Banksy

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Image:Banksy-rat.jpg Banksy (born 1974) is a graffiti artist from Bristol, UK, whose artwork has appeared throughout London and other locations around the world. Despite this he carefully manages to keep his real name from the mainstream media.

Banksy, despite not calling himself an artist, has been considered by some as talented in that respect; he uses his original street art form, often in combination with a distinctive stencilling technique, to promote alternative aspects of politics to those promoted by the mainstream media.

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Early work information

Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist. He took up stencil graffiti after an incident while painting trains with a group of other graffiti artists. He was slower than the others, and they left him behind. The authorities came and he had to hide under one of the trains for several hours. He recalls that while hiding beneath a train, he spent a long while staring at a stencilled part number on the mechanism of the train's underside. At this moment, says Banksy, he received the inspiration for his stencilling technique.

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Controversy

Some of Banksy's fans believe that his stencilled graffiti provides a voice for those living in urban environments that could not otherwise express themselves, and that his work is also something which improves the aesthetic quality of urban surroundings; many others disagree, asserting that his work is simple vandalism (a claim made by at least Peter Gibson, spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy), or that his (apparently left wing) beliefs are not shared by the majority of the inhabitants of the environments that he graffitis. This political purpose behind his 'vandalism' is reminiscent of the Ad Jammers or subvertising movement, who deface corporate advertising to change the intended message and hijack the advert.

Some graffiti artists purport that real skill and practice is only necessary to be able to create free-hand art with a spray can. However, the detail and mastery that Banksy applies to his hand-cut stencils, which can often cover entire building faces, seems to eclipse this assertion.

Banksy does, however, also do paid work for charities (e.g., Greenpeace) as well as demanding up to £25,000 for canvases. It has also been alleged and denied Template:Fact that Banksy has done work with corporations such as Puma Template:Ref. This has led to him being accused of being a sellout and a careerist by other artists and activists.

Due to the shroud of secrecy surrounding his real identity and his subversive character; Banksy has achieved somewhat of a cult following from some of the younger age group within the stencilling community.

Image: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 Britain, 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 Banksy's version of primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife while pushing a shopping trolley was found hanging in the British Museum.

On 4 August, 2005, the BBC reported that Banksy had painted 9 images Template:Ref on the Palestinian side of the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall Template:Ref.

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Bibliography

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 colour Existencilism. In 2004 he published his third book, Cut it Out, and 2005 saw the publication by Random House of Wall and Piece Template:Ref

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Technique

Some stencils are created by using a computer to generate an image, and by utilizing a photo editing program to break down that image into layers, which are then subsequently printed and cut to be painted as the multiple layers of a stencil. However, some stencil graffiti artists disapprove of this method. Many stencil graffiti artists, along with BanksyTemplate:Fact, hand draw and hand cut picture layers onto a medium such as cardboard or acetate, and, by using free-hand techniques such as shading, create highly detailed "artwork" that is quickly applied. This allows a stencil artist to incorporate far more meaning into a small piece of work than a free-hand artist can often give to a piece ten times the size Template:Commons

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Real identity

The registrant of Banksy's website [1] reveals is one Stephen Lazarides, a photographer, and it has been suggested that Lazarides is Banksy. However, Lazarides apparently claims to be Banksy's manager, and is creditted with much of the photography in Banksy's most recent publication, 'Banging your Head Against a Brick Wall'. Lazarides now has a gallery on Greek St called Laz Inc, where Banksy originals can be bought, and also manages a website, picturesonwalls.com, which has the exclusive sale rights for all of Banksy's cheaper limited edition prints.

Whilst creating artwork for Wall of Sounds's "Two Culture Clash" in Jamaica, a number of photographs were taken of Banksy by the event's official photographer, Peter Dean Rickards. After the pair had a number of disagreements, Rickards later sold the supposed photos of Banksy to the London Evening Standard. Rickards then published an article with photographs supposedly of Banksy Template:Ref. There were arguments for and against the veracity of the photographs, but they have since been proven to be of Banksy.

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References

  1. Template:Note Banksy, Pictures On Walls & Puma snuggling up?
  2. Template:Note banksy.co.uk - Vandalised oil painting #031. 2005
  3. Template:Note BBC - Art prankster sprays Israeli wall
  4. Template:Note Random House - Banksy - Wall and Piece
  5. Template:Note Art of the State - Banksy
  6. Template:Note Afflicted Yard -Just who the fuck is Banksy?
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External links

{{Persondata |NAME=Banksy |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= |SHORT DESCRIPTION=graffiti artist |DATE OF BIRTH=1974 |PLACE OF BIRTH=Bristol, United Kingdom |DATE OF DEATH= |PLACE OF DEATH= }}de:Banksy es:Banksy pt:Banksy

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