Exactly how much Banksy benefited from this appreciation of value is unknown, as is almost everything else about her. But the semi-underground figure is not profiting from, and in fact virtually unrecognized, “The Art of Banksy,” an international touring exhibition currently installed in the former Bed, Bath and Beyond space in downtown DC’s Gallery Place complex. According to show organizers, all of the more than 100 pieces on display were purchased from the artist by private collectors and nothing was taken from the street.
Includes one or more variations on recurring Banksy motifs such as the Grim Reaper with a smiley face instead of a skull, a bomb thrower holding a bouquet of flowers instead of a fireworks and a girl holding a heart -shaped balloon. A version of that last photo sold at auction for $ 1.4 million in 2018 – and became even more valuable on the spot because it was immediately cut by a shredder hidden in the picture frame. On resale, it sold for more than $ 25 million last year.
“The Art of Banksy” isn’t authorized, but it’s not a cheap knockoff. It is artistically staged, well documented and comprehensive, and is likely to amuse and surprise viewers, even those who follow the secret artist’s career. But the show contradicts what we know about Banksy’s anti-authority, anti-capitalist value, if only by charging $ 35 and up for admission.
Although the artwork in the exhibit lacks the context and simplicity of the originals, that is due to Banksy herself in the show. The artist has produced many versions of his most famous photographs and sold them as silk-screened prints, posters, postcards and T-shirts. Often, it was done for one purpose: “The Art of Banksy” included a 2002 poster made for Greenpeace and a 2011 poster and T-shirt sold to support protesters arrested in Bristol, the south -western city of Britain commonly considered the town of the artist.
Banksy was probably born in the early 1970s and emerged as a graffiti artist in the 1990s, at the same time that Bristol trip-hop musicians as Massive Attack became prominent. (Some have suggested that Robert “3D” Del Naja of Massive Attack was actually Banksy, although stronger evidence points to someone else.) The artist designed album covers and other material for the musician, and “The Art of Banksy” features the crowd’s soundtrack. British (but some American) indie pop and rock.
Typically, a Banksy artwork is a streamlined montage, often made using stencils, that ironically contrasts a traditional image with several aspects of typical consumer culture: Aboriginal hunters stalk a multitude of shopping carts; Jesus on the cross holding shopping bags; and Bible mourners lament a sign that reads, “Sale Ends Today.” Banksy often touches on British everyday life, with references to the Tesco supermarket chain and satires of Parliament and the royal family. One of the more detailed stunts described in this show was the widespread distribution in 2004 of fake 10-pound notes in which Queen Elizabeth’s face was replaced with that of Princess Diana’s. (The counterfeit money was issued by, of course, “the Banksy of England.”)
Inevitably, American pop culture also features in Banksy’s work. Surprisingly for someone who is probably not old enough to remember the fall of Saigon, the Vietnam War is a recurring theme. The artist often depicts U.S. military helicopters-one of which is equipped with a pink bow-and remakes a photo of Nick Ut who won the Pulitzer Prize of Vietnamese napalm victim Phan Thi Kim Phuc to the woman is on the side of Mickey Mouse and Ronald McDonald.
Banksy also pays tribute to the American who first brought silk-screened images to art museums, Andy Warhol, with copies of soup cans (at Tesco, not Campbell) and a photo of the model Kate Moss in the style of one of Warhol’s Marilyn Monroes.
Warhol, of course, embraced and exalted the celebrity. Banksy isn’t, either because of her beginnings as a graffiti tagger or because she still engages in stunts of questionable legality. But, as “The Art of Banksy” shows, fame is starving. The actor may hide his name, but almost everything else about him is beyond his control.
Gallery Area, 709 Seventh St. NW. banksyexhibit.com/washington.
