Henry Holloway speaks to the father of stencil graffiti, Xavier Prou, aka Blek le Rat, about his new mural in Brighton

LONG before Banksy was daubing his famous kissing coppers mural in Brighton a mysterious artist was stenciling art on the walls of Paris.

Blek le Rat’s reputation and notoriety grew throughout the 1980s.

He was finally unmasked in 1991 as Frenchman Xavier Prou when he was arrested while stenciling a replica of the famous Madonna and Child painting. Internationally renowned, credited as the father of stencil graffiti and a key influence for Banksy – Mr Prou has been to Brighton to paint a new mural on the wall of Art Republic in Bond Street.

Stenciling his latest painting featuring his son playing the violin – the artist hailed Brighton and Hove's street art scene and described the city's musical heritage as helping the art scene to flourish.

Mr Prou said: “I can’t speak for the other artists, but in the three hours I was able to stay in the city I learned to love the atmosphere, which I found very agreeable.

“I love the architecture of Brighton, the relatively old walls and beautiful colours and the fact that Brighton is linked to music.

“Just as fine arts is a very important part of everybody’s life, music something that can give pleasure and enjoy."

He said the new mural “stands for all the street artists, musicians, painters, dancers alike” and added “it is my way to pay my respect to them”.

Mr Prou said: “Music has always been important for me. I cannot remember one day in my life without music. I think it is a gift to play an instrument because it brings so much joy. I love musicians in the street and almost always stop to listen a few minutes. There are so many talented people in the streets.”

He added: “I think nowadays street art has become as important as music used to be - and still is - for young people in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.”

Before his fast rise to fame the artist grew up in Boulogne-Billancourt in the western suburbs of Paris - being raised amid the backdrop of post-war France.

Mr Prou choose the pseudonym Blek le Rat when he started his street art in 1981 - taking the name from Italian comic book Blek le Roc and using 'rat' as an anagram of art.

His work varies from the simplistic silhouette of rats to elaborate stencil recreations of works by renaissance painters.

He attributes painters like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo as being major influences and said he is “fascinated by the drama of Caravaggio’s canvases”.

Mr Prou's iconography also features a number of militaristic pieces – often featuring stencils of soldiers – something he attributes to his youth in post-war France.

He said: “The many soldiers in my repertoire translate the post-war atmosphere I grew up in, the topic of war was omnipresent in every day conversations when I was a child.

“I played in the remains of bombed houses with my friends, we even found a German airplane in the woods.

“And even though the Second World War has been over for a long time I do not remember a moment when there wasn't a war anywhere in the world. My soldiers are quiet reminders of that.”

While his imagery varies, nearly all of his work uses the same stencil style which heavily influenced the work of the famous graffiti artist Banksy.

In his very first interview Banksy said: “Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek Le Rat has done it as well, only twenty years earlier."

With a generation of artists now inspired by his work, Mr Prou said: “The number of people expressing themselves via stencils has grown in a way I would never have imagined when I started back in 1981.

"I timidly dreamt of inspiring others but couldn’t imagine that the stencil would become so popular.

“The stencil really suits me, one can quietly create and cut the stencil in the studio and then in the street the stencil allows you to paint very precise images and to work very fast.

“One mustn't forget that stencilling is still considered an illegal art form and being able to work fast is essential.

“The other advantage of the stencil in my opinion is the fact that it brings out the most important features of the characters that are depicted.

“It is very elegant - you don’t even need much colour to get the message across.”

Street art continues to flourish and can be traced back to pioneers like Blek le Rat.

He hailed it as the “biggest art movement humankind has ever seen" and urged for the work of artists who take to the streets to be preserved for the next generation.

Since Blek Le Rat painted the violinist image, it has been partly sprayed on, breaking what he called the “unspoken rule between street artist”.