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# Anti-Gaddafi Street Art Pops Up in Libya
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/libyan-street-art-gaddafi/
- Published: 2011-06-06T20:00:53.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T15:40:58.000Z
- Description: In classic Chairman Mao fashion, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had his face plastered everywhere in the country as pro-government propaganda. In cities overtaken by Libyan rebels, artists are turning those same images against Gaddafi in works of street art.
- Author: Kyle Chayka
- Tags: Opinion, #image-position-hidden, Graffiti, Libya, Protest Art, Street Art, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/06/reign-in-blood-003.jpg)

Libyan anti-Gaddafi street art (photo via guardian.co.uk)

In classic Chairman Mao fashion, Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi had his face plastered everywhere in the country as pro-government propaganda. In cities overtaken by Libyan rebels, artists are turning those same images against Gaddafi in works of street art.

The [*Guardian* has the story](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/05/gaddafi-rebels-art-graffiti-benghazi?ref=hyperallergic.com), describing a plethora of anti-Gaddafi street art found in Benghazi, a stronghold of the rebels:

> There are posters of Gaddafi pumping petrol into a winged camel, Gaddafi with the tail of a snake and a forked tongue, Gaddafi as Dracula, Gaddafi as a clown, Gaddafi being bitten by a dog, Gaddafi getting a boot in the head. The variations are countless. Another popular theme is an often bloodstained Gaddafi terrorising or slaughtering his people or plundering the oil-rich nation’s wealth.

There’s a gallery of photos on [the *Guardian*‘s site](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/jun/05/libya-gaddafi-street-art?ref=hyperallergic.com#/?picture=375309095&index=1). There’s even a Gaddafi monkey among the powerful images, the best of which might be a Libyan flag split by a hand posed in a peace-sign gesture, or perhaps Gaddafi’s face getting split apart by a rebel.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2011/06/its-enough-004.jpg)

Libyan anti-Gaddafi street art (photo via guardian.co.uk)

**Related:**

- Our Cairo/Damascus correspondent **Danny Ramadan** previously filed a story for us on Egyptian street art and graffiti during the revolutionary protests in the city. Check out the [essay and photos](https://hyperallergic.com/art-revolution-egyptian-protests/).
- You can search Flickr to find other Gaddafi-related street art as it seems to be a popular topic showing up on the walls around the world, including [Chicago](http://www.flickr.com/photos/billycraven/5589542199/?ref=hyperallergic.com), [Edinburgh](http://www.flickr.com/photos/badalbert/5579691929/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [London](http://www.flickr.com/photos/artofthestate/5492944758/?ref=hyperallergic.com).