Banksy confirms new central London portrait of man blinded by flag is his – National
Anonymous street artist Banksy said on Thursday that a new painting that appeared in central London of a man climbing out of a roof, his face blinded by a flying flag, was his work.
In a funny video posted on Thursday on his Instagram account, Banksy showed a glimpse of how the sculpture was put up in the middle of the night. The statue appears to have been erected in the early hours of Wednesday on a high point in the traffic island at Waterloo Place, near Buckingham Palace.
Before the artist’s entry, locals and tourists gathered to examine the sculpture, thinking it was Banksy’s work because his signature was scratched on the floor.
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The statue is next to that of King Edward VII, who reigned between 1901 and 1910, and the famous nurse Florence Nightingale, and the Crimean War Memorial.
Statues are not what Banksy is best known for.
He is best known for his spray painting of buildings, with his first creations appearing in the early 1990s in his hometown of Bristol in south-west England. Since then he has traveled the world and his paintings and equipment have sold for millions of dollars at auction. His street art is often targeted by thieves and vandals.
FILE – In this Dec. 20, 2018, file photo, Banksy’s artwork is shown on the side of a garage, showing a child dressed as snow playing in the falling ash and smoke of a fire in Port Talbot, Wales. The artwork was sold to an Essex art dealer for “a sum of six”, although the mural will remain in its current location for around two years, it was revealed on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019.
Ben Birchall/PA FILE via AP
Banksy, who has never publicly revealed his identity, is part of a culture of street artists who view the underground act of posting their art publicly as a rebellious form of expression.
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