Graffiti artist Banksy has revealed two new artworks in London. The murals, near the Barbican Centre, mark the opening of an exhibition by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat who died in 1988 due to a heroin overdose.
Announcing the new artworks in a series of posts on Instagram, Banksy said on Sunday: “Major new Basquiat show opens at the Barbican - a place that is normally very keen to clean any graffiti from its walls,” reports the Guardian.
The first image, which is possibly mocking the exhibition, as Basquiat was originally a graffiti artist, is of a ferris wheel with people queueing up at a ticket booth underneath. Crown motifs, common in some of Basquiat’s art, replace the wheel’s passenger cars. In the second mural, which is clearly inspired by Basquiat’s “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” - one of his most famous artworks - Banksy has portrayed police officers searching and questioning the boy figure as the dog looks on.
The exhibition, which is the first large-scale UK show of Basquiat’s pioneering neo-expressionism, opens on Wednesday at the arts centre. It will feature more than 100 works alongside rare photography, film and archive material.
Banksy, who often makes political points with his art, is also known to support causes he cares about, the Guardian reported. In May, a Brexit-inspired mural showing a metalworker chipping away at a star on the European Union flag appeared in Dover.
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