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The Most Celebrated Creative Fugitive Since Carravagio
"There’s nothing more dangerous than someone who wants to make the world a better place"
- Banksy
In 1992, two young men in Bristol, Shaun Starr and Keith Buck, were killed by a Police officer chasing them for theft of a motorbike. The event provoked three nights of bloody riots, where gangs of angry locals launched bricks at police and torched local shops. One rioter would later recount ‘It was people saying, we are here. We are not forgotten. And we’re pissed off. And you’d better take notice of us’. Somebody took a lot of notice – the very young Banksy, who vowed to immortalise the riots ‘in a great and furious’ work of art. After grafting night and day, the artist felt ready to unveil his masterpiece for what was maybe the most shaping crititical review of his career – from his Mum. To his disappointment, she responded ‘Why can’t you draw something nice? Like flowers?’. Raging, the aspiring genius stormed back to his lair of a bedroom, and from there his artistic evolution continued.
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"Sometimes I get credited with moving graffiti in a new direction - the wrong one"
- Banksy
One night some years later, at the age of 18, Banksy found himself in a reflective mood. The artist had been in the process of painting an awe-inspiring work of brilliance, on the side of a passenger train. Sadly, British transport police interrupted. After making a speedy getaway, through a thorn bush, he lay hiding underneath a dump truck. His mind began to wander, and he concluded he must either speed up his act or give-up altogether. Whilst thinking and looking up at a stencilled plate, on the bottom of a fuel tank, he had his lighting bolt moment. Shortly afterwards, stenciled Banksy works began popping up all over Bristol. From there, as they say, the rest is history. -
Editions
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Originals
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"It was clear the most powerful thing I could do was to carry on painting and keep my mouth shut"
- Banksy
Shortly after the construction of the West Bank Wall, that separates Israel and Palestine, in 2003 Banksy painted ‘Love Is In The Air’ on the side of it. This was one of the earliest and most important international stunts, which through his tongue-in-cheek approach, he began bringing global attention to some of the most important issues of our time through his art.
