Balloon Girl is a 2002 mural by graffiti artist Banksy depicting a young girl letting go of a red heart-shaped balloon. Banksy has used a variant of this image in his 2014 campaign supporting Syrian refugees. Another variant Banksy created for the 2017 United Kingdom general election generated controversy after he offered free prints for some anti-Conservative voter, and he soon retracted the offer. A 2017 Samsung poll ranked Balloon Girl as the United Kingdom's number one favourite artwork.
Video Balloon Girl
History
In 2007, it sold for £37,200 at Sotheby's. The Sincura Group removed the mural from an east London shop and sold it for £500,000 in September 19 2015.
In March 2015, the third anniversary of the Syria conflict, Banksy reworked the painting to depict a Syrian refugee and added the hashtag #WithSyria. On 13 March, the image was projected on the Eiffel Tower and Nelson's Column. An animated video was released, featuring animation based on Banksy's work, narration by Idris Elba, and music by Elbow. In the following weeks, the singer Justin Bieber got a tattoo based on the original art and posted a picture of it on Instagram before deleting it. Banksy posted this picture on his Facebook page with the comment "Controversial".
In November 2015, a print of the painting was auctioned for £56,250, more than twice its estimated value.
In early June 2017 before the United Kingdom general election, Banksy introduced a variant of Balloon Girl with the balloon coloured with the Union Jack design. Banksy initially offered to send a free print of his art to registered voters in certain constituencies who could offer photographic proof they had voted against the Tories. The offer included a disclaimer: "This print is a souvenir piece of campaign material, it is in no way meant to influence the choices of the electorate". Banksy canceled this offer on 6 June 2017 after the Electoral Commission warned him it could violate election bribery laws and invalidate the election's results in those constituencies.
In July 2017, a Samsung poll of 2,000 people from the United Kingdom asked participants to rank twenty pieces of British art. The poll's results listed Balloon Girl as the people's number one favourite artwork.
Maps Balloon Girl
References
External links
- #WithSyria video on YouTube
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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