Thierry Noir
Thierry Noir is a French artist who is claimed to be the first street artist to paint the Berlin Wall.[1] His paintings, with their bright colors and their melancholy poetry, survived longer than all the others, following the fall of the wall in 1989.[citation needed]
Life
Thierry Noir was born in 1958 in Lyon, France. He moved to Berlin in January 1982[2] with two small suitcases, attracted by the music of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, who lived in West Berlin at this time. He lived in a squat at Mariannenplatz, near the Berlin Wall.[3] From April 1984, Thierry Noir and Christophe Bouchet started to paint the Berlin Wall, eventually painting 4,000 kilometres of it.[3] Traces of Noir's work is still visible at the East Side Gallery of the Wall,[3] probably the biggest open air gallery in the world. There is also an example of his work on the portion of the wall in New York City in a courtyard on 53rd street between Madison and 5th Ave.
The Wall
The paintings of Thierry Noir became a symbol of new-found freedom after the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.
Irish rock band U2 featured Noir's artwork of on East German Trabant cars and used photos of these to decorate their 1991 album Achtung Baby. The album itself includes songs, such as 'Zoo Station", that have themes inspired by the fall of the Wall] and the changes taking place in Europe at the end of the Cold War.
Charity
In aid of a child relief organization, well known in Germany, Noir designed a Buddy Bear. The bear is called Teddy Noir.[4]
References
- ↑ "'Street art is political' - Thierry Noir". The Voice of Russia. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 2013-03-13.
- ↑ Sanguinetti, Pablo (9 August 2011). "The beauty of monstrosity: Berlin Wall as work of art". Monsters and Critics.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dicker, Holly (undated). "Street art: graffiti in Berlin". Time Out Berlin. Retrieved 2013-03-13.
- ↑ Klaus and Eva Herlitz: Buddy Bear Berlin Show, Neptun Verlag AG, CH-8280 Kreuzlingen, 2001, ISBN 3-85820-152-9