Banksy

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Robert (Banksy) Banks born 1974^[1] is a well-known yet pseudo-anonymous^[2] English graffiti artist from Yate near Bristol.^[2] His artworks are often satirical pieces of art which encompass topics from politics, culture, and ethics. His street art, which combines graffiti with a distinctive stencilling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.

1 Career
- 1.1 Art stunts
2 Technique
3 Real identity
4 Controversy
5 Reviews and comments
6 Bibliography
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Career

Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in the late 1990s as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), often assisting writers Kato and Tes.^[3] In 1998 he arranged the enormous 'Walls On Fire' graffiti jam on the site of the future '@t Bristol' development.^[4] The weekend long event drew artists from all over the UK and Europe and his organisation of the event established his name within the European graffiti scene, where most other writers considered him to be an attention seeking willy head. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a 'piece'. He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage,^[5] and soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London.^[5]

Anarchist rat by Banksy

Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist, anti-establishment or pro-freedom. Subjects include animals such as monkeys and rats, policemen, soldiers, children and the elderly. He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phonebox), and was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank.

In 2003 in a show called 'Turf War', held in a warehouse, he painted on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest.^[6]

He has moved on to producing subverted paintings; one example is Monet's Water Lily Pond, adapted to include urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters, another is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, redrawn to show that the characters are looking at an English football hooligan dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe. These oil paintings were exhibited at a twelve day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005.^[7]

In 2006, Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles on the weekend of 16 September. The exhibition featured a live 'elephant in a room', painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern.^[8]

After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000,^[9] on 19 October 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times its estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction.^[10]

On 7 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three Banksy works and reached the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction of over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimate prices.^[11]

On 8 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house held another London based auction where a further three Banksy works reached soaring prices. Ballerina With Action Man Parts reached £96,000 whilst Glory sold for £72,000 and Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600 - all three auctions sold way over expected estimates.^[12] To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website front home page with a new image of an auction house scene with people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit."^[13]

In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through an art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural which comes with a house attached.^[14]

A small number of his works can be seen in the movie Children of Men including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing, and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.

Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website.^[15] The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of one Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of WWII helped the internees regain their humanity.

An example of Banksy's artwork on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier.

[edit] Art stunts

Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile stunts. These include the following:

At London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted 'We're bored of fish' in seven foot high letters.
At Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure.
In January 2001, he travelled to the areas controlled by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Chiapas, Mexico, and in sign of solidarity with their movement, painted murals with scenes depicting the struggle and also made stencils on the walls of San Cristóbal de las Casas.^{[citation needed]}
In March 2005, he placed subverted artworks in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.^[16]
He put up a subverted painting in London's Tate Britain gallery.
In May 2005 Banksy's version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife whilst pushing a shopping trolley was found hanging in the British Museum, London. Upon discovery, the museum added it to their permanent collection.^[17]
Banksy has sprayed 'This is not a photo opportunity' on certain photograph spots.
In August 2005, Banksy painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall.^[18]^[19]
In April 2006, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a street in Soho, London. It was later removed by Westminster Council. BT released a press release, which said: "This is a stunning visual comment on BT's transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider."^[20]

Naked Man image by Banksy, in Park Street, Bristol, England. Following popular support, the City Council have decided it will be allowed to remain - (wider view).

Stencil by Banksy on the waterline of The Thekla, an entertainment boat in central Bristol, England - (wider view).

In June 2006, Banksy created an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall in central Bristol. The image sparked some controversy, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go.^[21] After an internet discussion in which 97% (all but 6 people) supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building.^[21]
In August/September 2006, Banksy replaced up to 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut CD, Paris, in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse. Music tracks were given titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". Several copies of the CD were purchased by the public before stores were able to remove them, some going on to be sold for as much as £750 on online auction websites such as eBay. The cover art depicted Paris Hilton digitally altered to appear topless. Other pictures feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption 90% of success is just showing up.^[22]^[23]^[24]
In September 2006, Banksy dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner (orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffs) and then placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.^[25]^[26]

[edit] Technique

Some stencils are created by using a computer to generate an image and by utilizing a photo editing program to break down that image into layers, which are then subsequently printed and cut to be painted as the multiple layers of a stencil. Many stencil graffiti artists, including Banksy, hand draw and hand cut picture layers onto a medium such as cardboard or acetate, and, by using free-hand techniques such as shading, create highly detailed images that are quickly applied. This allows a stencil artist to incorporate far more detail into a small piece of work than a free-hand artist can, often in a piece ten times the size. Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, as well as the photo realistic nature of much of his work, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in his stencils, and whether or not he uses computers.

[edit] Real identity

Banksy's real name has variously been stated to be Robert Banks.^[27] Banksy's year of birth has been given as 1974.^[17]^[28]

Simon Hattenstone from Guardian Unlimited is one of the very few people to have interviewed him face-to-face. Hattenstone describes him as "a cross of Jimmy Nail and British rapper Mike Skinner" and "a 28 year old male who showed up wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a silver tooth, silver chain, and one silver earring".^[29]

The registrant of Banksy's website is Steve Lazarides, a photographer. Lazarides is Banksy's agent. Lazarides now has a gallery on Greek Street in London's Soho called Laz Inc, where Banksy originals can be bought. The website picturesonwalls.com has the exclusive sale rights for all of Banksy's limited edition prints.

A Brian Sewell spoof website claims to show a photograph of Banksy.^[30] Another website also claim to have a picture of Banksy with Damon Albarn.^[31]

Banksy's parents think their son is a painter and decorator.^[32]

[edit] Controversy

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Banksy art in Brick Lane, East End, 2004.

Peter Gibson, a spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism. The political purpose behind his 'vandalism' is reminiscent of the Ad Jammers or subvertising movement, who deface corporate advertising to change the intended message and hijack the advert.

Banksy gets paid for charity work (e.g., Greenpeace) and can demand up to £25,000 for canvases. It has also been alleged that Banksy has done paid work with corporations such as Puma^[33] although this has been denied.^{[citation needed]} This has led to him being accused of being a sellout and a careerist by other artists and activists.

Due to his subversive character, Banksy has achieved somewhat of a cult following from some of the younger age group within the stenciling community and a newfound interest from Hollywood.

In 2004 the Space Hijackers gave out spoof vouchers outside a Banksy exhibition to highlight the artist's arguably hypocritical use of anti-capitalist and protest imagery while doing work for corporations and art galleries.

The Los Angeles Coagula Art Journal commented on the Banksy phenomenon by featuring twenty pages of photos depicting local contemporary artists holding signs that read "Nothing About Banksy in this Issue".

Banksy's technique for never getting caught is due in part to several look-outs surrounding him.^{[original research?]} When Banksy scaled the 425 mile-long security barrier in the Palestinian territories, many of the onlookers were just waiting for him to fall off and as soon as there were signs of soldiers, the "lookouts" took off, leaving Banksy high and dry. Not everyone in the Middle East appreciates his work. One Palestinian remarked that Banksy was making the wall beautiful and when Banksy thanked him the man replied, "We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall, go home."

[edit] Reviews and comments

A stencil of Charles Manson in a prison suit, hitchhiking to anywhere, Archway, London

If you have a statue in the city centre you could go past it every day on your way to school and never even notice it, right. But as soon as someone puts a traffic cone on its head, you've made your own sculpture.

—Banksy, in The Independent

He does all this and he stays anonymous. I think that's great. These days everyone is trying to be famous. But he has anonymity.

—Brad Pitt, in The Independent

Banksy has never let the world know his real name – and he has never even posed for a photograph. Funny kind of celebrity.

—Paul Vallely, The Independent

...he's often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why? Because his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots. And apparently that'll do.

—Charlie Brooker, The Guardian

[edit] Bibliography

Banksy has also self-published several books that contain photos of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own writings.

His first book, published in black-and-white, is Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall followed by the full colour Existencilism.

In 2004 he published his third book, Cut it Out.

Random House published Wall and Piece in 2005. It contained a combination of images from his three previous books, as well as some new material.^[5]

In 2007 he plans to publish Wall's It All About and launch the book from a secret location in Central London.