Street Art: 15th Arrondissement (Part Deux)


Engraved portrait by Vhils, Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, 15th Arr.

We took a walk through the nearby 15th Arr. to have a look at "Tower," a mural Keith Haring painted in 1987 for the Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades. It's a modern children's hospital now, but founded on the site of a convent in 1778 by Suzanne Necker, a noted pre-Revolution saloniste and the wife of Louis XVI's finance minister.

The bonus find was a pair of engraved portraits by Portuguese artist Vhils running up the sides of the the hospital's historic buildings on Rue de Sèvres. Other than their date of installation in 2014, there's not a lot of information available about these works.

The 15th Arr. has surprised us a few times with great street art, including one colossal mural on the side of an office for child protective services and another that looked like the Partridge Family bus crashed into the side of an apartment building. In the center there appears to be a cross between evil George Washington and Megatron. I'm no art critic, but let's agree that the artist is making a bold statement on the folly and hubris of giant sentient robots that transform into building-bus-presidents.

Mystery mural, 15th Arr.

Oh, and Keith Haring's Tower mural. Ta-da.


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