Many artists think that creating and art are a way to give their name a legacy. Some people, on the other hand, think that art is more important than their name or people knowing their name.
They are happy to be in the background, just an anonymous person behind great art and let the art itself speak up.
Banksy is one of the most famous artists in the world – his art is priceless. But no one knows who he is despite the greatness of his work. Many people have followed the same path or they have faded into history. Here are some of them:
Above
This is a street artist from Northern California, in his mid-twenties – and that’s basically all information we have on him. He never does shows, never sells his work online or has a permanent address. His art is done kind of illegally because it’s, well, above. To see his work, you would have to look above to see an arrow hanging from the power lines above you.
The arrows are pointing at the sky and have a word on it. It’s supposed to spin and reveal word pairs that have a deeper meaning. So far, he has been in more than 20 countries and did an installation in each of them. He is inspired by everyday life. He also travels only with a backpack and no extra expenses.
Philadelphia Wireman
This is a sad story that would have been completely forgotten in the Philadelphia garbage dump but a man named Robert Leitch made a discovery of a cache of objects on the curb in the 1970s. They were piled on and waiting for a garbageman.
When he saw them, he liked them and brought them with him. There were about 1200 pieces in that pile and every piece was a wire-wrapped object like pens, coins, nails, toys, watches, tools and so on.
Leitch gave some of the objects away and a friend convinced him to give the rest to an art gallery.
Exhibition of objects created by the Philadelphia Wireman
“Some of the pieces are now really expensive and some are loaned to galleries around the globe. But no one knows anything about the person who really made them,” says Max Friedman, arts journalist at Best australian writers and Best british essays.
The Master Of The Furies
Tormented Figure by The Master Of The Furies
Not a lot is known about the Master of Furies, his existence wasn’t even acknowledged until 1970s. But a Vienna museum started collecting beautiful carved fury sculptures and they have discovered that they are all work of one man who then received said name.
They were created in the early 17th century in Salzburg in Austria but nothing is known about them beyond that. They are lifelike and detailed and many are yet to be discovered.
The Toynbee Tiles
To see the work of Toynbee tiles, you need to look down. This artist has been creating license plate sized tiles that are created with a mix of linoleum, tar paper and asphalt crack filler.
They are applied to the road and hidden by the paper which wears away after the tile is placed on the road. So far, this artist has created more than 450 tiles in US and Canada.
There are also some in South Africa. No one knows who is making them but they all contain a similar message that no one really understands.
Scotland’s Mystery Book Sculptor
A series of sculptures went to different locations in Edinburgh and all of the locations had something to do with literacy and they were all made from books. One was a tree made from books, one was a coffin and a gramophone and so on.
There were eleven sculptures delivered in the end and one of them was delivered to author Ian Rankin. All that is known about this person is that it is a female and that’s it. There were more sculptures created for Book Week Scotland.
Dede
This artist is a street artist from Tel Aviv who fell in love with painting on the walls. “His graffiti are usually representing his military experience and hate towards it.
He signs his work with this name and a bandaid and there are often bandaids in the picture itself. He shows images of peace as well” says Mary Toskin, an arts blogger at Studydemic and Uktopwriters.
The Master of The Playing Cards
Master of the playing cards is an artist that lived and worked in the mid-1400s and his work was focused on creating playing cards that were beautifully decorated and designed.
A wide range of subjects exists on his cards, from birds, deer, humans or dragons. They were unique in that numbers and images were created separately so that you could have different images with different numbers.
Nora Mork is a lifestyle journalist at Ox Essays and Big assignments. She regularly speaks at public blogging events and write posts for blogs, such as UK Writings.
