Banksy is a pseudonymous United Kingdom-based, graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.
His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stencilling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.
Banksy’s work was made up of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.According to author and graphic designer, Tristan Manco, and the book Home Sweet Home, Banksy “was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier technician, he trained as a butcher, but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s. Observers have noted that his style is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris. Banksy says, however, that he was inspired by “3D”, a graffiti artist who later became a founding member of Massive Attack.
Known for his contempt for the government in labelling graffiti as vandalism, Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls, even going as far as to build physical prop pieces. Banksy does not sell photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, however, art auctioneers have been known to attempt to sell his street art on location and leave the problem of its removal in the hands of the winning bidder.[8] Banksy’s first film,Exit Through the Gift Shop, billed as “the world’s first street art disaster movie,” made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.[9] The film was released in the UK on 5 March 2010.[10] In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film.
Identity
There have been numerous rumours and hypotheses as to Banksy’s identity. Names often suggested include Robert Banks and Robin Gunningham.
In 2004, an alleged photograph of him in Jamaica at the Two-Culture Clash Project surfaced. In October 2007, a story on the BBC website featured a photograph allegedly taken by a passer-by inBethnal Green, London, purporting to show Banksy at work with an assistant, scaffolding and a truck. The story confirms that Tower Hamlets Council in London has decided to treat all Banksy works as vandalism and remove them. Through the pictures, Banksy’s identity was speculated to be Robin Gunningham, a man born in Bristol on 28 July 1973. Gunningham was educated atBristol Cathedral Choir School and Leicester Polytechnic, now De Montfort University, and according to a former friend, was “extremely talented at art.” Gunningham lived with artist Luke Egan. Around 2000, when Banksy moved from Bristol to London, Gunningham is known to have moved from Bristol to a London flat in Hackney, and a number of Banksy’s most famous works appeared nearby. At that time, Gunningham lived with Jamie Eastman, who worked for a record label that used illustrations by Banksy.
In May 2009, the Mail on Sunday once again speculated about Gunningham being Banksy after a “self-portrait” of a rat holding a sign with the face of the man on the 2004 photograph on it was photographed in East London. This “new Banksy rat” story was also picked up by The Times and the Evening Standard.
In response to reports that Banksy was Robin Gunningham, Banksy’s agent refused to either confirm or deny the reports.
Simon Hattenstone from The Guardian is one of the very few people to have interviewed him face to face. Hattenstone describes him as “a cross of Jimmy Nail and British rapper Mike Skinner” and “a 28-year-old male who showed up wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a silver tooth, silver chain, and one silver earring. In the same interview, Banksy claimed that his parents think he is a painter and decorator.