One of the good things about the coronavirus crisis is the popularity of sidewalk chalk artists. When the sun comes out, free boxes of chalk appear on the sidewalks and plazas of Vitruvian Park. The resulting art is uplifting, informative, meticulously drawn and often funny. It is truly a bright spot in my daily walks.
According to Rob Sheridan at the Universities Space Research Association, sidewalk chalk was originally made from the sedimentary rock of the same name; a form of soft limestone. Today, sidewalk chalk is made from gypsum, as it’s more common and easier to work with than chalk. Gypsum, calcium sulfate (CaSO4), occurs in thick evaporite beds. Gypsum quarried near Paris (France) was used to make plaster (of Paris). It is the structural component of drywall and a thickener in many personal care products. A unique occurrence of gypsum as wind-blown sand can be found at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico.
Per Sheridan, colored sidewalk chalk is made from formed, dyed gypsum. It’s ironic to think that this colorful material is made of the residue of evaporated seawater, from oceans long gone. A hard rain will dissolve this water-soluble mineral and local sewers will return it to the sea where, in a process known as the calcium cycle, it will contribute to dissolved marine calcium. Continuing the cycle, these calcium salts may then remain dissolved, ultimately creating new limestone, chalk or gypsum beds millions of years from now.
According to Robin VanLear, Cleveland Museum of Art’s director of community arts, in 16th-century Italy, various beggars — primarily amputees — began looking for an advantage over the other beggars who proliferated in the plazas and market areas around cathedrals, especially on feast days. Some of them decided to create art, and charcoal from braziers became their first drawing implement. They were rewarded for their efforts with coins thrown down by pilgrims visiting the cathedrals. Ultimately, the more artistic beggars began copying portraits of the Madonna — in particular those by the popular liturgical artist Raphael. They were dubbed madonnari, painters of the Madonna.
As the 2011 book Asphalt Renaissance, written by street artist Kurt Wenner along with B. Hansen and M. Hospodar, explains, madonnari realized they could maximize their earnings by working as traveling artists, moving between towns according to religious festival schedules. The Italian tradition continued for centuries, and soon street art began popping up in countries like England and Germany as well.
According to B. Hansen’s article “The History of Pavement Art” on Kurt Wenner’s blog, the English counterparts to madonnari, known as “screevers,” emerged in Victorian London and remained a fixture of the city up until World War II. Screevers were less closely associated with religious subject matter, but like the madonnari, they made a living with their ephemeral art.
Screevers were also memorialized in the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins, set in Edwardian-era England. In the song “Chim Chim Cheree,” Bert, the twinkly-eyed chimney sweep played by Dick van Dyke, boasts about his side hustle:
Today I’m a screever, and as you can see A screever’s an artist of ’ighest degree And it’s all me own work from me own memory
According to Kurt Wenner’s blog, in 1982, he combined traditional street painting techniques with his classical training and understanding of illusion to invent an art form all his own. It has come to be known as anamorphic, illusionistic or 3D pavement art. In 1985, National Geographic documented Wenner’s unique and innovative works of art in its award-winning film “Masterpieces in Chalk.” Today, all artists creating 3D pavement artworks can trace the origins back to Wenner’s invention.
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