Calligraphers have been documenting history, writing tales, sonnets and songs since the beginning of time.
This ancient way of communicating has been connecting us to our past for centuries, and many calligraphers are one in the same as what we’d call an Artist.
Toulouse born and Paris raised artist L’Atlas has been fusing calligraphy and graffiti techniques for years.
This fusion of past and present techniques that was discovered in childhood still carries L’Atlas in his works to this day. Remembering “...watching Bruce Lee on TV [as a child], L’Atlas imagined “Dragon’s Wrath” as an angry dragon’s tail, this time replacing his brush with a mop dipped in acrylic diluted with water and a gloss medium. With a single brushstroke, he completed the gesture in just 10 seconds…He then raised the smooth, linoleum-like synthetic canvas vertically to let it drip, applied tape and superimposed his geometric logo using a spray paint can he pierced with a metal instrument, causing it to explode and mist the entire surface in a matter of seconds” (Forbes).
Anger, 2017 is a prime example of how keeping the use of color to three (red, black and white) is a strong and effective choice. Because his calligraphy style is so expansive, sticking to simple color combinations really works in L’Atlas’ favor. The viewer can feel stress, anxiety, and emotion in each brush stroke of red, with the black canvas pulling our attention to the white lettering underneath splashes of red.
40x40in
100x100cm
Flash Memories No. 2 creates an optical illusion of foreground and background with the top of the canvas sporting solid red horizontal lines and the faintest black vertical lines seemingly just behind it. As the eye travels down the canvas, these two perspectives seem to reverse as the base of the work hosts solid black lettering and behind it, light red horizontal lineage. Once again, the brilliance of L’Atlas’ style is calligraphy oriented, but the focus is on such an elegantly done perspective change.
49x49in
125x125cm
Much like Yayoi Kusama’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton, L’Atlas’ talents were noticed by another global fashion brand. Rihanna’s fashion line, Fenty, showcased a familiar looking logo when it launched in 2019. L’Atlas collaborated with Rihana’s Fenty team and with his iconic lettering style, RiRi had herself a stellar logo to launch her line with. Strong, unique, and in a class of its own - L’Atlas found the perfect union of his style and the image Fenty was going for.
“I had the idea when I was about 16 to mix calligraphy with graffiti because at this moment graffiti was only influenced by the US,” he notes, enthralled by calligraphy’s purity of gesture and monochromatic nature"(Forbes). With each brush stroke, L’Atlas connects calligraphers of the past to works and ingenuity of the present day. Beginning his journey as a street artist, tagging anything within sight to now designing for Rihanna and showing around the world, L’Atlas is a bonafide global sensation.
Check out The Latest with L’Atlas below or come visit his work in person at 5Art Gallery!
