When British street graffiti artist Banksy said that nothing more could be done with the iconic Mona Lisa, the subject of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, little did he know that artist Nick Walker had something in his mind. Walker created a graffiti of mooning Mona Lisa in 2006, presenting a new perspective of the renaissance-era model immortalised by Da Vinci’s painting. Now, Walker’s art has been converted into a bronze statue up for display in Bristol, United Kingdom, for art enthusiasts to view the so-called “Moona Lisa.”
Walker’s art was re-imagined as a life-size statue bysculpture foundry Pangolin Editions. Weighing an impressive 260 kilograms and measuring 1.8 meters in height, the statue has been installed at the Vanguard exhibition at the M Shed, which explores the role Bristolian artists played in the development of British street art, reported the Bristol Post. Walker’s painting of Moona Lisa had sold for more than three times its estimate at £54,000 (Rs 54,92,966) at Bonhams auction house in 2006.
To recreate the statue, sculptors first created a makeshift version of the piece which held 160 DSLR cameras to capture a 360-degree image of a live model dressed as the Moona Lisa, reported BBC. The report further mentioned that the image was then used to create a digital model to makinga mould to design the final piece.
Through his Instagram handle, Walker has shared a glimpse of how the statue came into being. In his latest Instagram post, Walker shared the statue of Moona Lisa while it was in the workshop and getting a patina process done.
Walker’s sculpture is part of Vanguard Museum’s latest exhibition, Behind the Scene — which is an 11 part episodic journey through the exhibition ‘Vanguard: Bristol Street Art, the Evolution of a Global Journey’ currently on display with Bristol Museums.
An earlier Instagram post shared by Walker showedthe sculpture and mentioned in the caption, “Great to be part of the @vanguardstreetart exhibit currently showing at the M Shed on Princes Wharf. Many good pieces and interesting facts about the beginning of street art in Bristol.”
What do you think of this version of Mona Lisa?
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