Figure 40.10 Graffiti on the Berlin Wall. The wall was built in 1961 to separate East and West Berlin during the Cold War. After the wall height was raised in the 1980s, artists from all over the world began to paint on the western side. The eastern side was blank because no one was allowed near it.
The anonymous British artist Banksy has become known worldwide, his gallery works selling for large sums. He continues to be a subversive and controversial figure, and his art is often mentioned and commented on in mainstream media, fulfilling one of the main purposes of his work.
There are a number of Irish street artists working here and internationally. You can search for ‘10 Irish street artists’ on www.
culturetrip.com. Choose an artist whose work you like and research their work to use in your studio work or written work.
Figure 40.11 What Are You Looking at? 2015, by Banksy, London
UNIT 16 ART AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Maser is a Dublin-born street artist who has worked internationally and is now based in the USA. He studied Visual Communications in Dublin and began making murals based on typography in the 1990s. This work evolved into abstract geometric compositions created with a limited colour palette of bright colours, which he always uses to maintain continuity in his work. The City is My Garden was a project he worked on in collaboration with the National Botanic Gardens and Arnotts in 2017 (Fig 40.12). The idea was to increase awareness of green areas in the city and to involve the public in creating green spaces.
