Three of Banksy’s oil paintings that refer to the European migration crisis are up to a charity auction that raises funds for a hospital in Bethlehem. The value of the works, entitled Mediterranean Sea View 2017, ranges between £ 800,000 and £ 1.2 million.
Banksy’s oil paintings: Mediterranean Sea View
The anonymous Bristol street artist portrayed romantic seascapes in the 19th-century style. But he added life jackets and buoys to represent the death of migrants who have attempted to reach the European coast in the last decade.
Banksy created the triptych of paintings for his hotel in Bethlehem. The hotel, called The Walled Off Hotel, which contains a museum and gallery. Overlooking the walls of the West Bank that divides the city, the hotel calls itself “having the worst view of any other hotel in the world”. It is also full of original Banksy artwork.
The auctioned work reflects the social and political conflict of modernity. The triptych is comprised of three romantic-era Mediterranean Sea landscapes, to which Banksy added life jackets thrown on the coast, referencing the victims of the 2010 migration crisis in Europe, when thousands of people died.
The works will be present at Sotheby’s evening sale. The proceeds will go to the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation. They will be used to build a new unit for acute stroke and the purchase of equipment for the rehabilitation of children.
Banksy: a creative language that speaks to everyone
The mysterious artist never ceases to surprise its public. In fact, a few weeks ago, he was again at the center of the press attention.
Just ended the lockdown in the UK, and Banksy immediately rushed out to make a new work. In particular, in the London underground, the wagons were stormed by a gang of rats. These launched themselves from the ceiling using surgical masks such as parachutes, and sneeze splashes of paint. An original way of inviting passengers to maintain social distancing.
The last work of the mysterious artist, however, disappeared from the London underground. The Transport of London, the company that manages transport in the English capital, announced it. According to the Tfl, the drawing was “unconsciously canceled by the cleaners”. An epilogue with a hint of irony, given that Banksy himself had disguised himself as a sanitation officer to create the work, entitled “If you don’t mask, You don’t get”.
Among the world’s best known contemporary artists, Banksy is certainly the most “pop”. His creative language really speaks to everyone. He is the artist who embodies our time better than any other. His works – albeit linked by a common denominator – are always in step with the most salient current issues. But even during the lockdown, the artist did not remain idle: Banksy’s famous rats, unable to go out, invaded the artist’s bathroom.