Pochoir

Pochoir [French: = stencil] is in a very specialised sense a term used for graffiti made with stencils. The other kind of graffito is known as free-style. Graffiti done with stencils emerged in France in the late 1970s. By the 1980s pochoirs were in their heyday, especially in Paris. The graffito pochoir might be designated a sort of "open-air silkscreen print". The preparation for pochoirs, as distinguished from free-style graffiti, entails making one or more stencils, usually of cardboard but also of plastic and - more rarely - of metal. These stencils facilitate frequent replication of a motif. Multicolor spray pictures are also made by combining stencils and colors. Since such sprax pictures are so easily and rapidly reproduced, the pochoir also frequently serves to disseminate political or ideological content throughout a city. Apart from that consideration, the pochoir technique in this sense - like grafitti in general - is also growing into an autonomous art form.