JR
22 February 1983
Inside Out Project, Faces Places, "Women are Heroes", "Face 2 Face"
Describing himself as a photograffeur (a portmanteau of "photographer" and "graffeur"—French for "graffiti artist"), he flyposts large black-and-white photographic images in public locations.[5] He states that the street is "the largest art gallery in the world."[6][7] He started out on the streets of Paris.[8] JR's work "often challenges widely held preconceptions and the reductive images propagated by advertising and the media."[8]
JR's work combines art and action, and deals with commitment, freedom, identity and limits.[9] He has been introduced by Fabrice Bousteau as: "the one we already call the Cartier-Bresson of the 21st century".[10] On 20 October 2010, JR won the TED Prize for 2011.[1][2] He used the $100,000 award money to start the Inside Out Project.
JR was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.[11]
Critical reception[edit]
In 2010, during a radio program in San Diego, California, artist Shepard Fairey stated: "JR is the most ambitious street artist working."[40] Le Monde has described his work as "revealing humanity."[41] With over a million Instagram followers, he's one of the most popular artists on social media.[42]
In March 2014, in Les Inrockuptibles, Jean-Max Colard described his installation at the Panthéon as "demagogic[43]". The same magazine also accuses him of "transforming the wild and rebellious practice of graffiti and postering into a legal, pompous and official art".
In April 2014, Fanny Erlandis for Slate judged that her Not A Bug Splat project was "Ultra-demago".[44]
In the summer of 2015, his project with the evocative title AV and JR two artists on the go arouses incomprehension and harsh criticism. The project, led by recognized artists, appeals to the public generosity of a crowdfunding platform – a type of funding rather reserved for the launch of new artists. The media describe the project and its approach as candid and clumsy at best, condescending and demagogic at worst.[45][46]
Works[edit]
28 Millimetres[edit]
JR considers himself as "neither a street artist nor a photographer".[10] To carry out his projects, he uses photography but also video, prints on paper or tarpaulins, urban spaces, books and especially social links.[47] JR noted "I would like to bring art to improbable places, create projects so huge with the community that they are forced to ask themselves questions. I want to try to create images of hot spots such as the Middle East or Brazil that offer different points of view from the ones we see in the worldwide media which are often caricatures."[10]
Portraits of a Generation[edit]
The Portraits of a Generation project constitutes the first stage of the 28 mm project. After the first unauthorized exhibit on the walls of the Cité des Bosquets housing project in Paris, JR returned and set himself up of this housing project and the neighbouring one, the Cité de la Forestière, both in the epicenter of the 2005 riots in the French suburbs. The first portraits were rapidly exhibited on the walls of the last popular neighbourhoods of the capital, in the east of Paris. These photos provoked the passerby in as much as they questioned the social and media representation of a whole generation that for some is only to be seen relegated to the outskirts of the capital.[48][49]
Feature films[edit]
JR transferred his Women Are Heroes project to the cinema in directing a feature film made up of images of the pasting phase of the installations and interviews of the women. Through this documentary film, the artist shows us how he installed the portraits of the women in urban spaces and the reactions of the inhabitants. He explains "this film gathers the images and the words of the women he met, the day to day flow of their lives and experiences to create, through art, a reality different from the one shown in the media".[10]
This first film was selected as a special screening in the Critics' Week section at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival,[76] where it competed for the Caméra d'Or.[77][78] In May 2010, JR was invited to present his film on Le Grand Journal on Canal+ in Cannes during the festival.[79]
JR's second film, Inside Out: The People's Art Project, is a documentary that tracks the evolution of the biggest participatory art project in the world, Inside Out. JR inspired communities to define their most important causes with displays of giant black and white portraits pasted in the street. The project encourages citizens to take ownership of walls that were previously restricted and in doing so testing the limits of what they thought was possible. It is a Social Animals production in association with Notting Hill Films, directed by Alastair Siddons.
This film was featured as an official Documentary Feature Spotlight selection at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival, premiered at the SVA Theatre on West 23rd Street, on Saturday, April 20 and debuted on HBO in May 2013.
In 2015, JR made the movie Les Bosquets inspired by the riots in the French suburbs in 2005 and featuring the performance of the ballet Les Bosquets of New York City Ballet (2014). The same year, he directed the short film titled Ellis, starring Robert De Niro.
In 2017, JR's collaboration with filmmaker Agnès Varda, Faces Places, was released. It won the "Golden Eye" for best documentary film at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival[80] and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards amongst other awards listed later on this page.[81]
JR's film Paper & Glue was released in 2021. It was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
On 20 October 2010, JR won the TED Prize for 2011.[1][2]
In 2017, his documentary with Agnès Varda, entitled Faces, Places was nominated for and won several awards and accolades, including the following:
In 2021, his latest film, entitled Paper & Glue, was nominated for two News & Documentary Emmy Awards.
