Madrid Street Art

So, I have been talking about going in search of good graffiti in Madrid. I am going to adopt the more current term of "street art" instead. I don't want to give the impression that I am promoting, or really the least interested in, this sort of "tagging", which is far more prevelant and more widely known as graffiti: 

I consider this sort of sprayed image to be the human equivilant of peeing on a wall. It claims territory in quite an unappealing manner. Too bad it lasts longer than pee.

In Madrid, the prevelance of graffiti has led to more street art, because many shop owners, to protect themselves from random paint jobs, have hired artists to paint the area around the shop windows, and security doors. (*Thanks to my mother, the indefatigable research librarian, working from Massachusetts, for this info)

You can see here that they have worked hard to remove the graffiti between the doors. But the paintings are usually respected and left untagged.

A few weeks ago, I was walking in a part of the city I had not been to before. About 15 minutes from our apartment, north of Plaza Espana. I came to an area with quite a lot of street art. I like this one of a TV set gone wrong:

I am pretty sure this one, below, was comissioned, but it uses current and common graffiti images to make a nice design.

 The term "street art saffari" has become a bit cliche, but it is so apt.  As soon as I saw the first painting, I took out my camera. When I saw a few more, I knew I had come a cross a sort of street art watering hole. I put off getting to my original destination and hunted about.

This painting, below, staring down an obscure little street was quite a surprise. It was clearly a professional job, whether done for commision or during the night.

 The signature is boamistura, which will lead you to the guy's website. I still don't get a lot of this. Was this done with permission? If not, surely the artist would not want to be so obvious. But you can see on line many websites of unauthorized art whose originators are well known.

As I continued walking I came to a street that had a wonderful ambiance, Calle Noviciado. On this one block, there are lots of stores with paintings around them.

 I can't remember which store it was, the one above or below here, that I was so excited to find. It is a second hand clothing shop, rare in Madrid. I had to go in. I had soon found a couple of items that I wanted.  But it turned out, I had to have clothes to exchange them for. You can't get anything with cash!

Further on, I came across this shop that is sort of a Spanish version of Newburry Comics.

 I liked these two security doors for bar/cafes. The one above is quite straight ahead. The one below is a little mystifying. Could it be the guy who cleans the place, pretending to be the evening entertainment?

 Below is the one thing I have included here that was definately a "night job". But personally, I like this eye staring at me from what would be a bland metal wall in front of a construction job.

 Libreria is not a library, but a bookstore.

That is all for now. Hasta Luego!

Comments, questions, random observations. Send me a note: margotkimball@gmail.com