Banksy’s Art Amid Ukraine’s Rubble
Banksy’s Art Amid Ukraine’s Rubble
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Ukrposhta, the Ukrainian Postal Service, has demonstrated, in the stamps it issues, an impressive understanding of the sentiments of Ukrainians. Instead of the typical commemorative fare, it has produced a visual chronicle of the essential episodes of the war. One, the image of a brave Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to a Russian battleship during the defense of Snake Island, became an iconic image reproduced worldwide. Others depicted the bombing of the Crimean Bridge, the occupation of Kherson, and a Ukrainian tractor dragging an abandoned Russian tank. Another stamp immortalized Patron, a minesweeper dog and beloved hero of Ukrainian children. In the process, those stamps have become treasures of local and international stamp collectors.
Recently a new image was added. On Feb. 24, Ukrposhta released a stamp showing a graffiti painting by Banksy, the elusive British street artist, in Borodyanka, a town near Kyiv that had been heavily damaged during the Russian occupation. It depicts a little boy in a gi throwing a huge grownup rival. Banksy’s allusion was clear—the Ukrainian David will defeat Putin, the contemporary Goliath who loves bragging about his judo skills.
The painting is one of seven that turned up in Ukraine in November 2022—two in Kyiv and five in towns that had lived through the hell of Russian occupation: Irpin, Borodyanka, Hostomel and Horenka. The surreal compositions painted on the walls of the ruined houses depict subjects such as gymnasts, an old man taking a bath, and a woman in a gas mask holding a fire extinguisher.
Because the figures look like ghosts among the ruins of once-prosperous suburbs, there was a chance that the British artist’s visual jokes would offend people who had lost their houses and loved ones and had faced intimidation, torture and worse during the occupation. But the murals’ effect was the opposite: Ukraine instantly fell in love with Banksy.
During the first weeks after the murals’ appearance, nobody knew for sure if Banksy had actually painted them. Soon the artist confirmed his authorship on social media and even posted a short documentary about the works.
This news provoked an avalanche of comments on his Instagram account that included promises of assistance for his next project—one person offered to provide a bed for the night, while another mentioned a father-in-law with an old Volkswagen minivan that could be used to transport paints.
More followed. In December, the town council of Irpin voted to give honorary citizenship to “the world-famous artist Banksy for attracting public attention to the destruction of Irpin by the Russian aggressors and commemorating in his art the history of the struggle of Irpin and the idea of its rebirth.”
But the mood changed dramatically when, on Dec. 2, a group of thieves was apprehended in Hostomel after cutting Banksy’s painting of the woman in a gas mask from the wall of a ruined building. The ringleader claimed they just wanted to auction it so they could donate the proceeds to the Ukrainian army. This didn’t fool anyone, and now they face prison terms of up to 12 years.
News of this incident caused alarm in the other towns with Banksy’s artworks. The municipal governments of Irpin and Borodyanka began lobbying the Ministry of Culture to protect the British artist’s creations by designating them as part of the cultural heritage of Ukraine. They were concerned that the beloved murals would be damaged by the weather or, as the experience of Hostomel demonstrated, stolen.
A solution was found when representatives of the Borodyanka village council contacted the Ukrainian branch of Ajax Systems, maker of alarm and security systems. In collaboration with a Ukrainian company, last month Ajax began installing protection for all the murals, covering them with reinforced glass framed in steel. The sophisticated alarm system reacts to motion, including any attempts to break the glass. In the case of the mural depicting the heroic young judo fighter memorialized on the Ukrposhta stamp, the wall proved to be too damaged to attach anything to it, so a special glass pavilion with humidity control was erected around it.
It seems that modern graffiti in Ukraine are now protected better than ancient frescoes in Pompeii. Proud local officials of Irpin and Borodyanka are sharing their hopes that tourists will come to see the artworks after the war’s end.
Of course, the nearly instant transformation of the murals into national treasures covered by reinforced glass and put under 24-hour protection contradicts the very essence of the street-art genre. The fact that the rapid museumification of Banksy’s oeuvre became an immediate concern for members of the local governments of the towns and villages horribly damaged by the war demonstrates that the artist succeeded in touching the nation.
Since the beginning of the war, at least 246 cultural sites in Ukraine have been damaged, important architectural monuments ruined, museum collections destroyed or looted by the Russian occupiers. Obviously, Banksy’s creations can’t compensate for this loss, but they have reassured Ukrainians that art can emerge even among the ruins.
Mr. Akinsha is an art historian who most recently organized ‘In the Eye of the Storm: Modernism in Ukraine, 1900-1930s,’ at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid through April 30.
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