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# New Banksy Murals Pay Homage to Basquiat
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/banksy-basquiat-new-murals-barbican/
- Published: 2017-09-18T15:33:34.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:11:56.000Z
- Description: The two murals in central London appeared just before the opening of a major Basquiat exhibition at the Barbican Centre.
- Author: Benjamin Sutton
- Tags: In Brief, Banksy, Barbican Centre, Jean-Michel Basquiat, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:30(2016, 2017, part 3)

![Banksy mural near the Barbican Centre (via banksy.co.uk)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/09/banksy-basquiat-barbican-01.jpg)

Banksy mural near the Barbican Centre (via banksy.co.uk)

On Sunday, two new murals by [Banksy](https://hyperallergic.com/tag/banksy/) riffing on the work of [Jean-Michel Basquiat](https://hyperallergic.com/tag/jean-michel-basquiat/) appeared in central London on a street near the Barbican Centre, which is about to open a [major Basquiat exhibition](https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2017/event/basquiat-boom-for-real?ref=hyperallergic.com). The secretive British street artist’s two works in Golden Lane include a reinterpretation of Basquiat’s 1982 painting “[Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump](http://www.theartwolf.com/masterworks/basquiat.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com)” that is also a jab at the Metropolitan Police’s [institutional racism problem](https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/05/met-chief-admits-institutional-racism-claims-have-some-justification?ref=hyperallergic.com).

“Portrait of Basquiat being welcomed by the Metropolitan Police,” Banksy captioned an image of the mural [on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/BZJETE9AlnS/?ref=hyperallergic.com), “an (unofficial) collaboration with the new Basquiat show.” An untitled Basquiat painting from the same year as “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” [recently sold for $110.5 million](https://hyperallergic.com/basquiat-painting-sells-for-110-5-million-becoming-most-expensive-work-by-us-artist-at-auction/) at auction, a record for a US artist.

![A new Banksy mural near the Barbican Centre (via @Banksy/Instagram)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2017/09/banksy-basquiat-barbican-02.jpg)

A new Banksy mural near the Barbican Centre (via @Banksy/Instagram)

The other new Banksy mural features a queue of people waiting to ride a ferris wheel whose compartments are crowns rendered in Basquiat’s signature style. “Major new Basquiat show opens at the Barbican,” Banksy captioned the image [on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/p/BZJELJiAmb5/?ref=hyperallergic.com), “a place that is normally very keen to clean any graffiti from its walls.”

The new murals coincide with the opening on Thursday of [*Basquiat: Boom for Real*](https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2017/event/basquiat-boom-for-real?ref=hyperallergic.com) at the Barbican Centre, the artist’s first major exhibition in the UK. Though Basquiat died when he was just 27, many cite his [work as a street artist](https://hyperallergic.com/construction-workers-uncover-possible-basquiat-tag-on-megacollectors-building/) — scrawling [the distinctive “SAMO” tag](http://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/37058/1/al-diaz-on-samo-and-basquiat?ref=hyperallergic.com), often accompanied by short poems, on buildings in Lower Manhattan — as a key component in the development of his Neo-Expressionist painting style.

The Basquiat-inspired murals continue a recent flurry of activity from Banksy, who last week [donated £205,000](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/16/banksy-gives-205000-to-human-rights-and-anti-arms-trade-groups?ref=hyperallergic.com) (\~$277,000) from the sale of [his latest indoor piece](https://hyperallergic.com/new-banksy-piece-targets-london-arms-fair/) at [an anti-arms fair exhibition](https://hyperallergic.com/protesting-the-worlds-biggest-arms-fair-with-an-art-show/) to charities. He also recently revealed plans to [open a gift shop](https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/sep/07/banksy-walled-off-hotel-palestine-gift-shop?ref=hyperallergic.com) selling original works alongside his [Walled Off Hotel](https://hyperallergic.com/a-visit-to-banksys-new-hotel-in-bethlehem/) in the occupied Palestinian territories sometime this fall.