Banksy in Barbican

Walking back from Cass Business School tonight to Barbican Tube I passed a side street where there was a lot of activity, so I stopped to take a look, and there was a Banksy.

Banksy has confirmed that it was him who created it.  He explains that he has painted this Basquiat-inspired artwork on the walls of the Barbican just before the London gallery opened an exhibition of the late New York artist's work

The first larger work is meant to be Banksy's take on Jean-Michel Basquiat's Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump, which he created in 1982. It depicts a figure being frisked by two police officers with the caption "Portrait of Basquiat being welcomed by the Metropolitan Police". The thought is that it is intended to mock the gallery's willingness to promote someone who was a graffiti artist, when the Barbican is very keen to clean up any graffiti very swiftly.

Whatever the case, it's an interesting piece of art in a very boring tunnel and made a very welcome last minute blip!!