Banksy

(INTRO)
Banksy, the only name he is known by publically, is a pseudonymous England based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, painter, and pure genius in my eyes. Through annonymous pictures, Banksy's identity was speculated to be Robin Gunningham, a man born in Bristol on 28 July 1973. Gunningham was educated at Bristol Cathedral School, and, according to a former friend, was "extremely talented at art." Gunningham lived with artist Luke Egan. Around 2000, when Banksy moved from Bristol to London, Gunningham is known to have moved from Bristol to a London flat in Hackney, and a number of Banksy's most famous works appeared nearby. At that time, Gunningham lived with Jamie Eastman, who worked for a record label that used illustrations by Banksy.

According to author and graphic designer Tristan Manco, Banksy was born in Bristol, England in 1974. As the son of a photocopier technician, Banksy trained as a butcher but became heavily involved in the graffiti during the Bristol aerosal art booming of the late 1980's. Banksy began as a freehand graffiti artist around 1990–1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with Kato and Tes. His art origonated in the underground Bristol art scene, which involved collaborations with artists, musicians and even film makers.

(THE ART) From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a piece.

Known for his contempt for the government labelling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on public surfaces such as walls, mailboxes, the road, even going as far as creating physical prop pieces,

He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a rubbish lorry, when he noticed the stencilled serial numberand by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London, and ultimately his satirical street art combined a dark humor with graffiti done in a distinctive stencil form(graffiti painted through cut out shapes). Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects often include rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly.

Observers of Banky's art have noted that his style is very much similar to "Blek Le Rat"(refered to as the "Father of Stencil Art"), who is also a stencil artist origonated in 1981 in Paris, France. However Banksy himself stated on his website that in all actuality he based his work on that of 3D from Massive Attack, stating "No, I copied 3D from Massive Attack. He can actually draw." On 19 June 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles exhibition debuted at 33 1/3 Gallery, a tiny Silver Lake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The exhibition, entitled Existencilism, was curated by 33 1/3 Gallery, Malathion LA's Chris Vargas, Funk Lazy Promotions' Grace Jehan, and B+. In 2003, at an exhibition called Turf War, held in a warehouse, Banksy went as far as to paint on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights protester chained herself to one of the railings at the protest. Following this exhibition, Banksy, along with Sheppard Farey, Dmote, and many others created work at a warehouse exhibition in Alexandria, Sydney for Semi-Permanent in 2003. Approximately 1,500 people attended.


(CONTRIBUTIONS) Banksy does not sell graffiti photography directly himself, however art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal to the highest bidder. After Christina Aguilara bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000, on 19 October 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sothebys, 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 their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction. In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy effect," to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success. On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: 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 estimated prices.

(Critique) If I had to choose on piece of art created by Banksy to critique, it would have to be the photo you see here on the right. I believe this photo defines banksy's message, artform, and geniousity. I believe this street painting was created to reflect the harsh reality of our crumbling past and traditions. In conclusion, Banksy is depicting that our new day and age is too focused on the future and technologies to really see the foundation of our country, and traditions of our people.