Mix Master

At The Intersection Of Optic Art, Abstract Art And Calligraphy, French Street Artist L’Atlas’ Universal Language Of Lines, Shapes And Letters Allows Him To Cross New Frontiers. 

- Y-Jean Mun-Delsalle

L’Atlas’ name is emblazoned everywhere: on walls, buildings, sidewalks, canvases, photos and time-lapse videos that he makes of his monumental installations and performances in cities worldwide, and even a sampler podium for French singer-songwriter Jain’s music video. It’s a name that has become his logo and appears in numerous variations based on vertical and horizontal lines. Mixing the optical, abstract, minimalist and geometric art movements with his research on writing and calligraphy, he has invented an original typography in the aim of creating a universal pictorial language, for if he chose the pseudonym “L’Atlas”, it was so that it could be easily understood by all in any language.

To the artist, universality is a form of generosity. His graphic aesthetic is instantly identifiable, a play of shapes, space, light and signs, such as the giant compass he created for the plaza of the Centre Pompidou in Paris – a geographical marker for those lost in the urban space – or the 35-metre-tall building façade he painted representing a geometrical form where his name only becomes visible when near. By combining the more traditional arts with contemporary practices associated with the street, he has successfully inscribed street art into the history of art.

Born in 1978 in Toulouse and raised in Paris, L’Atlas aka Jules Dedet Granel started graffiti in the 1990s, but instead of painting figurative characters, it was the letter that fascinated him. He recalls, “I spent so many nights at the police station, but I never considered myself a vandal. I was always aware that I was giving the city a present, not destroying it.” Then he donned a city worker uniform when carrying out his illegal performances, pretending he was paid to do so, and was no longer arrested.