PAIRED ISSUE STUDY: Matthew Bergs, Chuck Doyle

THE STREET ART OF BANKSY

AN ISSUE STUDY BY MATT BERGS AND CHUCK DOYLE

AUTUMN 2023: CRITICAL ISSUES IN CONTEMPORARY ART

I remember hearing about Banksy’s graffiti around 2000. Banksy has had quite a career, to say it has been eclectic is an understatement. He has gone from hiding from police who had discovered him and a couple of his friends painting street art, illegal in the UK, to being nominated in 2010 for Time Magazine’s list of the world’s top 100 most influential people. Yet he remains anonymous. How did he come to be?

HOW DID HE START?

His first known activity was in Bristol, which during the 1980’s was less than a desirable part of town. In an interview Banksy said his dad was badly bloodied there. His first street art was signed as Robin Banx, which through time became Banksy. When he began his career, he was painting the walls instead of stenciling the street art. Painting was very labor intensive, required other people to assist, and took quite a bit of time. Having a very noticeable presence in a place for an extended time without the requisite permits of course sometimes drew unwanted attention. At one point, when the police discovered him and several of his friends in the unlawful activity of painting street art on the side of a building, they gave chase. His mates managed to get to their transportation and flee. Banksy was separated and sought a place to evade capture, spending time hiding under a dumper truck. He noticed the stencil on the underside of the truck’s gas tank and started thinking that his street art could be done in that fashion. He experimented and in time brought stencils with him to paint his works to make the process go more quickly and help with his issue with the police.

His earliest well-known work was ‘The Mild, Mild West’ that appeared in 1997 painted over an advertisement of the former Solicitor General in Stokes Croft in Bristol. His early works included people, apes & rats in the images. After working in the suburbs, he headed into London. He became more reclusive about his identity because of his issues with the police and he just did not want the notoriety (Ellsworth-Jones, 2013). Anonymity gave him an aura that he liked, making him impossible to find. His first exhibition was in Rivington Street in a tunnel in 2001. All impromptu, he and several other street art painters borrowed signs that indicated they were ‘decorating’ in the tunnel and established the show. The exhibit was well attended and profitable, costing almost nothing. His next exhibit was called Turf War. Done in July of 2003 and set up in an old warehouse, it was equally successful.

CUT AND RUN: 25 YEARS CARD LABOUR

In a solo exhibition held in 2023 at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, Banksy displayed several sketches and stencils used to create the infamous murals, giving the public a glimpse of the materials and processes behind his cavalier practice. This exhibition, titled CUT & RUN: 25 years card labour, was the first legitimately official Banksy exhibition held in 14 years and, much like his work, was arranged and put out with little notice. Per Banksy, "I've kept these stencils hidden away for years, mindful they could be used as evidence in a charge of criminal damage… But that moment seems to have passed, so now I'm exhibiting them in a gallery as works of art. I'm not sure which is the greater crime" (Paterson, 2023).

Stencil for Kissing Coppers, from CUT & RUN: 25 years card labour. Source: BBC

Banksy also used the stencils in the exhibition to create more versions of his iconic works, and also displayed a detailed model of a mechanism he devised to shred a small work, Girl with Balloon, immediately after it was auctioned off by Sotheby’s in 2018 for $1M. As soon as the piece sold, an alarm went off, and the painting began to feed through a paper shredder discreetly installed at the bottom of the frame the work was housed in. A malfunction of the shredder caused the work to only be sliced halfway, but the damage had been done. Banksy then declared the work was now changed, and named the newly transformed work Love is in the Bin. This piece later sold for 20 times the price it was bought for when it was shredded.

Banksy’s playful and cheeky approach to displaying his art extended to his choice in holding this solo exhibition at Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, attributing it to the location of what he described as his favorite work of UK art. What is the piece in question? Well, it is a statue of the first Duke of Wellington, on horseback, installed in front of the gallery since 1844. Why is it his favorite? It has nothing to do with the Duke, and everything to do with a traffic cone. For the past 40 years, members of the public have placed a traffic cone atop the head of the Duke of Wellington, adorning him with a marvelous dunce cap. Despite the best efforts of law enforcement and the council removing the cone, another one always finds its way back upon the Duke’s head. The prank has become well known, and is listed among the world’s top bizarre monuments. A humorous defacement of public property? It would make sense why this work is a favorite of Banksy’s.

The Duke of Wellington, in his finest, outside Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art. Source: BBC

THREE BANKSYS OF NOTE

I have traveled extensively in Europe and have never pursued seeing one of Banksy’s works. I will be in Paris in October of 2024 and will correct that oversight.

Following are 3 examples of Banksy’s street art with some extra context added to the original information published in Artland Magazine:

Well-Hung Lover

Banksy, Well-Hung Lover, 2006.

Banksy, Well-Hung Lover, Park Street, Bristol, UK. Source: Artland Magazine

Per Artland Magazine: “On Park Street, you’ll see Well-Hung Lover (2006). It is especially imbued with meaning because Banksy spray-painted it on the side of a sexual health clinic.” (Stace).

In 2006 along the wall of a sexual health clinic appeared a scaffolding. When the City Council could not justify why the scaffolding was there, after 3 days it was taken down to reveal Banksy’s Well-Hung Lover. The City Council had a long-standing ruling that street art was not allowed and set into motion getting this eyesore painted over. However, locals were vocal about their support saying it brightened the area by the clinic. It was put to a vote and by a 97% majority it was decided the street art would stay (Atlas Obscura, 2018).

Even with the City Council’s support the street art was not protected from vandalism. In June 2009 it was hit by blue paint balls. It was cleaned everywhere except where the blue paint was on the paint of the mural. It was left amid concerns of causing further damage. In 2019 it was again vandalized when someone wrote rude graffiti on it.

Shop Until You Drop

Banksy, Shop Until You Drop

Banksy, Shop Until You Drop, Bruton Street, London. Credit: QuentinUK CC-BY-SA-3.0

Source: Artland Magazine

Per Artland Magazine: “Appearing in 2011, this spray-painted stencil of a woman and a shopping trolley falling is located in one of London’s most high-profile shopping areas in Mayfair. Typical of Banksy’s style, it provokes discussion about capitalism and consumerism.” (Stace).

The painting was auctioned in support of AIDS charities. It was painted on the side of an office building on Bruton Lane in London. Scaffolding was again used to conceal the production of this piece by what looked like construction workers. Tarpaulins were draped over the scaffolding to better conceal the activity. Once the scaffolding and tarpaulin were removed it was revealed that Banksy had struck again (Brandon, 2019). This, like many other pieces of Banksy’s street art, has been heavily damaged through time.

Yellow Lines Flower Painter

Banksy, Yellow Lines Flower Painter, 2007.

Banksy, Yellow Lines Flower Painter, 2007, Pollard Street, London, UK. Credit: Paolo Redwings CC-BY-2.0 Source: Artland Magazine

Per Artland Magazine: “Situated on Pollard Street, this graffiti shows a painter resting after painting double yellow lines that turn into a large yellow flower. Although largely damaged, this painting still remains visible.” (Stace).

Painted on the side of a working man’s club, it is in Bethnal Green, and is one of Banksy’s most famous pieces. Not long after it was created the double yellow lines going into the street were removed because they were painted on private property. The painter in the image has been heavily damaged through time, but the flower remains.

BANKSY’S ART OVER TIME

As evident in his treatment of Girl with B– Er, I mean, Love is in the Bin, as well as the three UK-based graffiti discussed above, Banksy is no stranger to the eventual destruction of his artwork. Banksy has advocated for vandalism as an artistic practice, redefining the views the public has about graffiti as a part of a shared environment. He encourages artists to “Trash it…Have Fun!”, as he sees that wanton reactive artmaking as an efficient and quick means of getting the point across. This is an ethos Banksy has held since the start, comparing his process to that of The repercussions of this are displayed well in the recent destruction of what has become known as the Brexit Mural in Dover, UK. The mural depicts the European Union flag - 12 gold stars arranged in a circle on a blue field - being damaged by a lone figure on a ladder, cracking one of the stars as if to remove it. The work, made in 2017, was whitewashed in 2019, around the time that the UK left the European Union. Banksy’s retort to that response, shared via Instagram, displayed his initial plans to redo the mural, in which the flag had shattered and laid on the ground in fragments, but noted that “a big white flag says it just as well” (Binswanger, 2023).

Banksy’s Brexit Mural, pre-destruction, with seagull. Source: Smithsonian Magazine.

The mural was soon restored, thanks to public opinion, but as of December 2023, the mural found itself demolished at the hands of the Dover District Council, planning to renovate the space to build a center for education and business ventures. The council also put out a statement noting that the building the Brexit Mural was painted upon was severely dilapidated, and that choosing to maintain the building would cost the taxpayers of Dover £4 million, with no guarantee of collapse prevention (Binswanger, 2023). The council did arrange for the mural to be scanned so that it could be reproduced in other ways, but other groups are looking into whether the mural, in its now literally fragmented state, can be recovered and reassembled elsewhere. In a strange twist, it seems that Banksy’s playful modification he suggested in 2019 has actually come to pass, though once again the change was not done by his hands.

Banksy’s Brexit Mural update plan, 2019, and an apt rendering of its current state. Source: Instagram

BANKSY’S ACTIVISM IN CURRENT EVENTS

Banksy has painted street art in many locations around the world, including the United States, Paris, Bethlehem, and Ukraine. No matter where he paints, his work often embodies support of the underdog, delivering his message in imagery laced with metaphor that is both profound and sardonically witty. He displays a most imposing discourse on politics of the day. His best-known work, ‘Girl With Balloon’, shows a girl losing a balloon displayed as a red heart to show loss of innocence. He is a master of satire – painting many works of street art including one entitled ‘Well Hung Lover’ on the side of a sexual health clinic. One of my favorites is one depicting two male Bobbies kissing each other, entitled ‘Two Coppers Kissing’, painted on the wall of The Prince Albert Pub in 2004, in a predominantly LGBTQ area. He has succeeded at being an outsider, even though his street art is well received and becoming more and more pricey. At one time he managed to walk into the Louvre and install a bogus Mona Lisa with a smiley face sticker without getting arrested (Ellsworth-Jones, 2013). In New York he put an image of a woman wearing a gas mask on the wall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Museum reacted well to the inclusion, not pressing charges with the authorities.

In 2002, Israel began construction of a massive concrete wall in Bethlehem. Though Israel claimed that the purpose of the wall was to protect from potential invaders, critics of the construction noted that the wall was essentially a figural annexation of the Palestinian territories, and was in flagrant violation of international law. In 2005, nine stenciled graffiti works appeared along the wall face, depicting scenes such as a ladder reaching over the wall, a young girl being carried over it by balloons and a window showing a scenic mountainous view (Al Jazeera, 2017). In 2007, more artworks appeared in Palestine, with depictions such as a girl frisking soldiers, and a rat with a slingshot. Allegedly, Banksy even snuck into the Gaza strip via smuggling tunnels in 2015, and three more Banksy murals appeared on the wreckage of homes destroyed by Israeli airstrikes. However, it was what Banksy did next that took his activism of the wall in the West Bank even further.

The Walled Off Hotel, in Bethlehem, Israel. Source: CNN

In March of 2017, Banksy opened up the Walled Off Hotel in Bethlehem. Located a mere four meters from the separation wall he had adorned with graffiti in years past, the hotel is very much functional, with all of its nine rooms’ windows facing the eight meter concrete wall. In a statement, Banksy touted this new establishment as having “the worst view of any hotel in the world”, and “offers a warm welcome to people from all sides of the conflict and across the world” (Al Jazeera, 2017). A chimpanzee bellhop statuette greets the viewer at the entrance, underneath a light display of the hotel’s title. The rooms are adorned with Banksy originals, such as a pillow fight between an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian protester. The museum also contains a gallery selling Palestinian artwork, and a museum that discusses the context of the region’s history, notably the West’s influence and impact on the Israeli-Palestine conflict.

The Walled Off Hotel’s Pillow Fight. Source: CNN

Reception to Banksy’s work in the region has been mixed. Banksy’s artwork has, on one hand, revitalized the Palestinian community by drawing in tourism to the area (with some saying that they were getting more “Banksy tourists than Jesus tourists”). This had provided an economic boon to the region, which had suffered losses in tourism since the construction of the wall in the early 2000s. The artwork, clear in its support of the oppressed Palestine population, has inspired the people living there, as well as those who support them. A group of celebrity activists created the documentary “Walled Off'' about the human stories of Palestinians, the title drawing inspiration from the eponymous hotel (Saifi, 2023). However, some critics of Banksy’s activism have argued that the artist’s work trivializes the Israeli-Palestine conflict by depicting it as a naive and simple clash of ideals, as is the case with the pillow fight artwork in the hotel. Per Abdelfattah Abusrour, general director of Alrowwad Cultural and Arts Society, “...the fight was never between people as individuals, but against a system … as long as there is occupation and injustice such ‘declarations’ are irrelevant and non-respectful to the suffering of the oppressed” (McDonald, 2020). Criticism is also aimed at the hotel itself, citing its exploitation of the Palestinian cause due to it never donating any of its proceeds to the populace. Of course, it must be noted that the conflict in the region has risen to an alarmingly horrific degree. His art might have been controversial, but it is clear to which side Banksy’s support was given–as always, the underdog that needs it.

In 2023 Banksy traveled to Ukraine and painted 7 known murals on war-torn buildings. Thieves stole one of them and attempted to steal another but were intercepted by the police after a local man raised the alarm. There is an effort underway to figure out how to protect Banksy’s remaining street art in Ukraine. Recently the Ukraine Postal Service created a Postage Stamp of one of Banksy’s street arts. It depicts a small boy using martial arts to body slam a much larger foe with the words: FCK PTN in Ukraine’s language (Michael, 2023). It is thought to be commentary on comparatively tiny Ukraine establishing itself as a formidable adversary to a much larger Russia in the conflict still raging there in 2023.

Screenshot of Banksy’s Instagram post featuring the new postal stamp. Source: Hyperallergic

I think Banksy is brilliant with his presence in Ukraine through street art. Clearly, he is free to express himself without favor to any country, group, or person. His international fame is drawing attention to his opinion of what is happening there. I saw an image on a building that had obviously been bombed with the outer wall missing, displaying a street art of an old man in a bathtub taking a bath (Harding, 2023).

People in Horenka queue for food beside a Banksy graffito on the wall of a destroyed building.

People in Horenka queue for food beside a Banksy graffito on the wall of a destroyed building. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images (Harding, 2023). Source: The Guardian

It shows, I think, Banksy’s opinion that the war is against ordinary people doing ordinary things under extraordinary circumstances. In my opinion it increases Russia’s embarrassing position after attacking tiny Ukraine and being repeatedly thoroughly trounced in battle. Russia is large, and has a far superior arsenal at their disposal. It was initially thought they would just walk through the Ukraine and defeat them. I talked with a tour guide in Romania in early 2023 who told us when Russian soldiers started gathering on the Ukraine border, she and her friends packed their bags and were ready to flee because of their fear that Russia would do exactly as expected, just walk through Ukraine and then re-occupy bordering Romania. The war has proven to be much more difficult for Russia than was anticipated.

WHO IS BANKSY?

No one in the public sphere knows Banksy’s true identity, as he has kept his name and visage away from the media for decades. Given that graffiti is generally an illegal practice, this aversion to publicity operates as a survival tactic as well as a means of creating intrigue and curiosity around his work. And it certainly has done that, as although maintaining his anonymity was solely to avoid detection from the police, Banksy has admitted that hiding his identity from the public eye “quite quickly… became the best promotional tool anyone could ever invent" (Doane, 2023). Investigations time and time from journalists and reporters have sought to reveal his name, but those who know him and work closely with him have successfully spurned inquiries, or have cast doubt on guesses. One popular person of interest is Robin Gunningham, a Bristol native that has often been linked to Banksy’s activities. Robin, Robert and Robbie have been considered as possible candidates for the artist’s name, a theory bolstered by the recent audio unearthed from the cutting room floor of a BBC interview dating back to 2003, in which the artist responds to being referred to as Robert Banks by clarifying “It’s Robbie” (Nanji, 2023).

Whatever his name may be, Banksy seems to also be plagued by legal disputes that threaten his secrecy. One of the most recent, speculated to be the public reveal of his name before the BBC interview snippet came out, was between Banksy’s art management company, Pest Control, Inc., and Andrew Gallagher and his company, Full Color Black (abbr. to FCB), which sells greeting cards featuring Banksy’s artwork. Despite their past collaborations, Gallagher’s company is suing Banksy for defamation, following a now-deleted Instagram post claiming that the clothing brand Guess had used his artwork in a display, despite it being part of a collaboration with a part of FCB’s trade. Banksy has faced copyright litigation in the past, with the artist often winning cases concerning trademarks of his work (Nowakowski, 2023). Banksy, as an active rebel artist, sums up his feelings of copyright in describing it as something “for losers”, and advocates for the non-commercial use of his artwork. Umbrage seems to be taken when his work is used for profit, as this seems to be what sparked the posting of the Instagram post at the heart of this lawsuit, which advocated for theft of the Guess clothing brand. As his lawyer, Mark Stephens, stipulated once in 2019, “He’s quite happy for his work to be used for activism and personal enjoyment. But big corporate groups interested in making a profit pervert the art and take away from its real meanings” (Cascone, 2019).

Who is Bansky, really? Is he Robert, er, Robbie Banks? Robin Gunningham? Robert Del Naja? A collection of artists causing a movement? Or, in some far-flung theories, is he Tom Brady or Donald Trump? A few know for sure. The rest of us do not know at all. But even if we never find out his name, or his likeness, we do at least have one way of discovering him: simply through his street art. We can definitely identify his interest in political discourse, his wry humor, and his support of the underdog. If anything, after learning of his history, his current work, and his philosophy, I feel like I’ve gotten to know a part of him in some way. At the very least, I agree with his take on the statue of the Duke of Wellington in Glasgow: he looks great in a traffic cone.

Banksy is still actively painting on the sides of buildings.

Bibliography

1. Ellsworth-Jones, Will. “The Story Behind Banksy.” Smithsonian Magazine, January

31, 2013.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-behind-banksy-4310304/

2. Paterson, Colin. “Banksy to stage first solo exhibition in 14 years in Glasgow.” BBC,

June 15, 2023.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-65908647

3. Stace, Charlotte. “Banksy Street Art: The Artist’s Best Graffiti - Essential City Guide.”

Artland Magazine, Retrieved November 19, 2023.

https://magazine.artland.com/banksy-street-art-best-graffiti-essential-city-guide/

4. “Banksy's 'well hung lover'.” Atlas Obscura, April 6, 2018.