Banksy is a well-known English graffiti artist, possibly named Robert Banks. 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 stenciling technique, has appeared in London and in cities around the world.
Banksy's art is frequently political, often funny and always outré. He has fashioned a replica of Stonehenge out of portable toilets, spray-painted animals and released an inflatable Guantanamo Bay prisoner doll at Disneyland. He has portrayed Queen Elizabeth II as a chimpanzee, rebranded Warhol's iconic Campbell Soup can with a Tesco Value logo, and scrawled "Mind the Crap" on the steps of the Tate Britain museum. Banksy may be reclusive, but he's not without a sense of humor.
His art is often pegged as anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. But he seems gleefully eager to subvert even the most pervasive presumptions about him. For example, while he is generally described as antiwar, at a 2003 peace demonstration in London he reportedly distributed signs reading: "I Don't Believe in Anything. I'm Just Here For The Violence." Banksy specializes in a strange brand of self-promotion: he'll sell six-figure creations and then sermonize on the evils of consumerism. Such behavior doesn't seem to deter buyers. In April, the auction house Bonham's sold his Space and Bird, a spray-painting on steel, for almost $600,000, and recently a set of 10 of his works went for more than $1 million.
The Lazarides Gallery, Banksy's primary distributor, says that Banksy's work shows that "his generation are not the apathetic and unfeeling demographic they are made out to be." Others denounce him as a criminal. Abdal Ullah, a councillor in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where Banksy's recent mural was painted, has said: "Graffiti is a crime. It spoils the environment, makes our neighborhoods feel less safe, and costs thousands of pounds each year to clean." Banksy has, like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring did in New York decades ago, succeeded in elevating street art from a subculture to a mainstream interest.
