ben eine

   Ben Eine

Ben Eine spray painting letters onto a wall

Ben Eine (ben Flynn) was born in London, England in 1970. Ben is mostly known for his lettering on the shutters of shops in places such as brick lane and Shoreditch. Ben is a street artist however does not believe his work to be “graffiti” as he believes that “graffiti makes the streets look ugly whereas street art beatifies it”.

Ben Eine started off his love for street art from the age of 14, tagging trains and street walls and being arrested for vandalism 14 times putting him under the category of “artistic fugitive” at a very young age. However ben stopped tagging when becoming a young adult as a few of his fellow graffiti friends were arrested and then sent to prison. Because of this he only displays his work on walls when he receives permission from the owner.

the screen print that Ben Eine sent to Barrack Obama

When Bens street art career kicked off he knew that all the strret artists work out there at the time was all too similar and therefour wanted to do something that would have been entirely different, he loved and specialised in lettering especially as there was such a wide variation of different shapes and words that the possibility was endless.

Ben eine rocketed to success when prime minister, David Cameron gave prime minister of the United States a screen print with letter which spelt out “twentyfirstcenturycity”

In my opinion Ben Eines work is very simple however it gives a very lively and colourful feel espesually on the dirty streets of London and provides the streets with joy. Bens work is very geometric and edgy with a wide range of colours, smooth texture and thick and bold mark making 

around most of the letters.

All of his work is done straight onto a wall or instillation, making the outlines and colouring in the inside of the shapes of the letters bold and bright buy using spray paints, which he heavily applies to create bold colours. All of his letters are very stylised in a very simple and effective way especially as his letters have no tone and are bold colours which are very great in size.  

I have chosen this artist as I am using ben eine as inspiration for both the lettering on my box and for the fashion project in which we will be designing a front cover for a fashion magazine. 

man ray

Man ray  

Man ray was most famously known for his contribution to photography with the dada movement and the serialism movement

Man ray was born Emmanuel Rudnitzky and s son of Russian immigrants, however ray moved to Brooklyn when we was very young. Throughout the early years of life man ray showed great artistic ability and knowledge all the way through school. Once finishing school in 1908 man ray immediately chased his passion for art and ended up studying with Robert Henri at the Ferrer Centre when studying at the Ferrer centre he was greatly influenced Stieglitz's photographs where man ray adopted a similar style snapping images that provided an “unvarnished” look at the subject. Man ray also found great inspiration from the Amory show of 1913 when seeing pieces by artist such as Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and Marcel Duchamp.

In 1914, Ray married Belgian poet Adon Lacroix and made many many close and long lasting friendships with people including artist Marcel Duchamp.

Man ray achieved most of his success in Europe and the United States .he’s art spanned from a wide range such as painting, sculpture, film, prints and even poetry. In his long career he contributed to movements such as Cubism, Futurism and Dada Surrealism. He was also very successful in the world commercial and fine art and came to be a sought-after fashion photographer. However man ray gained most of his fame through what he called “Rayographs” but he always thought of himself as a painter.

His multiple attempts to promote avant-garde art movements in New York widened the horizons of the American art scene. His serious yet quirky imagery has influenced a broad audience through different iterations of his work in pop culture. Many of his important works were donated to museums around the world through a trust set up by his wife before her death in 1991. Most importantly, his process-oriented art making and versatility have influenced a number of modern and contemporary artists, from Andy Warhol to Joseph Kosuth, who like Ray strove to continually blur the boundaries between artistic disciplines.