display
London (AP) - Suddenly they are there as if by magic, on an old wall of a barber shop or in the subway.
The mysterious British street artist Banksy places his pictures in unusual places.
This year he has set a clear focus in his works: the corona pandemic with its heroes and victims.
In no other country in Europe have so many people died from the virus as in the United Kingdom.
Banksy's identity is a secret.
He is said to have come from Bristol in the south west of England and came to London in the late 1990s.
He made a name for himself with socially critical motives, such as homelessness and consumer behavior.
When it comes to the serious topic of pandemics, the artist shows a good dose of humor.
display
This includes the British media including his most recent work, which appeared on a house wall in Bristol in December.
It shows an old woman who loses her teeth while sneezing heavily.
Because the house is on what is probably the steepest street in England, it looks as if the woman's sneeze caused the neighboring houses to tip over.
Banksy used pictures of rats to advertise wearing corona masks on a London Underground.
One of the sprayed rodents sailed down with a face mask as a parachute, another - without a mask - sneezed a lot of paint on a window.
Bad luck: cleaning staff had no idea which artist was at work and simply wiped the pictures away.
According to art experts, it was worth several million pounds.
In a video distributed on Instagram, Banksy can even be seen with a white protective suit and mask during the spraying campaign.
He wrote: "If you don't wear a mask, you won't get it."
In the fall, a Banksy picture suddenly appeared on the outside wall of a barber shop in Nottingham.
The black and white artwork shows a girl who plays with a bicycle tire as a hula hoop ring.
In front of it, Banksy placed a demolished bicycle with only one tire attached to a lamppost.
"Everyone is very excited and many, many come to see the picture," said the owner of the barber shop.
Neighbors saw the plant as an encouragement in the Corona crisis: Nottingham is one of the British cities worst hit by the pandemic.
display
In a clinic in Southampton, England, Banksy left a painting for the heroes of the Corona crisis and wrote on a piece of paper: “Thank you for everything you do.
I hope this illuminates the place a little. "
In the picture, a boy is floating a cloaked nurse doll like Superman with his hand in the air.
During the Corona crisis, Banksy even published a work from the home office on Instagram.
Using his typical stencil technique, he had sprayed several rats on the wall in his bathroom.
Items were arranged so that it looked like the rodents had caused the mess.
The humorous artist commented: "My wife hates it when I work from home."
But who could be behind Banksy, whose works used to hang unauthorized out of nowhere in the Louvre in Paris or the Tate Modern in London?
Many traces lead to the street artist Robin Gunningham from Bristol.
The "Daily Mail" drew this conclusion in 2008 after extensive research.
Years later, researchers at Queen Mary University in London, using methods from criminology, came to the same conclusion.
They compared Banksy's works and Gunningham's whereabouts and found many matches.
display
Others consider the Bristol-born singer Robert Del Naja of the British band Massive Attack to be Banksy.
Among other things, there should be a connection between the band's tour dates and the viewing of new pictures in several countries.
The singer denies this, but admits to being a friend of the artist.
One of many other assumptions is that Banksy is a woman who runs an artist collective.
Whoever is actually behind it: Bansky must have a secretive circle of helpers.
Should the corona pandemic draw to a close in the coming year, Banksy is likely to focus more on other topics again - maybe the refugees?
Banksy supports a ship sailing under the German flag to rescue migrants in the Mediterranean.
The artist financed the «MV Louise Michel», named after a French anarchist, and this year left a work as a trademark on the wall of a ship: It shows a girl with a life jacket and a heart-shaped lifebuoy.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201214-99-682497 / 4
Banksy's homepage
Painting in Southampton on Instagram
Image on Wall in Nottingham on Instagram
Rat pictures in the bathroom on Instagram
display
Website about the ship
Picture of the sneezing elderly woman on Instagram