4 December in London took place in the history of awarding the first prize in the field of street art - Street Art Awards. There were two nominations: «The best street artists» and «Best urban artist». In the first category has won the photographer nicknamed JR, in the second - a painter Matt Small (Matt Small).

When asked what street art (Street Art) is different from the urban art (Urban Art), the founder of the Prize Breysgerdl Mark (Mark Bracegirdle) responds: «Urban art - that make the street artists to make it what to pay for an apartment ». Street art - «public», it is created directly on the street so that he admired all the passersby. But works of urban art is usually born in the studio and often are exhibited for sale. The same picture can be a rank and street and urban art, depending on where you see it: on any fence or in a studio artist.

You may think that street artists - the real partisans, while the urban artists only profit from their ideas. But the winner of Street Art Awards Matt Small does not agree with this interpretation. He considers himself primarily a painter, but says his paintings are not on canvas but on a piece of metal and concrete, which he finds on the street. Discarded microwave and doors of refrigerators, in his opinion, best suited for his portraits, in which he portrays «those are usually not recognized by society», - the young immigrants from the London suburbs. And art dealers he calls «snakes, which would only nahapat a lot of money».

The second winner, JR - a photographer who, like Matt Small prefers a genre portrait. He shoots mostly ordinary people and places your photos on the walls of houses. JR received the award for his project «28 millimeters: Women», in which he was «decorated» slums of Rio de Janeiro, huge images tamoshnih residents.

According to Spencer Hikmana (Spencer Hickman), director of cult music shop Rough Trade East, where he was awarded, the people now pay attention primarily on the artistic quality of works of street art, and not only on the political stance of the author ( as in the case of Banksy). «Look at yesterday's nominees, such as Conor Harrington (Conor Harrington) and Herakut, they first painters», - he said.

Ironically, during the same week in the British capital was Turner Prize award ceremony , one of the nominees which was not a single artist or photographer. Received the Award of the artist-kontseptualistu Mark Leckie (Mark Leckey). Exhibition Award nominees for the Turner Prize , held this fall, has caused many negative reactions in the press: Creativity Leckie and its tovarok runes Islam (Runa Islam), Cathy Wilkes (Cathy Wilkes) and Goshko Makugi (Goshka Macuga) called anemic and dull. No one is sure that the premiums need «fresh blood».

The current popularity of street artists shows that people are missing the «simple» art, to understand and feel that you can not possess any specialized knowledge or very fine mental institution. Therefore, it is possible that «exhausted» Turner Prize again «vospryanet», if it will be the winner of the representative of street art. Given that the recognition of «official» artistic world of street art are seven steps (in this year's street art, even won the exhibition in the Tate Modern!) This development is no longer seemed fantastic.

Material prepared Yulia Maksimova

Source: dazeddigital.com , artinvestment.ru