Banksy
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Banksy (born 1975) is a graffiti artist of great popularity from Bristol, UK. His stencils have become popular throughout London and appear around the world, although he carefully manages to keep his real name from the mainstream media (although many newspapers assert that it is Robert Banks).
Banksy.jpg
Banksy is widely considered to be a talented artist; he uses his original street art form to promote alternative aspects of politics from those promoted by the mainstream media. In doing so he helps provide a voice for the urban unheard, in a manner which improves the quality of their surroundings, and to which they can easily relate. This political purpose behind the so-called "Criminal Damage" is reminiscent of the Ad Jammers or subvertising movement, who deface corporate advertising to change the intended message and hijack the advert. Banksy does, however, also do paid work for charities (e.g., Greenpeace) and corporations like PUMA and MTV, as well as demanding up to £25,000 for canvases. This has led to his being accused of being a sellout and a careerist by other artists and activists.
Banksy-art.jpg
In 2004 the Space Hijackers gave out spoof vouchers outside a Banksy exhibition to highlight the artist's ironic use of anti-capitalist and protest imagery while doing work for corporations and art galleries.
Another of Banksy's tricks involved hanging a piece of his own Art in London's Tate Modern, and as of March 2005, the New York Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History. In May 2005 Bansky's version of primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife while pushing a shopping cart was found hanging in the British Museum.
Banksy has also self-published several books that contain photos of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own subversive and often witty writings. His first book, published in black and white, is Banging your head against a brick wall followed by the full color Existencilism. In 2004 he published his third book, Cut it Out.
A common technique in Banksy's art is to play on the perspective and edges of the item on which he is stencilling. Examples include trapdoors (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jemarsh/banksy/banksy-trapdoors.jpg) criminal rats (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jemarsh/banksy/banksy-barcarats.jpg) photo opportunities (http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/Banksy/Banksy_Houses_of_parliament_Photo_opportunity.htm) and peeing soldiers (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jemarsh/banksy/banksy-soldier.jpg).
External links
- Banksy's website (http://banksy.co.uk)
- Gallery of Banksy's work: [1] (http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/Banksy/banksy.htm), [2] (http://search.pbase.com/search?q=banksy&b=Search+Photos&c=sp), [3] (http://www.superfibre.com/banksy/index.htm), [4] (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~jemarsh/banksy/)
- Reuters - Man smuggles own art into MoMA (http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/03/24/art.prank.reut/index.html)
- Banksy Hits New York's Most Famous Museums (All of them) (http://www.woostercollective.com/2005/03/wooster-exclusive-banksy-hits-new.html)es:Banksy