A before-and-after photo is the simplest way to understand what a mural does. On the left, a blank gable end, a crumbling stairway or a wall covered in tags; on the right, the same spot turned into an owl, a whole painted street or a staircase of colour. This collection brings together 72 such transformations from Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Australia, painted between the late 2000s and 2016.
The artists range from solo street painters to large studios. France's Patrick Commecy and his team at A.Fresco paint hyper-realistic fake façades, often filled with local historical figures. Brazil's Eduardo Kobra covers walls in kaleidoscopic portraits. Budapest's Neopaint studio, Lithuania's Gyva Grafika and Lebanon's Dihzahyners volunteer group have reshaped whole neighbourhoods. Most of these works were commissioned by councils, festivals or building owners; a few began as unofficial projects.
The murals are grouped by region below, with the artist, place and story behind each one where it is known. Murals change: some have been repainted or demolished since these photos were taken, and one famous wall was deliberately blacked out by its own artist, as you will see at the end of the Germany section.
France: painted façades and trompe-l'œil
Trompe-l'œil, "deceive the eye", is a centuries-old French tradition, and Patrick Commecy's studio A.Fresco is one of its best-known modern practitioners. Their method is to paint what the building could have looked like: windows, balconies, shopfronts and people, often famous locals, so convincingly that visitors stop to wave at painted figures.
Juliette et les Esprits, Montpellier
A bare, patched wall became a sunny southern façade with shutters, flower boxes and balconies. The painters kept the real medieval round tower beside it and made it part of the scene, so it is hard to tell where the stone ends and the paint begins. The work is by Patrick Commecy and A.Fresco.
Renaissance, Le Puy-en-Velay
In this town in the Auvergne, a blank, stained end wall turned into a lively street scene with painted windows, banners and figures looking out. The title fits: the mural gave a tired corner a second life. It is another Commecy design.
Au Fil de Loire, Brives-Charensac
The trick here is a painted "gap" in the wall through which you seem to see the river Loire and an old arched bridge. Brives-Charensac sits on the Loire just outside Le Puy, so the view is a local one. Painted by Patrick Commecy's team.
La Guinguette, Brives-Charensac
A supermarket billboard came down and a blue shopfront with a woman at the upstairs window went up in its place. A guinguette is a traditional French riverside café with music and dancing, a nod to the town's setting. By Patrick Commecy.
Porte des Lavandières, Aurec-sur-Loire
Painted builders on scaffolding seem to be constructing a stone tower and gateway, with the town's name carved above. The mural plays with the idea of a building still being made. It is by Commecy's studio.
Porte des Festes, Aurec-sur-Loire
In the same town, a plain corner now shows a stone archway with a costumed procession passing through and heraldic banners on the wall. The real steps and railing lead straight into the painted scene. By Patrick Commecy.
Clochemerle, Vaux-en-Beaujolais
Vaux-en-Beaujolais is said to have inspired Clochemerle, Gabriel Chevallier's 1934 comic novel about a village feud over a public urinal. The painted façade fills balconies and windows with villagers, as if the characters had moved in. A Commecy work.
Café Reynaud, Estrablin
A grey building became a café with an awning, terrace and arched window opening onto a painted stream. The real optician's shop sign on the ground floor was worked into the design rather than hidden. By Patrick Commecy.
Tableaux d'Eyzin-Pinet
Here each painted window frames a small landscape, like paintings hung on the outside of the house, and a figure on a ladder seems to be adding the finishing touches. The title means "the pictures of Eyzin-Pinet". By Commecy's team.
Mairie d'Adissan
The town hall of this small Hérault village gained painted windows, flags, climbing vines and residents leaning out. It is a good example of a mural that celebrates a community rather than an artist. By Patrick Commecy.
Nostradamus, Salon-de-Provence
The astrologer Nostradamus spent his later life in Salon-de-Provence and died there in 1566. Commecy's studio gave him a painted façade, with a large figure of the seer and painted windows on a tall stone building.
Vive la Récré, Fraize
"Hooray for break time": a plain gable in this Vosges town now shows children, balloons and a kite spilling out of painted windows. The playful scene suits a building near a school. By Patrick Commecy.
Galerie Romanin, Béziers
The photo published under this title in the original collection actually repeats San Francisco's 16th Avenue Tiled Steps, described in the Americas section below. Commecy's studio did paint a façade called Galerie Romanin in Béziers, but it is not the work shown here.
La Galerie V, Levallois
Levallois-Perret, just north-west of Paris, commissioned a whole series from A.Fresco. In this first one, a blank side wall was painted to continue the elegant apartment building next to it, windows and all.
Aquarium, Levallois
Between two tall buildings, a dull rubble wall became a garden of rocks, water and greenery. The painted plants are designed to blend with the real trees on the terrace. By Commecy's team.
Les Dolto, Levallois-Perret
A white end wall now carries brick, stone window frames and slate roof details that match the old building beside it. The name appears to refer to the French child psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto. By Patrick Commecy.
Roméo et Juliette, Levallois
Shakespeare's lovers meet across painted balconies on what used to be a featureless wall. The joke works best from the pavement, where the real and painted balconies line up. By A.Fresco.
Le Café des Acteurs, Levallois
At the foot of a modern apartment block, a bare entrance became a café with a red awning and figures on the balconies above. The design softens a big, plain building at street level. By Commecy's studio.
Cinéma "Le Vallois", Levallois
A white wall now shows a cinema front with posters and film characters gathered on the balcony. It is a tribute to the local cinema and to the stars who appear on its screen. By Patrick Commecy.
L'Arbre aux Oiseaux, Levallois
The narrow gap between a modern block and an older building, previously covered in dark panels, was painted to continue the older façade. The title means "the bird tree". By Commecy's team.
Umbrella mural, Paris
A child perched on a rainbow umbrella floats above grey clouds while colourful fish fly overhead. The style closely matches that of French artist Seth (Julien Malland), whose children often hide their faces and who has painted widely in Paris's 13th arrondissement, though the original collection gave no credit.
Britain, the Low Countries and Iberia
St Mungo, Glasgow, Scotland
Glasgow artist Smug painted this modern-day version of the city's patron saint on High Street in 2016. The bearded man holds a robin, a reference to the legend of St Mungo bringing a bird back to life. It is one of the best-known stops on the Glasgow Mural Trail.
Full Moon hostel, Bristol
Bristol artist Cheba covered this hostel and bar in Stokes Croft with a swirling cosmic pattern of blues and purples. Bristol is one of Britain's street-art capitals and home to Upfest, a large annual street-art festival.
The Masonic, Bristol
Dan Kitchener, known for rainy neon cityscapes inspired by Tokyo, painted the side of this Bedminster pub. A grey rendered wall above a car park became a glowing street at night. The photograph is by Paul Green.
Welsh dragon, Cardiff, Wales
Sheffield-based Phlegm, known for intricate black-and-white illustrations, painted a mechanical dragon on a gable in Cardiff's Roath area in 2013. The red dragon is the national symbol of Wales, here reimagined in his signature style.
Hercules and the centaur Nessus, Manchester, England
The Spanish duo Pichi&Avo blend classical sculpture with graffiti lettering. Here they painted the Greek myth of Hercules fighting the centaur Nessus, who tried to carry off Hercules' wife, across a white gable that was still under scaffolding in the "before" shot.
Diving dog, Mechelen, Belgium
Belgian artist Bart Smeets, who works as Smates, painted a dog diving underwater with a cheek full of air on a narrow wall in Mechelen. The water's surface runs across the top of the wall, so the street seems submerged.
Mural in Arnhem, the Netherlands
Australian artist Fintan Magee painted a huge, slightly faded bouquet across the brick wall of a housing block. Magee often explores floods and climate change, which the original title, "Feast Before Flood", hints at.
Raccoon made of trash, Lisbon, Portugal
Bordalo II builds giant animals from scrap such as old car parts, tyres and plastic, then paints them. This raccoon, from his "Big Trash Animals" series, comments on waste and its effect on wildlife. It took over a plain, stained wall in Lisbon.
Bird mural, Covilhã, Portugal
Portuguese artist Pantonio painted his trademark streaming blue and black forms on a tall wall above Covilhã's rooftops. The town hosts WOOL, an urban art festival that has filled its old wool-industry streets with murals.
Ringo Starr, Barcelona, Spain
Not every transformation needs a whole building. Someone turned a plain concrete bollard into Ringo Starr behind a Beatles bass drum, and the photo pair went viral on Reddit in 2016.
Germany, Austria, Italy, Greece and Sweden
Giant starling, Berlin, Germany
Dutch artists Super A and Collin van der Sluijs painted an enormous starling on a narrow residential tower in Berlin's north. The detailed, glossy plumage can be seen from far away across the open ground around the block. Photo by Nika Kramer.
Blu's mural in Cuvrystraße, Berlin
Italian artist Blu painted two famous murals on these Kreuzberg firewalls in the late 2000s, including figures unmasking each other and a man shackled by gold watches. The black photo here is not the "before": in 2014 the murals were painted over in black, in consultation with Blu, as a protest against redevelopment and gentrification of the area.
Honeycomb of Life, Germany
Argentine artist Marina Zumi covered the corner of an apartment block with a rainbow honeycomb, with bees and a figure at street level. The bright hexagons wrap around both sides, making the building a landmark on its street.
Mural in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
A large dahlia, a mountain landscape and the portrait of a man in a high collar now cover the end of this housing block. The portrait looks like the poet Heinrich von Kleist, born in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1777, though the original listing does not say so. The project was organised by creative-stadt.de.
Façade in Bad Freienwalde, Germany
Another creative-stadt.de project: a plain end wall was painted with an old-fashioned grocery shopfront, the kind once called a Kolonialwaren shop, complete with windows and a balcony.
Dissection of the Little Mermaid, Linz, Austria
Austrian artist Nychos is known for "dissected" cartoon characters that show bones and organs. His Little Mermaid stretches along the front of a building in Linz. The anatomical style is meant to be curious rather than gory.
Memorie Urbane wall, Gaeta, Italy
Italian artist Millo draws giant black-and-white figures among tiny cities, with small touches of colour. This wall was painted for Memorie Urbane, a festival in southern Lazio that invites international artists to towns such as Gaeta.
Owl, Athens, Greece
WD (Wild Drawing), an artist born in Bali and based in Athens, wrapped a huge owl's face around a single-storey building on a street corner. The owl is the ancient symbol of Athena and of Athens itself, which makes this one feel at home. The original title was "Knowledge Speaks, Wisdom Listens".
Magic Book, Malmö, Sweden
Polish artist Natalia Rak painted a woman glowing with warm light on a brick gable in Malmö, cherry picker still in place when the photo was taken. Rak's work often has a fairy-tale feel and strong colour.
Poland, Hungary and Lithuania
3D mural, Poznań, Poland
In Śródka, one of Poznań's oldest districts, a blank gable became a jumble of painted houses, a trumpeter on a roof and a cat. The project marked the history of the settlement, which received town rights in 1231, and was organised by local leader Gerard Cofta. Photo by Waldemar Wylegalski.
Legend of the Giant, Białystok, Poland
Natalia Rak painted a girl in folk costume watering a real tree from a watering can, so the living tree becomes part of the picture. It is one of the most shared murals in Poland and a good example of art working with the street rather than just on it.
Arthur Rubinstein, Łódź, Poland
Eduardo Kobra painted the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein, born in Łódź in 1887, in 2014 in his geometric, multicoloured style. The portrait shows Rubinstein smiling with his hands raised.
Topart, Budapest, Hungary
Neopaint Works, a Budapest studio, painted a peaceful landscape with a lake, trees and a hot-air balloon on a tall firewall. Real young trees in front blend into the painted ones.
Dob Suli, Budapest
The firewall of a school in District 7 now shows a mountain lake and a treehouse in a big tree. The mural brightened the view for pupils and neighbours. By Neopaint.
District 7, Budapest
Budapest's District 7 has hundreds of exposed firewalls, left where neighbouring buildings were never built or were demolished. This narrow wall was painted to match the ornate façade beside it. By Neopaint.
Barátságfa, Budapest
"Friendship tree": a low-poly green tree rises on a tall wall, with its roots spreading into a layer of earth below. Neopaint painted it on an old brick firewall.
Huge mural in Budapest
A tower block was wrapped in a design featuring a vintage radio and Hungarian text that appears to recall the radio appeals for help broadcast during the 1956 uprising. By Neopaint.
Wise Grandpa, Kaunas, Lithuania
An old man with round glasses leans out from a large building in Kaunas, with a red patterned body. The design team Gyva Grafika painted it, and it has become one of the city's best-known murals.
Happy Childhood, Kaunas
Gyva Grafika enlarged a drawing by a seven-year-old girl to fill a whole gable. The child-like figures, lollipops and rainbows contrast with the old, plain building.
Lietuva cinema, Vilnius, Lithuania
Lithuanian-born Ernest Zacharevic painted giant hands holding tiny figures on strings on the abandoned Lietuva cinema in 2013, when the building was at the centre of a public fight over redevelopment. The mural turned a neglected landmark into a talking point.
Putin and Trump kiss, Vilnius
In 2016, a mural on the wall of a barbecue restaurant in Vilnius showed Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump kissing, a satirical update of the famous Brezhnev–Honecker kiss on the Berlin Wall. It drew visitors from around the world. The work is generally credited to artist Mindaugas Bonanu.
Mural in Vilnius
Millo painted one of his giant line-drawn figures across a pale apartment building, filling it with tiny houses and details. Black and white, with small red accents, is typical of his work.
The Americas
Palmitas, Pachuca, Mexico
The youth collective Germen Crew painted 209 houses on a hillside in Palmitas, Pachuca, in 2015, creating one rainbow pattern of about 20,000 square metres. The project worked with the Mexican government and involved hundreds of local families. Reports at the time claimed youth violence fell sharply afterwards, but that has not been independently verified.
16th Avenue Tiled Steps, San Francisco, USA
These 163 steps in Golden Gate Heights were covered with a mosaic that flows from sea to sky, designed by Aileen Barr and Colette Crutcher and opened in 2005. Neighbours helped make the panels and sponsored more than 220 tiles. The mosaic uses over 75,000 pieces of glass and tile.
Brick Kidz, Montreal, Canada
French artist Seth painted two children in mid-run who seem to pull the brickwork away to reveal a blue sky behind. The bricks themselves become part of the picture.
Mural in Montreal
A tall red-brick wall became a colourful scene with an elderly woman, a dove and swirling clouds. It was painted by members of Montreal's A'shop crew, a collective behind many of the city's large murals.
Signal box, Toronto, Canada
Toronto artist Emilia Jajus painted this traffic signal box as part of the city's programme that turns utility boxes into small artworks. It shows how even street furniture can carry art.
The Kiss, Chelsea, New York, USA
Eduardo Kobra's 2012 mural near the High Line reworks Alfred Eisenstaedt's 1945 photograph of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day, which marked the end of the Second World War. Kobra's rainbow of geometric colour turned it into one of the most photographed walls in Manhattan. Photos by Elvert Barnes and Mary Lane.
Love Is the Answer, Chelsea, New York
Also near the High Line, Kobra painted Albert Einstein holding a placard reading "Love is the answer". The black wall and black-and-white portrait are a striking change from his usual bright colours.
Swallow-tailed kite, New York City
This mural belongs to the Audubon Mural Project, which paints birds threatened by climate change on walls in upper Manhattan. The swallow-tailed kite, with its deeply forked tail, is one of them.
Owl, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA
Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz builds his creatures from thousands of tiny brush strokes. This owl with a crescent moon replaced a weathered, patched wall.
The Universal Chapel by Okuda, Fort Smith, Arkansas
Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel covered a small white chapel-like building in his geometric rainbow patterns. It was part of The Unexpected, an annual festival that has brought international muralists to Fort Smith since 2015.
Surreal mural, Fort Smith, Arkansas
Ana Marietta painted strange sea creatures with human faces across a long, beige wall for the same festival. Her playful, surreal style contrasts with the plain building.
The Otter, Fort Smith, Arkansas
Belgian artist ROA paints animals in black and white, often curled up or sleeping, on red-brick walls around the world. This one was listed as an otter, though its long snout and worms look more like a mole or shrew.
Mural in Hollywood, Florida, USA
A tall, plain white wall was turned into a giant circular, gear-like design in green and yellow. Artists worked from suspended platforms to paint it. The photo is credited to Douglas Hoekzema.
Mitre's smile, Buenos Aires, Argentina
On a metallurgical factory on Avenida Mitre, the artist Guiviro turned two windows into eyes with red glasses and painted a grin below them. The graffiti-covered wall became a cheerful face for the street.
Etnias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For the 2016 Olympics, Eduardo Kobra painted "Etnias" (Ethnicities) along Rio's renewed port area, with huge faces representing peoples from different continents. At the time it was described as the largest mural in the world.
Beirut and Western Australia
Rainbow steps, Beirut, Lebanon
Dihzahyners, a volunteer group in Beirut, began painting the city's public stairways in 2012. Their aim was to brighten neglected public spaces and encourage people to walk them. This is one of their best-known rainbows.
Piano stairs, Beirut
Each step became a keyboard of colour, with stripes running up the stairway. The group relied on donated paint and volunteers from the neighbourhood.
Ornamental stairs, Beirut
Geometric patterns in rich colours cover a narrow stair between buildings, inspired by traditional tile designs. Dihzahyners again turned a grey shortcut into a destination.
Octopus, Fremantle, Western Australia
Phlegm painted a huge octopus wrapping its tentacles around a low industrial building. His black-and-white line work suits Fremantle's port setting.
How a blank wall becomes a mural
Large murals like these rarely happen overnight. Most start with a building owner or council who wants to deal with a blank wall, a festival that invites artists and arranges permits, or a community group that raises money. The artist then submits a design, which is often discussed with residents, especially for walls that people see every day.
The practical work is substantial. Walls need cleaning, repairs and a primer before painting; artists use cherry pickers or scaffolding; and the design is usually scaled up with a grid or projected at night. Exterior paints and anti-graffiti coatings help a mural last, although most need touching up after a few years.
Murals can change how people feel about a place. Festival organisers and councils often say painted walls attract visitors and get tagged less, and some neighbourhoods have built tourist trails around them. They can also become part of debates about gentrification, as the Berlin example above shows. If you want to see some of these in person, check first: several were painted over, the buildings changed hands, or the walls were demolished in the years after these photos were taken.
Sources: artists and photographers credited under each mural; Bored Panda: Patrick Commecy's façades; Bored Panda: Germen Crew in Palmitas; Bored Panda: Śródka mural, Poznań; Wikipedia: Blu; Wikipedia: Eduardo Kobra; Wikipedia: 16th Avenue Tiled Steps; collection first compiled by Bored Panda.
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No 52 is fake! What is the possibility of the same cars parking and moving, exactly the same. Are you kidding me?!?
ReplyDeleteAlso number 12 and 59 are the same stairs, one in France one in San Fransisco.
If you are really thinking humanity, you need to respect it by not humiliating its intelligence