Born as Xavier Prou, in the beautiful land of Paris, Blek Le Rat was a famous artist, known for pioneering the graffiti art movement in this place. After studying etching, lithography and painting for six years, he went on to study architecture. He began graffiti art in the early 1980s by painting pictures of rats on the street walls of his city. The rat was one of his favourite elements, and he often described it as being the only free animal and the one that spreads plague everywhere. During the early years, he was largely influenced by graffiti artists of New York City. After visiting it, he brought the style to Paris, adapting it to suit the culture of the region.
He is also known to be an elusive painter. While many have seen his works, the man has shown himself to very few. Though spraying since a decade, he is a phantom, seldom seen in person, but always visible through the stenciling he does. His style of work is innovative, refreshing, eye-catching, creating a larger than life image on the large canvases (of walls) that he uses.
He has many credits to his name. He is known to have introduced the usage of stencils to graffiti art. He is also known for creating the first life size stencil and for transforming the use of stencils from lettering to pictorial art. He is known to have brought social consciousness to art, with many of his images depicting solitary individuals and also representing the state of the homeless across different parts of the world.
