 march 2023. This partnership is in line with the house’s actions and values: Artcurial launched the Urban Art department shortly after its creation, which organised its first sales in 2006, making the auction house one of the pioneers in this speciality. On this occasion, come and discover numerous artworks by urban art artists inside and outside the walls of the Hôtel de Ville of Paris, free of charge upon registration.

Paris, a pioneer city for urban art
The street has gradually become an open-air museum: accessible to all, it has attracted many artists, eager to assert their freedom of expression or to open the eyes of their fellow citizens on social issues. It continues to do so today, as paintings and wall writings, drawings, collages and graffiti now adorn every corner of its walls. After a difficult start, urban art has managed to establish its legitimacy over the years and is now omnipresent.

Paris is no exception: it is even one of the most important cities in the art movement. Its rich heritage and numerous exhibitions are a source of inspiration for national artists, as well as a place which welcomes international artists with open arms. These encounters of different worlds generate new forms of artistic creation and thus contribute to the enrichment of urban art as a whole, from which the city of Paris benefits greatly.

60 years of history
Urban art began to appear in the French capital in the 1960s and 1970s, with collages, posters and stencils by artists such as Villeglé, Ernest Pignon-Ernest and Jef Aérosol who have taking up residence. Graffiti made its first appearance on the urban scene in the early 1980s thanks to the young Bando, who brought back with him the technique he had learned in New York. This technique was somewhat disrupted in the early 1990s, during which a clash between the proponents of vandalism and the advocates of a more artistic approach emerged. It was the latter approach that became popular in the streets of Paris and these artists enjoyed greater recognition in Europe than in the United States, prompting some of them to present their work there.

The 2000s marked a real turning point for urban art in Paris, where it was more popular than ever. The city became a playground for artists from all over the world, who came to practice and show the full extent of their talent. Obey, Banksy and Vhils, American, British and Portuguese artists respectively, use the walls of the capital to express themselves, as does French artist JR. The field of urban art goes beyond simple graffiti and expands at the same time: it is now called street art. Lettering, installations, videos: the techniques vary more and more and the works take over both streets and buildings, abandoned or not.

The exhibition CAPITALE(S) retraces 60 years of urban art in Paris by presenting the creations of more than 70 artists, to be discovered in the Hôtel de Ville of Paris and in the streets of the capital.

Information
Exhibition
Until 25 March 2023
From Monday to Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – from 10am to 6.30pm
On Thursdays – from 10am to 9pm
Salle Saint-Jean de l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris
5 rue de Lobau
75004 Paris

Free entrance
Mandatory registration
Exhibition closed on public holidays

More information