Banksy

Banksy
Banksy art in Bristol Green, London, 2004
Born	28 July 1973 or 1974 (age 50/51) Bristol, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Known for	Graffiti Street art Bristol underground scene Sculpture Social commentary
Awards	Toronto Film Critics Association Awards – Best First Feature 2010 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature

Banksy is a British street and graffiti artist. He likes to remain anonymous and not let people know his true identity. He often draws in high visibility public places such as on buildings or train stations. His paintings are often about politics, war and other important topics.

His satirical street art and mind-hurting pictures combine dark humour with graffiti. The graffiti is done with a stencilling technique. Such works have been done on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.^[1]

Banksy's work started in the Bristol underground scene, which had collaborations between artists and musicians.^[2] According to graphic designer Tristan Manco and the book Home Sweet Home, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England.^[3] 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".^[4] His style is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris, and to members of the anarcho-punk band Crass, which did a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Underground system in the late 1970s and early 1980s.^[5][6][7]

Banksy displays his art on public surfaces such as walls and even going as far as to build physical prop pieces. He does not sell photos of street graffiti directly himself.^[8][9] 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.^[10] Banksy's first movie, Exit Through the Gift Shop, billed as "the world's first street art disaster movie," made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.^[11] The movie was released in the UK on 5 March 2010.^[12] In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the movie.

1. ↑ "The Banksy Paradox: seven sides to the world's most infamous street artist Archived 2011-04-02 at the Wayback Machine, 2007
2. ↑ Baker, Lindsay (28 March 2008). "Banksy: off the wall – Telegraph". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 24 June 2009.
3. ↑ "Faces of the week". BBC News. 15 September 2006. Retrieved 26 January 2009.
4. ↑ Manco, Tristan (2002). Stencil Graffiti. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-500-28342-4.
5. ↑ Januszczak, Waldemar (8 June 2008). "Blek le Rat the man who gave birth to Banksy". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 13 September 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2011.
6. ↑ "Blek le Rat: This is not a Banksy". The Independent. London. 19 April 2008.
7. ↑ Coan, Lee (13 June 2008). "Breaking the Banksy". Daily Mail. London.
8. ↑ "Pest Control". Archived from the original on 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
9. ↑ "Banksy Prints | Buy Banksy Art Online". Archived from the original on 2011-04-26. Retrieved 2011-11-28.
10. ↑ "Banksy fans fail to bite at street art auction". www.meeja.com.au. 30 September 2008. Archived from the original on 16 October 2008. Retrieved 30 September 2008.
11. ↑ "Banksy film to debut at Sundance". BBC News. 21 January 2010. Retrieved 12 April 2010.
12. ↑ Kay, Jeremy (26 January 2010). "Revolver sets March 5 UK release for Banksy documentary, news, screen". www.creendaily.com. Retrieved 12 April 2010.