Banksy

Banksy is always viewed through the lens of the whodunnit, as a disruptive street artist who alternates between being hailed a national treasure and urban folk hero; an imposter who has reneged on his graffiti roots. Despite his legendary status, there are many purists who think he has forsaken his street-cred for credit in the bank. But above all, we all remain obsessed by his anonymity, his high-profile invisibility, his status as the worlds most famous unknown artist. This illustrated book takes a new approach to Banksys work: it looks closely at his creative output as an artist, political commentator, and cultural phenomenon. Taking a thematic approach to Banksys extensive practice as a stenciller, painter, curator and filmmaker, each section explores the craft, context and cultural forebears of his work, setting it within the dominant social and political debates that have determined the artists visual agenda. The book examines in detail individual artworks and also takes a critical view of the major events that have shaped Banksys reputation; his highly ambitious inaugural exhibitions in the USA (Barely Legal, 2003); his invasion of some of the worlds major collections The Louvre, the Met in New York, Londons Tate Gallery and the British Museum during 2004-5 to donate his own artworks; the radical remixing of the collection at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery in 2009; the massive exhibition of different artists works at Dismaland in 2015, and the notorious shredding of his own work during a live auction at Sothebys. Interposed between these set-piece chapters the book tells the unfolding story of Banksys emergence as an artist, with detailed analyses of his craft; the particular power of his stencilling, his comic ability to detourne old canvases, and his innovative use of words, lettering and fonts.