Urban neo-postmodernism?

Reduced gauges. Extended hours. Cancelled conferences. Cancelled screenings.  And a creative machine that is starting up again.

Because despite everything, there will be a 2021 Urban Art Fair.

It's great, it's brilliant. Yes, but we would never say that this is the main thing.  Because the point of living art is never that life goes back to the way it was. But rather that it goes back to the way it was. And better. This is what the vast majority of the works presented shout out in willingly bright colours, expressing in chorus a very communicative desire for renewal.

The concentration effect is in full effect. We are witnessing a flowering of works here, but also very often a flowering within each work. Wall-eating art is in a talkative mood this year. This is the first impression that is made. It is called convergence in diversity. Or group eclecticism.

The cast of invited artists confirms this feeling. Everyone is there, as L'Œil notes. From pioneers like Speedy Graphito to revelations like Rouge, including children of graffiti like Astro, Bursk and Natsy.  This proliferation of forms seems logical in the current circumstances. But it is also a source of critical concern because it may be the first indication of a rather surprising evolution in urban art.

What other basic trends can be read in the works presented? The style. The plastic, the polish, the finish. Meticulous care is now taken with the workmanship of the works. Even if it means developing a very classical pictorial mastery, as the rising star from Bordeaux, Rouge, does. We know how to play our instrument. Respect is here an interactive concept.

This virtuosity is in no way exhibitionist. It is entirely at the service of the irreproachable rendering that is visibly everywhere as a prerequisite. Street art seems to have gained a lot by going to galleries to seduce them.

As a result, a third underlying trend is the fierce desire to become part of the history of painting by going beyond the simple appropriation of Superman à la Lichtenstein or Mickey Mouse à la Warhol. We have entered the age of discernment. Gone are the days of simply displaying icons in one's own work, sampled from right and left and ostensibly stuck there to show that one likes them but above all that one knows them. The era of complexes is over, it seems.

Indeed, it is a game of winks and references that is much more subtle for an artist like Cali. She is capable of putting Indiana's Love 3D, the Fountain of the Divine Marcel, a banana from you-know-who, an abandoned balloon dog and a little girl already seen somewhere releasing a red heart-shaped balloon into the same shopping cart. Among other things.

And yet, there is no saturation or overdose. Everything is in its place, integrated, standardised. Nothing is magnified. And despite the somewhat primitive anti-consumerist message that takes centre stage, the whole thing works. We've obviously moved on from "I know everything" to "What the hell am I doing with all this? That's much better! Artistically speaking.

Let's recap. We have noted: eclecticism + stylistic perfectionism + integration of artistic signs from the past. What if the urban art of 2021 is reinventing postmodernism for us?

Illustration:
- Rouge - Fresco in Chartrons 2020
- Cali - The Collector - 2019