THE ART OF BANKSY

June 26, 2024

THE ART OF BANKSY, CHARING CROSS ROAD

It may seem a tad moronic (or should that be oxymoronic) to pay £19.50 to see indoor street art. But this is rather well done. As well as lots of thought-provoking and witty exhibits there's also interesting and well-presented backstories. And my ticket from travelzoo.com was only £9. And it's across the street from Wetherspoons' Montagu Pyke.

"A regular 400ml can of paint will give you up to 50 A4 sized stencils. This means you can become incredibly famous/unpopular in a small town virtually overnight for approximately ten pounds." Banksy

Devolved Parliament (2009) Laugh Now (2003)

"You paint 100 chimpanzees and they still call you a guerrilla artist.” Banksy

Di-Faced Tenner (2004) Pulp Fiction (2002)

Banksy printed £1 million worth of his Di-Faced Tenner notes. Under Banksy of England on each note is the inscription 'I promise to pay the bearer on demand the ultimate price'. Suitcases of the counterfeit notes were dropped into the crowds at the Notting Hill Carnival and Reading Festival where some revellers used them as real currency. You can still buy them on ebay for around £15. As the Bank of England has copyright on all its notes, these are illegal and, in theory, could be seized.

I remember regularly driving past the iconic Pulp Fiction near Old Street in the days before Banksy was famous. It was eventually painted over by Transport for London, claiming it created "a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime".

Shortly afterwards, Banksy returned .....

..... several layers of paint later the same spot looks like this. But for how long?

Morons (2006)

Morons was posted by Banksy on his website following a Sotheby's auction where the prices for his artworks first took off.

Girl With Balloon (2004) Game Changer (2020)

Certainly Banksy's most famous stunt was in 2018 when his Girl With Balloon self-shredded seconds after the hammer went down on it at Sotheby's. The buyer, who had bid £1 million, opted to keep it. Three years later, renamed Love in the Bin, it sold for over £18 million.

PS The picture was designed to shred completely but the mechanism stalled, probably increasing the value.

During the covid pandemic, Banksy donated Game Changer to Southampton General Hospital. The one metre square artwork was later auctioned for £14.5 million to raise money for the NHS.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, seven Banksy murals appeared on bomb-damaged buildings. One of these, in Borodianka, shows a boy throwing Vladimir Putin to the ground in a judo bout. When it was realised who the artist was a plastic cover and motion sensors were quickly added (before the next missile attack?). On the first anniversary of the war starting, the image appeared on Ukraine postage stamps with Fck Ptn in Cyrillic text.

Visit Historic Palestine, below, has the legend: The Israeli army liked it so much they never left! It was created before the current conflict. The familiar Flower Thrower appeared on a garage wall in Bethlehem in 2003.

Visit Historic Palestine (2019) Flower Thrower (aka Love Is In The Air) (2003)

When Banksy first started selling prints, at £50 each, he intentionally standardised their dimensions to fit Ikea frames. At the time, framing a picture professionally cost around £50. Many of those early prints, still in their £15 Ikea frames, are now worth over £80,000.