Street art has been around since streets have existed, one way or another people want to attract the attention of other people, for whatever purpose, sometimes for political reasons, sometimes for commercial, and sometimes simply as a sense of self expression. A once common sight in London were brick paintings, mainly advertising, predominantly on the front or side of the shop itself. In a time before plastic hoardings and neon lights the best way to catch your eye was through sign writing, the bigger and more colourful the better.
Until recently Southern India was literally brimming with original street art advertising, painters across the Sub-Continent were commissioned to depict everything from movies to soap powder, if it made money you could expect to see a 50ft mural on the street corner by the next week. Nowadays India has fell in love with vinyl, digitally printed photographic full colour vinyl banners. Ironically Europe and America are turning in the opposite direction, we're sick of slick corporate iconography, the vast majority of Westerners are practically immune to advertising imagery.
Perhaps due to the rise and rise of street art, I could even suggest it is a natural evolution, brick paintings and advertising murals are starting to make a massive comeback. Collectors across the world are even paying top dollar for hand-painted Indian advertising posters these days, they are after all originals, created by artists, and no more will likely be made in the Sub-Continent until public opinion turns once again.
Big names on the street art scene such as Banksy have jumped on the brick painting band wagon, he obtained the help of Colossal Media to help promote a pop up show in NY in and around the vibrant arts quarter of Soho. Each work was translated to an enormous scale, and were playfully site specific. The whole project was conducted quickly and under secrecy as is always the way with Banksy.
Colossal Media are perhaps the biggest name on the brick painting scene, they've created painted murals for movies such as Terminator 4 and Rockstar Games Grand Theft Auto.
It's rather strange to me that whilst at college the world of advertising was always deemed as proverbially suckling at the teat of art, whilst nowadays the clear divisions blur more with each passing moment. The fact is that art has to market itself and advertising needs a touch of humanity to stay anywhere close to a public relevancy. Thus, even if historically it might be viewed as sleeping with the enemy, it is only by such collaborations that corporations can learn to view the world with more sensitivity, even with humanity.
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One of my favourite brick painting blogs is Ghost Signs, they feature a wealth of brick advertising, the faded glamour of antiquity right up to the street savvy present day. They've also written about another brick painting company Concord Painting that's well worth a read. They've even created a map of all the ghost signs aka old brick paintings around the UK which you can see here.
Plenty of people in the UK contribute to his project, I can imagine a museum creating a collection based on his photos in the future, I mean, once all the old brick signs have faded away, they're gone forever. There's also an interesting interview with the guy behind Ghost Signs if you want to know what spurs him on, Sam Roberts, a London blogger with a love for old brick murals, it's featured at The Londonist. He's been in most of the broadsheets and tabloids too, as well as an interview on BBC Radio London.
So next time you're wandering around your neighbourhood, look up, you never know you might just see someone bricking it 
This post brings to mind the giant ‘Mona Lisa’ painting on a building site in NYC from the film ‘Highlander’. Wonder if that’s still there?
Thanks for your kind words. The blog is now being written at http://www.ghostsigns.co.uk and recently featured many signs from Bangladesh where the hand painted form is very much alive: http://www.ghostsigns.co.uk/2012/02/hand-painted-bangladesh.html
Thanks for the comment