Banksy, a mysterious British street artist, has acknowledged that he has painted seven murals in different parts of Ukraine, including the nation’s capital Kyiv, the neighborhood of Irpin, and the town of Borodyanka; some of the areas most severely damaged by Russian bombing.
First rumors
The first artwork to be identified, which went viral over the weekend, shows a female gymnast balancing on a pile of rubble on the side of a building damaged by Russian strikes.
The graffiti artist posted three images of the piece Friday on social media, with a simple caption reading “Borodyanka, Ukraine” — an alternative spelling for the town’s name.
A whole collection
After three pieces were discovered last week, speculation that the unknown artist was in the war-torn nation increased. In one painting, a guy who appears to be Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen getting knocked to the ground while competing in judo with a young kid. Another piece depicts two kids utilizing a metal tank trap as a seesaw, while a third painting depicts a gymnast performing a handstand inside the remains of a bombed building.
These, along with four further pieces, have all been confirmed by Banksy. A bearded guy having a bath, a lady in her dressing gown with her hair in curlers and holding a fire extinguisher, and another piece in which Banksy appears to have integrated pre-existing graffiti of a penis into a nuclear bomb carried onto the back of an armored vehicle are among them.
What’s the matter?
Early in the invasion, Russian soldiers surrounded and bombed Borodyanka, a town about 54 kilometers northwest of Kiev. Following its liberation in April, Ukrainian investigators discovered dozens of mass graves including the corpses of tortured and slain residents. Investigations into alleged Russian war crimes in Irpin and the nearby Bucha have also been demanded.
Although this is not the first time his work has been linked to Ukraine, the latest pieces are Banksy’s first public murals in more than a year. A print of CND Soldiers, one of his most well-known anti-war works, was sold at auction in March, raising $106,505 for a Kyiv children’s hospital.
Many Ukrainians and those who supported the nation in the face of its invasion thanked the artist in comments and posts on social media after he admitted to creating the gymnast mural.
A very politically committed artist.
The artist also concentrated on promoting social and political causes last year, selling t-shirts in support of anti-racist protestors detained for toppling a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol and auctioning a painting for a record-breaking $23.1 million for UK healthcare organizations. (In January, the protesters’ charges were dropped.)
During demonstrations against the Iraq War, the original mural initially emerged in 2003 outside the Houses of Parliament in London.
All his art on : https://www.banksy.co.uk/
