Blek le Rat began creating works from 1981, using the Paris streets as his canvas of choice. Blek initially painted stencils of rats on the walls and described the rat as ‘the only free animal in the city’.

Blek is credited with being the inventor of the life-sized stencil and the first to transform stencils from basic lettering into pictorial art.

Today’s graffiti art around the world constantly mirrors the movement Blek began; he is considered the originator of the international stencil art movement, painting in stencils, much as Banksy often does today.