M. CHAT Lot n° 6

Unique piece on Janod rocket 30 cm French-Swiss painter, Thoma Vuille (a.k.a. Mr. CHAT) was born in Boudry, in the canton of Neuchâtel, in 1977. His first street art creations, in acrylic, were born when he was only 15 years old, in memory of his grandfather, a house painter. This idea of "memory" of the wall, as a material, will remain firmly anchored to his work. A student at the Institute of Visual Arts in Orleans between 1995 and 2001, it was in the streets of this city that he created his emblematic character Mr. CHAT, smiling at the bend in the walls and on the roofs, a benevolent and joyful figure. These features and this almost childlike spirit come from the very source of his initial inspiration: the drawing of a little girl, during one of his interventions in a class in Orleans, in 1997, of a laughing feline figure that he then decided to spread on the walls of the city, with the sole objective of "putting human and love in the city". If, at first sight, Mr. CHAT can make the effect of a logo, by the simplicity of its drawing and its "cartoonish silhouette", it embodies much more, delighting us as much as it captivates us when, at random of our urban peregrinations, emerges its Dantesque smile. A figure who has become emblematic of French street art, Thoma Vuille is gradually multiplying the images of his yellow sidekick on all media, from the front or in profile, sometimes winged or simply suspended in the air or quietly installed between two chimneys. With Mr. CHAT, Thoma Vuille aspires to remove the reticence usually associated with the practice of street art and to share it through the prism of a culture of proximity, even if it means partially emancipating himself from the street. The contagious smile of Mr. CHAT can be found all over the world, from the streets of Rennes, Nantes or Paris to those of Germany, England, Italy, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul or Dakar.