UK-based street artist Banksy is a notable half-exception to this rule. His work is currently seen around the planet. There are few in the art world (street or otherwise) who don’t know his signature style. The exception, though, is that no one is sure just who he is. There have been many claims to know his true identity but none have ever been definitive to date.
Who is Banksy? We may not know his real name, but his art is unmistakably the work of a passionate individual. So what do we know about Banksy? His paintings, stencils, and other art pieces frequently address serious social issues. He takes on capitalism, war, poverty, and governments with grace. His work often displays a keen sense of humor, making it equally possible that you will laugh or cast your eyes down thoughtfully upon seeing a Banksy piece.
Banksy is a pseudonymous (fake name) British graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but his identity is unknown. According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s." His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics.
His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world.
His refusal to be interviewed in person or even to reveal his real name has added to his mystique over the years. In the UK (and, increasingly, in other parts of the world) Banksy-spotters claim to know the artist’s real identity on a fairly regular basis. Although he’s been caught on CCTV a few times, he is clever enough to keep his identity a mystery.
There is good reason for leaving us guessing about Banksy. Banksy’s work has been equated with vandalism on several occasions, and many have called for his prosecution. His choice of subject matter coupled with his medium (typically spray paint on pubic walls).
Banksy’s talents aren’t limited to paint and the occasional pencil drawing. He has been responsible for a number of social commentaries involving replacing hundreds of Paris Hilton CDs with CDs of his own creation. He has sneaked his own work into several art museums, including a prehistoric-looking piece at the British Museum which the museum decided to add to their own permanent collection.
Just as controversial as his methods is Banksy’s take on the art world at large. He has been known to deride other artists for their self-importance and “inferior” art forms. He has even taken on the people who buy his art. Following a 2006 Sotheby’s auction of several of his works. He produced an illustration of an auction on his official website featuring the words “I can’t believe you morons actually buy this shit.” He is a vocal opponent of the organized art world, though he now produces some work that is more conventional than his street art roots.
Banksy’s work is applauded by many, but some critics say that it oversimplifies issues to appeal to the masses. Other critics – most notably, representatives from Keep Britain Tidy – believe that Banksy’s street art is a crime and that he is setting a negative example for other would-be graffiti artists.
Through his talent and his dedication to art and his personal statements, Banksy has become perhaps the most famous anonymous artist ever. We still don’t know his true identity or where he will pop up next, but just mentioning his pseudonym brings a look of recognition of the faces of anyone who knows anything about art.
Love him or not, Banksy is without a doubt one of the most influential artists working today. He has affected the art world from Australia to the US and nearly everywhere in between.
What’s more is that many of Banksy’s works are extremely transient. Beautiful as they are, they are usually gone within hours. They are removed and painted over by city workers who adhere to a zero-tolerance policy on graffiti.
It is perhaps this transience, in part, that has led to such an explosion in Banksy admiration. His pieces are difficult to see, nearly impossible to own, and can be enjoyed by most people only as images on a computer screen. Those who are lucky enough to see one of his works in person often take a photograph of it, knowing that if they return to the spot tomorrow it may not be there. In most cases it will have been painted over, but an increasingly common possibility is that it will have been purchased and moved to another location. It’s not hard to imagine a time in the future when elusive photos of Banksy works will be worth nearly as much as his original pieces of art themselves.
A turning point came when Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt purchased several of his works for a total of more than $400,000. After that, owning an original Banksy was no longer reserved for the odd street-art enthusiast or lucky owner of a graffitied London wall. Now, having a Banksy in the house is a downright mainstream ambition.
A man in London sold a Banksy picture that appeared on the wall of his garage for only $2000 and a full-size reproduction of the piece. The purchaser paid about $60,000 having the piece removed, but he still came out ahead as the mural may be worth as much as $600,000.
Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti. Art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.
Chinatown, New York City
This Art work is a Picture of rat with scissors cutting painter’s cradle. Rats are another favorite of Banksy and he uses them as funny devices and to get serious points across. This joke image is found on Canal Street and West Broadway.
Africa
Banksy had their newest street work spotted in Africa. Originally rumors had surfaced that the work was done in Cairo, but it is now rumored to be Mali. Regardless of where it is, Banksy has always been cutting edge on picking locations, creating pieces and really challenging the norm/stan
London
Banksy pulled off an audacious stunt to produce what is believed to be his biggest work yet in central London.
The secretive graffiti artist managed to erect three storeys of scaffolding behind a security fence despite being watched by a CCTV camera. Then, during darkness and hidden behind a sheet of polythene, he painted this comment on 'Big Brother' society.
'One nation under CCTV': CCTV (pictured top right) failed to catch Banksy.
Yesterday the scaffolding gang returned to remove all evidence - again without the camera operator stopping them. The work, above a Post Office yard in Newman Street near Oxford Circus, shows a small boy, watched by a security guard, painting the words: 'One nation under CCTV.'
Andrew Newman, 35, a businessman from Dulwich, who works locally, said: 'It was only on Sunday morning that the Post Offices guys realised what had happened.'
Despite being observed by CCTV cameras, elusive grafitti artist Baksy managed to create his latest - and biggest - work to date under the cover of darkness.
I really enjoy looking at his work, and this is because of his clever ideas. The picture of a rat with scissors cutting painter’s cradle is quite a joke, showing a rat being at a large size doing something unpleasant to the human when usually it's quite the opposite.
The second picture i've put here is Banksy's work in Africa. I like this one because it's imaginative and it's interesting because until today we still ask amongst each other wether Zebras are white with black stripes, or Black with White stripes. But in this picture, it clearly shows that Zebras or this particular zebra is White with Black stripes; that are being hung to dry.
The last picture that i have put up is one of Banksy's biggest works in London. I think this work was very audacious and sneaky. The words he used are somewhat true ("One nation under cctv") and his ideas and words are brilliant to come up with such things.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy
http://weburbanist.com/2008/07/29/banksy-photos-prints-and-tattoos-part-three-in-an-eight-part-banksy-art-series/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-559547/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-pulls-audacious-stunt-date--despite-watched-CCTV.html
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-images-by-street-artist
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-559547/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-pulls-audacious-stunt-date--despite-watched-CCTV.html
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-images-by-street-artist
