Thierry NOIR // Berlin Wall in 1984
Walking in the East London I recently came across a number of these figures. Brightful colours, comic-like style, all signed under the name of Thierry Noir. But my curiosity was captured by the fact that ALL of them are absolutely untouched by tags or vandalism. None had been yet trashed. I started researching and it took 3 clicks on Wikipedia to understand that the author is a sort of unknown semi-divinity; a front runner of modern street art. Born in Lyon in 1958, Thierry Noir is claimed to be the first one to have painted art on the Berlin Wall in 1984. He moved to Berlin in 1982 attracted by the music of David Bowie because "I was fired from every job I started".
Living in a youth centre in front of a section of the wall, he started to paint on the wall with a friend. "It was forbidden to paint the wall, so in a way it was a revolutionary act". His aim was not to make the wall beautiful, it was a deadly border and some colours would not change it. But it was about to "transform it, make it ridiculous, and help destroy it". It was to show that the wall was not a mytological entity; could change and be changed. Ultimately, it may just started with a bit of French foolishness.
His style of simple comic-like faces with bold was developed to be able to paint very quickly. Apparently, there was a lot of suspicious by the local residents, who were wandering who commissioned the paintings and for what purpuse. In an interview, Thierry recalls that there were very few German artisys painting on the wall. For Germans the wall was something to be ashamed, something to forget. First painters were foreigners, they had less pressure. After the first difficult years, Thierry's paintings and the overall graffiti on Berlin walls got worldwide attention and recognition in Wim Wenders' 1987 movie "Wings of Desire". Since then it was history, with the graffiti of the Berlin wall becoming a symbol for freedom. I still have vivid in my eyes the footage of the people climbing the wall and smashing it with hammers in 1989
