Get lost in trompe l'oeil street art around Lyon city centre

We read a lot of blogs throughout the week and since meeting Mark from UK Street Art we’ve been reading his blog regularly and have been inspired to write a post about urban art. Unlike previous posts we’ve written about art in galleries and museums, this post is all about some of the street street art around Lyon that helps to make this city truly inspirational.

There’s a common misconception that street art is merely graffiti or vandalism but often it’s not at all. It is effectively expressions of creativity from artists that use walls, street objects and buildings as their canvases instead of paper or other more traditional materials. Obviously creating this kind of artwork is often illegal and frowned upon but it is gaining an increased level of interest and some artworks, by well known artists such as Banksy, are selling for thousands!

Like many large cities, Lyon has got it’s fair share of great street art including some that has been commissioned by the local authorities in the trompe l’oeil style. The English translation for this style of artwork is ‘deceive the eye’ and it’s a well known way of painting or drawing to create the optical illusion of an artwork being 3D when it’s actually a two-dimensional piece. For the more traditional art lovers reading this, the trompe l’oeil style of painting may be more commonly associated with masterpieces by Pere Borrell del Caso or other well known greats.

This ultra-realistic way of painting has actually fooled many vistors of Lyon into thinking that these scenes are real. Mind you, it’s easy to see why when you look at the picture above! We’ve looked at it for ages and still can’t quite work out which bits are painted on and which bits are real!

What’s more, is that if you’re up to date on Lyon’s history and you look closely at the image below, you may notice that some of the people are actually famous inhabitants of Lyon from throughout history.