Banksy,born in 1974,is an artist from Bristol, UK, whose artwork has appeared in Bristol, London, New Orleans, California, Sydney and many other locations around the world. Banksy's seems to be talented in his artwork line and uses his stencilled techniques at times he adds written material such as slogans to his mostly graphic pieces, his artwork takes form of a strong visual message often going against mainstream media and capitalism. Banksy began his career as a graffiti artist in the early 90's in Bristol's graffiti gang DryBreadz Crew. Although his early work was largely freehand, Banksy used stencils on occasion. In the late '90s, he began using stencils for the most and became widely recognized around Bristol and London, as he developed his signature style.
There is two sides of a coin some may suggest that his stencilled graffiti is the voice of those living in urban environments that could not otherwise express themselves, and that his work is also something which improves the looks of urban surroundings bringing a moment of consciousness to our so often rushed ways of living our daily lives on the other side of the coin others disagree, asserting that his work is simple vandalism, some people seem to find all forms of graffiti and spray painting in public places a crime. Although we are bombarded by advertisement that seems not to bother them but the fact is that it has been a human condition since the beginning of humanity and part of what we know about our ancestors has been written in cave walls a long long time ago.
Banksy didn't invented the stencil critics style it was there long before him but randomly and done by others as a form of complaint towards one specific topics known as adJammers or subvertising movement, who changes corporate advertising to the intended message that the hijacker likes to advert.Some people notice that his style was similar to Blek le Rat a french artist that began working with stencils in the early 80's around France and Jef Aerosol also a french artist that started around the same time.However Banksy himself stated on his website that in all actuality he based his work on that of 3D from Massive Attack, stating, "No, I copied 3D from Massive Attack. He can actually draw."
Banksy by the end of 2005 already had 5 books published:- Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall published in 2001.
- Existencilism published in 2002.
- Cut It Out published in 2004.
- Wall and Piece published in 2005.
- Pictures of Walls published in 2005
- You Are an Acceptable Level of Threat published in 2012.
Banksy's first film
- Exit Through the Gift Shop, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film in the year 2011.
Another of Banksy's tricks involved hanging a piece of his own art in various museums around the world such as London's Tate Modern, the New York Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the American Museum of Natural History and The British Museum.
But here some more interesting stuff about Banksy, I've found out about some "Beef" in his career.
Banksy starts what became a "Graffiti Epic War" with retired London graffiti artist Robbo or King Robbo considered Old School in the English graffiti community and well respected by his old works on the streets of England, he started around 1985. The following pictures show the spray can battle that takes place in Regent's Canal in Camden, London.
BANKSY vs ROBBO
In 1985 Robbo painted a large full colour graffiti piece called Robbo Incorporated.
By 2006 Robbo's piece has been abused by tags but even faded out is a piece that has been there since 1985
December 2009 The war starts, Banksy partially covers a piece of Robbo which in graffiti culture is a very disrespectful thing to do. Co-op pieces always have to be authorized by both graffiti artist and apparently this wasn't the case.
So King Robbo comes out of retirement and decides to do his part on Banksy's piece by using his wallpaper guy to make a statement.
Banksy goes back and adds FUC to Robbos piece.
Robbo goes back and leaves King Robbo on top again.
Banksy doesn't want to play back and forward with Robbo anymore and goes all black.
But Robbbo takes it serious and is determined to make a clear statement. "That particular wall belongs to Robbo since 1985"
He goes cartoon and leaves a note R.I.P Banksy's career.
Banksy doesn't like that and like the Rolling Stones he once again Paint it Black.
January 2011 Banksy goes back and creates what many call a bizarre concept of gold fish
Tragically after that Robbo's suffers an accidental fall that causes him a head injury and he goes into coma.
November 2011 Banksy goes back to the wall and puts up the highlights of old Robbo Inc with a lighten spray can.
War wasn't quite over after that, graffiti writers that sympathize with old school Robbo created Team Robbo and went over several pieces done by Banksy around the London area.
Yes it seems like Banksy made a mistake when he went over Robbo's old piece by the English canals of London but the repercussions of that were enormous and England's Graffiti history was written by this two guys.
The question remains who is Banksy???
Graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter Banksy has been very evasive when it comes to his true identity, Despite the fact that there is a lot of information about him and some may speculate that he has been caught in videos no information seems to be accurate enough to be accredited real, some may suggest that photographer Stephen Lazarides is Banksy but he's in actuality his manager, others say that his real name is Robert Banks or Robin Banks,Robin Gunningham, according to the Daily Mail, Fact is that Banksy's real name is...Unknown til this day.
Written by: Sebastian Labaca
October, 2012
URBAN ART WORLD
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