Stencils first met street art in the 1970’s.

Multidisciplinary artist John Fekner set the tone when

he used cardboard graffiti stencils and spray paint to create what he called “word-signs” --

conceptual graffiti art pieces that employed letters, symbols, dates, and icons to explore social

and environmental issues.

Following in his footsteps in the 1980’s was Blek le Rat, now considered the “father of stencil

graffiti.” Inspired by the pioneers of 1960’s and 70’s graffiti, but eager to offer a unique take on

the burgeoning form, Blek le Rat learned how to create stencil art, which he claims has allowed

him to spray “tens of thousands, maybe a hundred thousand” images in the streets of his native

Paris.

Blek le Rat’s work touches on social justice issues with empathy and a dash of humor, and, as his

name implies, he’s most famous for his portraits of rats, which he’s described as “the only free

animals in the city” (humans included). His stencil art techniques and themes have had an

enormous influence on contemporary street artists like Vhils and C215, but Blek le Rat’s most

notable successor is the now-legendary Banksy.

 
Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, always reminds me of my lifelong

love of Hollywood cowboy movies. American westerns are almost all predicated on Christian

themes, and riddled with simple symbolic numbers. Maybe you are familiar with the 1960

Western The Magnificent Seven and their connection to the Seven Virtues? And in terms of the

Seven Vices, in the 2007 remake of 3.10 to Yuma, the ‘villain,’ Ben Wade, is trailed by six

members of his outfit who try to free him from his captors—his release would restore their

numbers to seven (and need I point out that ten minus three—the 3.10 of the title— is seven?). In

the original poster for High Noon, Gary Cooper confronts four villains. This is why, for me,

Durer’s Four Horsemen, drawn from the Book of Revelation (the last book of the New

Testament which tells of the end of the world and the coming of the kingdom of God), have

always been the sinister apocalyptic cowboys of world-ending destruction; Conquest, War,

Pestilence (or Famine) and Death itself.

Of course, that’s not at all what Dürer intended. The image was made as one of a series of fifteen

illustrations for a 1498 edition of the Apocalypse, a subject of popular interest at the brink of any

new millennium.  In 1511, after the world had failed to end, the plates were republished and

further cemented Dürer’s enduring fame as a print-maker.

Saint Jerome in His Study (German: Der heilige Hieronymus im Gehäus) is an engraving of 1514
by the German artist Albrecht Dürer. Saint Jerome is shown sitting behind his desk, engrossed in
work. The table, on the corner of which is a cross, is typical of the Renaissance. An imaginary line
from Jerome's head passing through the cross would arrive at the skull on the window ledge, as if
contrasting death and the Resurrection. The lion in the foreground is part of the
traditional iconography of St. Jerome, and near it is a sleeping dog, an animal found frequently in
Dürer's works, symbolizing loyalty. Both creatures are part of Jerome's story in the Golden
Legend (c. 1260), which contained fanciful hagiographies of saints.
St. Jerome in His Study is often considered as part of a group of three Dürer engravings
(his Meisterstiche), the other two being the well-known Melencolia I (1514) and Knight, Death and
the Devil (1513). Together they have been viewed as representing the three spheres of activity
recognized in medieval times: Knight, Death, and the Devil belongs to the moral sphere and the
"active life"; Melencolia I represents the intellectual; and St. Jerome the theological and
contemplative life.
The composition is intimate, but the viewer has difficulty locating himself in relation to the picture's
space. Thomas Puttfarken suggests that while the scene is very close to the observer, Dürer did not
intend the viewer to feel present: "the intimacy is not ours, but the saint's as he is engrossed in study
and meditation"