Street Artist JonOne Celebrates Abbé Pierre

In 1949, iconic French activist Henri Marie Joseph Grouès, better-known as Abbé Pierre, founded the Emmaus movement — a charitable effort to combat poverty and homelessness. One cold winter night in 1954, after a lady froze to death in the streets of Paris, he went on the French national radio and asked everyone in France to sleep in the street for a night. Many did, and the incident propelled him into the public eye.

He passed away four years ago, but his legacy and his eponymous foundation remain a powerful force in social justice. To commemorate this, French agency BDDP Unlimited partnered with New York graffiti artist JonOne on a street art operation to raise awareness about Abbé Pierre’s work among young people by painting a stunning mural on a wall donated by the city of Paris. Recall is a poetic short film that captures the project, to the soundtrack of Abbé Pierre’s original speech remixed with the music of Jean-Gabriel Becker.

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PICKED: A Documentary About Street Artist Ben Eine

We have a soft spot for street art and love the work of London’s Ben Eine, so this new microdocumentary about his work by filmmaker Abbie Brandon, following Eine as his paints two murals in East London, made us swoon.

The first mural, Pro Pro Pro, was a play on Eine’s Anti Anti Anti, painted a week earlier on the opposite wall, upon iconic graphic designer Neville Brody‘s suggestion as part of the Anti Design Festival.

The second, Calculate, is a rework of Eine’s famous Vandalism piece and was commissioned by Moniker Art Fair, where Eine exhibited the following week.

More of Eine’s exceptional work can be found in Trespass: A History Of Uncommissioned Urban Art — the must-have street art bible we featured last year.

via Reaction!

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Street Sketchbook: The Creative Process of Top Graffiti Artists

It’s no secret we have a soft spot for street art books. So we’re all over Street Sketchbook: Journeys — a rare peek inside the sketchbooks of 26 of the world’s hottest new artists.

From Brazil’s iconic favelas to Tokyo’s backalleys, it reveals both globe-trotting adventures and rich internal landscapes in 227 large-format pages and lush double-spreads of pure creative genius.

Street Sketchbook: Journeys is the sequel to Tristan Manco’s 2007 gem, Street Sketchbook: Inside the Journals of International Street and Graffiti Artists.

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PICKED: Exit Through the Gift Shop Giveaway

British street artist Banksy has been vilified and glorified, reviled and revered, but one thing remains as unshakeable as his spray-can-slinging bravado: He’s a true cultural icon. Nowhere do both his genius and his penchant for controversy shine more brightly than in Exit Through the Gift Shop, the groundbreaking documentary about the elusive graffiti master and compelling larger commentary about the role of street art in contemporary culture, its oft-questioned commodification, and the even higher-order question of what constitutes talent in any art. The film swept the indie film and left audiences with eyes wide open as they took a rare look of a reclusive underground world and eyebrows raised high as they spun wild conspiracy theories about the film. (We need not say anything further — if you’ve seen it, you know what we’re talking about, and if you haven’t, anything we say would be a spoiler, that’s how good it is.)

Today is the day, that much-anticipated day that Exit Through the Gift Shop is released on DVD and Blu-ray. But wait, here’s the oh-so-special part: We’re giving away 10 copies of the DVD — complete with exclusive artwork, deleted scenes and even a “lawyer’s edit” — to Brain Pickings readers, courtesy of Wooster Collective.

To snag one, just sign up for our free weekly newsletter if you haven’t already and leave a comment below telling us what your favorite Banksy piece is. On Friday (12/17), we’ll use a random number generator to select the 10 lucky winners to walk away with a copy of the year’s most daring independent film.

Meanwhile, we’d be remiss not to point out that Exit Through the Gift Shop makes a +1 holiday gift.

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