Barbican, the world-famous performing arts center in London opens a Jean-Michel Basquiat retrospective this week and Banksy had a few thoughts on it… two to be exact with both referencing Basquiat’s work.
Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump (1982) features two London Metropolitan Police patting down the boy depicted, and a ferris wheel made of Basquiat’s Crown (1983) with a line for admission. With the latter piece, Banksy noted on his Instagram account the irony in the Barbican holding a Basquiat retrospective while always being “keen to clean any graffiti from it’s walls.”
Basquiat, who began his venture into art as infamous New York graffiti artist SAMO©, died in 1988 at the young age of 27.
Time Out London notes that both pieces popped up over the weekend, no word yet on conservation efforts on both pieces.
