Banksy - Artist - Biography.com Banksy Banksy is the pseudonym of a "guerrilla" street artist known for his controversial, and often politically themed, stenciled pieces. IN THESE GROUPS » quotes “We can't do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime we should all go shopping to console ourselves.” “People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that's only if it's done properly.” “People who should be shot: Fascist thugs, religious fundamentalists, people who write lists telling you who should be shot.” Banksy Synopsis Banksy, a street artist whose identity remains unknown, is believed to have been born in Bristol, England, around 1974. He rose to prominence for his provocative stenciled pieces in the late 1990s. Banksy is the subject of a 2010 documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, which examines the relationship between commercial and street art. Artistic Career Banksy began his career as a graffiti artist in the early 1990s, 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 predominantly. His work became more widely recognized around Bristol and in London, as his signature style developed. Banksy's artwork is characterized by striking images, often combined with slogans. His work often engages political themes, satirically critiquing war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed. Common subjects include rats, apes, policemen, members of the royal family, and children. In addition to his two-dimensional work, Banksy is known for his installation artwork. One of the most celebrated of these pieces, which featured a live elephant painted with a Victorian wallpaper pattern, sparked controversy among animal rights activists. Other pieces have drawn attention for their edgy themes or the boldness of their execution. Banksy's work on the West Bank barrier, between Israel and Palestine, received significant media attention in 2005. He is also known for his use of copyrighted material and subversion of classic images. An example of this is Banksy's version of Monet's famous series of water lilies paintings, adapted by Banksy to include drifting trash and debris.

Banksy's worldwide fame has transformed his artwork from acts of vandalism to sought-after high art pieces. Journalist Max Foster has referred to the rising prices of graffiti as street art as "the Banksy effect." Interest in Banksy escalated with the release of the 2010 documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop. The film, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award. In October 2013, Banksy took to the streets of New York City. There he pledged to create a new piece of art for each day of his residency. As he explained to the Village Voice, "The plan is to live here, react to things, see the sights—and paint on them. Some of it will be pretty elaborate, and some will just be a scrawl on a toilet wall." During that month, he also sold some of his works on the street for $60 a piece, well below the market value for his art. Identity Banksy's identity remains unknown, despite intense speculation. The two names most often suggested are Robert Banks and Robin Gunningham.

Pictures that surfaced of a man who was supposedly Banksy pointed toward Gunningham, an artist who was born in Bristol in 1973. Gunningham moved to London around 2000, a timeline that correlates with the progression of Banksy's artwork. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information Banksy. Graffiti Artist. His works, his technique, his Career. Banksy's identity revealed? Banksy is a pseudo-anonymous English graffiti artist. He is believed to be a native of Yate, South Gloucestershire, near Bristol and to have been born in 1974, but there is substantial public uncertainty about his identity and personal and biographical details. According to Tristan Manco, 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." His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics.

His street art, which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat, who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world. Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti or mount exhibitions of screenprints in commercial galleries. 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. Banksy's "The Flower Chucker" is included in the feature film The Age of Stupid to represent all modern art stored in an archive after the end of the world as we know it. Career Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist 1992–1994 as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), write Kato and Tes.

He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene. From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too. By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a "piece." He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage, when he noticed the stencilled serial number and employing this technique soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. In late 2000, on a trip to Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, he met up with the Gen-X pastellist, visual activist, and recluse James DeWeaver in Byron Bay, where he stenciled a parachuting rat with clothes pin on nose above a toilet at the Arts Factory Lodge. This stencil can no longer be located.

He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phonebox), and was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank. 2002 On 19 July 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles show debuted at 33 1/3 Gallery, a small Silverlake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The show, entitled Existencilism, was curated by 33 1/3 Gallery, Malathion, Funk Lazy Promotions, and B+. 2003 In 2003 in a show called "Turf War", held in a warehouse, Banksy painted on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest.

He later moved on to producing subverted paintings; one example is Monet's Water Lily Pond, adapted to include urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters; another is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, redrawn to show that the characters are looking at a British football hooligan, dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe. These oil paintings were shown at a twelve day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005. 2004 In August 2004, Banksy produced a quantity of spoof British £10 notes substituting the picture of the Queen's head with Princess Diana's head and changing the text "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England." Someone threw a large wad of these into a crowd at Notting Hill Carnival that year, which some recipients then tried to spend in local shops. These notes were also given with invitations to a picturesonwalls.com Santas Ghetto exhibition. The individual notes have since been selling on eBay for about £200 each.

A Limited run of 50 signed posters containing 10 uncut notes were also produced and sold by pictures on walls for £100 each to commemorate the death of Princess Diana. One of these sold in October 2007 at Bonhams auction house in London for £24,000. 2006 Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles, on the weekend of 16 September. The exhibition featured a live "elephant in a room", painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern. After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000, on 19 October 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction.

In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy Effect", to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success. 2007 On 7 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England. Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices. The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices. Ballerina With Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000; Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600 - all prices being significantly above estimated values.

To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit." In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural which comes with a house attached. In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's iconic image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the "graffiti" created a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime.

On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work 'Space Girl & Bird' fetching £288,000 (US$576,000), around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London. On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton. Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award, and continued with his notoriously anonymous status. On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen. In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price. Banksy made a tribute art piece over his famous Pulp Fiction piece. The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist OZONE, who was hit by an underground train in Barking, East London, along with fellow artist WIZE, on 12 January 2007. The piece was of an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest, holding a skull.

He also wrote a note on his website, saying: "The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns. A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote 'If it's better next time I'll leave it' in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone - rest in peace". Banksy has published a "manifesto" on his website. The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of one Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO, which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum. It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008, Banksy's Manifesto has been substituted with Graffiti Heroes #03 that describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis of his imprisonment.

A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men, including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop. In the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen, Banksy's tag can be seen on a dumpster in the film's credits. Banksy, who deals mostly with Lazarides Gallery in London, claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York (his first major exhibition in that city) is unauthorized. The show featured 62 of his paintings and prints. 2008 Over the weekend 3–5 May in London, Banksy hosted an exhibition called The Cans Festival. It was situated on Leake Street, a road tunnel formerly used by Eurostar underneath London Waterloo station. Graffiti artists with stencils were invited to join in and paint their own artwork, as long as it didn't cover anyone else's. Artists included Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, C215, Cartrain, Dolk, Dotmasters, J.Glover, Eine, Eelus, Hero, Pure evil, Jef Aérosol and Tom Civil.

In late August 2008, marking the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure disaster, Banksy produced a series of works in New Orleans, Louisiana, mostly on buildings derelict since the disaster. A stencil painting attributed to Banksy appeared at a vacant petrol station in the Ensley neighbourhood of Birmingham, Alabama on August 29 as Hurricane Gustav approached the New Orleans area. The painting depicting a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan hanging from a noose was quickly covered with black spray paint and later removed altogether. His first official exhibition in New York, the "Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill," opened October 5, 2008. The animatronic pets in the store window include a mother hen watching over her baby Chicken McNuggets as they peck at a barbecue sauce packet, and a rabbit putting makeup on in a mirror. The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work "One Nation Under CCTV", painted in April 2008 will be painted over as it is graffiti.

The council says it will remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy has no more right to paint graffiti than a child. The work was painted over in April 2009. In December 2008 a Banksy image of a diver in a duffle coat in Melbourne Australia was vandalised. The image was protected by a sheet of clear perspex, however silver paint was poured behind the protective sheet and then tagged with the words "Banksy woz ere". It is thought the image has been destroyed. 2009 May 2009, parts company with agent Steve Lazarides. Announces Pest Control the handling service who act on his behalf will be the only point of sale for new works. On June 13 2009, the Banksy UK Summer show opened at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, featuring more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works. Reaction to the show was positive, with expectations that large numbers of visitors would come to Bristol to see it.

Notable art pieces In addition to his artwork, Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile art pieces, including the following: At London Zoo, he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in seven foot high letters. At Bristol Zoo, he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure. In March 2005, he placed subverted artworks in the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He put up a subverted painting in London's Tate Britain gallery. In May 2005 Banksy's version of a primitive cave painting depicting a human figure hunting wildlife whilst pushing a shopping trolley was hung in gallery 49 of the British Museum, London. Upon discovery, they added it to their permanent collection. Banksy has sprayed "This is not a photo opportunity" on certain photograph spots.

In August 2005, Banksy painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier, including an image of a ladder going up and over the wall and an image of children digging a hole through the wall. In April 2006, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a street in Soho, London. It was later removed by Westminster Council. BT released a press release, which said: "This is a stunning visual comment on BT's transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider." In June 2006, Banksy created an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall visible from Park Street in central Bristol. The image sparked some controversy, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go. After an internet discussion in which 97% (all but 6 people) supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building.

In August/September 2006, Banksy replaced up to 500 copies of Paris Hilton's debut CD, Paris, in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse. Music tracks were given titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". Several copies of the CD were purchased by the public before stores were able to remove them, some going on to be sold for as much as £750 on online auction websites such as eBay. The cover art depicted Paris Hilton digitally altered to appear topless. Other pictures feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption "90% of success is just showing up". In September 2006, Banksy dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner (orange jumpsuit, black hood, and handcuffs) and then placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. Technique Asked about his technique, Banksy said: "I use whatever it takes.

Sometimes that just means drawing a moustache on a girl's face on some billboard, sometimes that means sweating for days over an intricate drawing. Efficiency is the key." Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand. Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in his stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photocopy nature of much of his work. He mentions in his book, ' Wall and Piece ', that as he was starting to do graffiti that he was always too slow and was either caught or could never finish the art in the one sitting. So he devised a series of intricate stencils to minimise time and overlapping of the colour. Identity Banksy's real name is not, as is commonly believed and has been widely reported, Robert or Robin Banks. His year of birth has been given as 1975. Simon Hattenstone from Guardian Unlimited 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". Banksy's parents think their son is a painter and decorator In May 2007, an extensive article written by Lauren Collins of the New Yorker re-opened the Banksy-identity controversy citing a 2004 photograph of the artist that was taken in Jamaica during the Two-Culture Clash project and later published in The Evening Standard in 2004. In October 2007, a story on the BBC website featured a photo allegedly taken by a passer-by in Bethnal 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. In July 2008, it was claimed by The Mail on Sunday that Banksy's real name is Robin Gunningham.His agent has refused to confirm or deny these reports.

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 Gunningham shot on it was photographed in East London.[68] This 'new Banksy rat' story was also picked up by the Times newspaper[69] and the London Evening Standard. Banksy himself states, on his website: "I am unable to comment on who may or may not be banksy, but anyone described as being 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like banksy to me." Controversy In 2004, Banksy walked into the Louvre in Paris and hung on a wall a picture he had painted resembling the Mona Lisa but with a yellow smiley face. Though the painting was hurriedly removed by the museum staff, it and its counterpart, temporarily on unknown display at the Tate Britain, were described by Banksy as 'shortcuts'. He is quoted as saying: "To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring.

It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up." Peter Gibson, a spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy, asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism, and Diane Shakespeare, an official for the same organization, was quoted as saying: "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism". In June 2007 Banksy created a circle of plastic portable toilets, said to resemble Stonehenge at the Glastonbury Festival. As this was in the same field as the "sacred circle" it was felt by many to be inappropriate and his installation was itself vandalized before the festival even opened. However, the intention had always been for people to climb on and interact with it. The installation was nicknamed "Portaloo Sunset" and "Bog Henge" by Festival goers. Michael Eavis admitted he wasn't fond of it, and the portaloos were removed before the 2008 festival.

Quotations by Banksy "If you have a statue in the city centre, you could go past it every day on your way to school and never even notice it, right - but as soon as someone puts a traffic cone on its head, you've made your own sculpture. — from The Independent" "The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little." "People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly." "Think outside the box, collapse the box, and take a sharp knife to it.

" "You paint a hundred chimpanzees and they call you a guerilla artist." Bibliography Banksy has self-published several books that contain photographs of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own writings: Martin Hay DD1000: Historical and Contextual Influences Arcade History Timeline Research Arcades (Centralised areas built around games of any form) have existed since the 1920's, but did not feature video games until much later. Because this is about video games in arcades, these will not be considered. The first video game cabinet to be publicly playable was The Galaxy Game, which was the first coin-operated machine made. It was installed on Stanford University campus. In the same year, Computer Space is sold commercially, being the first arcade game that can be owned by anyone willing to front the cash. In 1972 Pong was released, becoming the first commercial success. It also showed how popular sports games could be if played digitally. In 1973, Taito Corp. released Astro Race, an early example of a racing game that used a basic four-way joystick controller.

They then went on to follow up this with other notable releases in 1974, such as the sprite-based game Basketball and Speed Racer, which used a skewed perspective to give an illusion of distance. In 1974, Taito released Interceptor, a game that was an example of an early FPS and flight simulator, controlled with an (advanced for the time) eight-way joystick. This scaled enemies in sight depending on distance to the player. This kind of technique is seen in a later classic, Space Harrier. Another innovative release from Taito was Western Gun, a two player shoot-em-up. This game made particular use of joysticks to make a multi-directional control mechanic, which make the game much more action-oriented when a second player joins. It was also the first to depict a firearm and a story with characters to progress through the narrative. Later in the year, Midway MFG adapted and re-released Western Gun under the same of Gun Fight. This edition, whilst playing in exactly the same way, was one of the first to represent a step up in hardware used in cabinets; the microprocessor. This allowed for higher graphical fidelity and smoother animation.

1976 saw SEGA release Moto-Cross, a motorcycle racing game that used a handlebar controller in place of a joystick. The game used a similar scrolling method to newer games such as Super Hang-On to create track movement, but more interestingly is the use of haptic feedback in the controller that could make it vibrate when the player collided with something. They used some elements from Moto-Cross in Road Race, which played from the first person instead of third. Atari followed suit with Night Driver, which played in an identical fashion. The standout release of this year is Breakout, which has famously spawned a plethora of clones, some such as Shatter would dare to expand on the concept. This year's final hardware advancement came from Cinematronics with Space Wars, a game that used a vector graphic display. This would be used in the Vectrex home console, which unfortunately came out at a time when Vector graphics weren't as popular. The Golden age of gaming would start with Taito's Space Invaders in 1978, which was the world's first blockbuster game. It has influenced shooters since its inception, and has also gone through several make-overs over the years.

It also was responsible for a sumoured shortage of 100-yen coins in Japan, something which was quickly debunked. SEGA also released Secret Base, which was the first to feature co-operative gameplay. In 1979, Atari released the classic Asteroids which sold tremendously well in the United States, becoming Atari's best selling game of all time. Namco released Galaxian, a shoot-em-up that began the use of basic RGB colour values to set it apart from all before it. Nintendo then released Sheriff and Radar Scope, both doing something different. Sheriff used dual stick controls akin to Geometry Wars and Super Stardust, and Radar Scope used a 3-Dimensional third person perspective that Konami would go on to use in games like Juno Fist. 1980 saw Namco's biggest selling game, Pac-Man. It introduced staples of the industry such as cutscenes and mascots, as well as opened the pastime to a female audience. They also released King & Balloon, which was the first game to use dual-core processors and synthesised voices. They had another hit with Rally X, which was the first to have background music and scrolling in more than one direction.

Another innovation was the DECO cassette system, which bacame a popular standard. Nintendo kicked off 1981 with Donkey Kong, which kickstarted the platformer genre. It was also Mario's first appearance. SEGA released Eliminator, which was the first vector game to be played with four people. Konami pitched in with several titles; Scramble, Frogger and Basconian. Each did different things to the predecessors in their genres 1982 had the first use of Parallax scrolling in Moon Patrol from Irem. The inrecidlby popular Pole Position was released, along with SEGA's Star Trek, Konami's Time Pilot and Atari's Quantum, which respectively had highly intricate simulation levels, free-roaming gameplay and boosted hardware. 1983 saw the first 3d-polyon game I, Robot, as well as Bally Midway's Journey that used digitised sprites, and Dragon's Lair which seperated itself by using cel-animations. The most well-known release would be Star Wars, the vector re-creation of the attack on the Death Star. 16-bit processors were used frequently from 1984 onwards, resulting in better visual quality of games.

Atari hit the JAMMA board running with Marble Madness and Paperboy, and Namco released Pac-Land, which went on to be very influential. Atari released Gauntlet in 1985, and Gradius was released by Konami. Space Harrier was released, and Super Mario Brothers made its way into arcades from the Famicom. The perhaps first signs of modern soccer games was released, Tekhan World Cup, using a top-down perspective. 1986 was the year SEGA took the world by storm with Out Run, a game which has since been remade many times. Creeper was also released, which was the first use of blood and gore, which was met with heavy disdain from critics. After the Golden Age, Namco relased Shadowland, and Tehnos Japan released Double Dragon, going on to become a massive hit and the bair raiser for brawler-style games in 1987. 1988 sees the first 32-bit processor game, NARC. In addition to this, Reikai Doushi is released, becoming the first claymation game. Assault was released by Namco, which utilises rotating and scaling of large sprites.

Splatterhouse was also introduced, which made prolific yet suitable use of violence. Winning Run was brought out which made use of Namco's 3D Polygonizer technology. Tetris was abso brought to the scene in a coin-op setting. In 1989, Hard Drivin' is released and is the second game to have 3D graphics. The industry is changed with Exterminator, sporting the highest quality digital sprites for a time. The 3D technology is reinforced ahead of the 2D mechanics with S.T.U.N Runner, which used 3D graphics in a high speed. Capcom stands above the competition in 1991 with Street Fighter II, which revitalised competitive fighting games and built even more upon the standard Double Dragon set years before, this trend persisting with Mortal Kombat in 1992, and its own sequel in 1993. SEGA capitalised on the new interest with Virtua Fighter, expecting 3D graphics to help it stand out. They also released the most successful arcade game in existence, Daytona USA. Killer Instinct is released in 1994, being the only game to have a hard disk.

This allowed the rest of the budget to go towardsadding more to the game, making it the best use of the movie background technique. Two years later, SNK release Metal Slug, sporting superb hand-drawn sprites, a slapstick sense of humour and two player action well suited to the revided side scrolling mechanics. Dance Dance Revolutiuon is released in 1998, which would enjoy much success and many iterative releases. In 1999 Rush 2049 is released, the last game to bear the Atari Games logo before the name change to Midway Games West and the cancellation of the coin-op production line. Posted by Finding a Suitable Essay Subject When choosing an art movement to use as the subject matter for an essay is not an easy task, so it's best to go through the ones I have in mind before making an informed decision. The first one I have in mind is Street Art. This is one of, if not my favourite movements that has been observed, since it is everyday people's expression in a public place that doesn't give you a choice but to see it.

Some would think that this would be an easy art movement to cover, but this isn't the case as most graffiti that is seen is mere vandalism, whereas the only hot-spots for any artistic street art are places like Melbourne, Australia and The Bronx, New York City. These places and many others have a legacy for Street Art, which isn't common in the North West. In terms of how Street Art has influenced media, there doesn't appear to be much of an influence in entertainment media, considering the relative unpopularity among the public with this movement. This would mean that an essay on Street Art would be near empty. Another movement I could do an essay on is Photorealism. Photorealism is an unorthodox movement in that the objective is to make a painting seem as realistic as possible. It can seem like an unimaginative concept, but it demonstrates skill on the artist's part, and can make existing places look even better than their real-life counterparts. Unfortunately, like Street Art, there isn't much in terms of media influence. The only real way this could influence creative media is graphical technology.

The desire to make CGI look as realistic as possible (in games and film) is a pursuit that could have been partially influenced by this "movement", although this was a technical goal to begin with. A third movement I could write about is Superflat. Superflat is, as the name suggests, flat artwork. A Japanese art movement, this is incredibly popular world wide, not only for its simplicity and accessibility, but the unique feel it gives artwork. There's no question that this has influenced all forms of expressive media, manga and animé are prime examples of its influence. There are also various games made using this style, nearly all of them are sprite-based, including games such as Mark of the Ninja, the King of Fighters series and the Pokémon series. Posted by Street Art Street Art is not a recognised art movement, nor is it indeed one in the traditional sense, but that is exactly the point of it: artists that use the public environment to show their work are using something that was designed to look one way, and making it their canvas. This kind of artwork is more controversial than others. The general impression around street art is that it is graffiti. What most people don't realise is that there is a distinct difference between the two.

Graffiti is made without artistic intent, with nearly no effort put into the artwork or any underlying message at all. Street Art has a message in it, and is very well produced so that it is a pleasure to look at. Of course, whether even that work is good or not is subjective; politicians, authorities and many members of the public will say that it is all an eyesore. However, what these people will forget is that they could say that about nearly everything they would see in an art museum, the difference is with street art is that the artist isn't giving you a choice but to see it, and that is one of the reasons why it is so powerful. This 'movement' spans many different types of media: Stencils, wheatpasting, mosaics and sculptures are all used to varying extents. The most known artist is Banksy, who is known for creating politically heavy artwork with stencils in a matter of a few seconds, often in broad daylight: This is one of his pieces which simply references cultural elements whilst taking advantage of the scenery.

Banksy is known for taking the traditional paradigm of being classed as a vandal and turning it on his head: This works on the principle that advertisers are just as much, if not more, of a vandal than he is. He was quoted as saying "People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish. But that is only if it's done properly" Other artists who have a less political message include Ces53, a dutch artist who uses very vibrant colours to make environments look nicer. It isn't clear why, but Ces53 seems to create art simply to make walls and buildings look a little brighter. Ces53 gained fame by being one of the first to paint on trains in Holland, Belgium and Germany, the amount of artwork he created as well as the variety made him very popular among enthusiasts. Posted by Pop Art Pop Art was a movement that was founded from around 1954 in the United Kingdom, and around 1958 in the United States, and was started by the Independent Group. Pop Art was different from the norm at the time in that it included images and other media from popular culture, such as advertisements, flyers, newspapers, and so on.

These materials are often taken out of their original context to produce a different kind of artwork tha what was seen traditionally. Pop Art started off un the United Kingdom as an attempt to challenge the modernist approaches to culture and design. The first artwork that conformed to the Pop Art style was the collage "I was a Rich Man's Plaything" part of a series named "Bunk!". This collage evolved to become the standard bearer of the movement, as it was the first to reference itself in the artwork. The first mixed media piece to be classed as Pop Art, featuring what would've been cultural staples of the time. The movement's takeoff in the US was different as it was in the UK. Advertisers had started to use different elements of modern art and had become more sophisticated, and this made it difficult for artists of this movement to find usable media that would differentiate their work from advertisements. Because of this, artwork from the US was bolder and was more aggressive, whilst artists from the UK thought the artwork felt more humourous, romantic and dramatic. The movement's popularity in the US was thanks to artists including Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Roy Lichenstein.

These artists had their own styles that reflected the Pop Art ethos in an effective manner: Andy Warhol is perhaps one of the more famous names from this movement, who was known for his exploration of artistic expression, use of advertising and celebrity culture in his artwork. Campbell's Soup is one of Warhol's more bizarre pieces, but reflects his nature of expression through popular culture. Robert Rauschenberg's artwork, whilst categorised as neo-Dadaist, had social messages as their focus. He would take imagery of normal American culture and manipulate them into something different: This sculpture was designed to something different with something people saw so often. Roy Lichenstein's artwork was made on large canvases made with magna paint. Most of his earlier work mimiced the style of comics, using half-tone patterns, vibrant clours with basic tones and thick black outlines. This painting, made on a canvas measuring four meters in length and standing at nearly two meters tall, was based on a page from DC Comic's All-American Men of War. The original artist was uncredited. Posted by Banksy - The Full Wiki The Full Wiki Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article!

This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Banksy Ozone's Angel Pulp Fiction Banksy is a pseudonymous [2] [3] [4] British graffiti artist . He is believed to be a native of Yate , South Gloucestershire , near Bristol [2] and to have been born in 1974, [5] but his identity is unknown. [6] According to Tristan Manco, 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." [7] His artworks are often satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethics.

His street art , which combines graffiti writing with a distinctive stencilling technique, is similar to Blek le Rat , who began to work with stencils in 1981 in Paris and members of the anarcho-punk band Crass who maintained a graffiti stencil campaign on the London Tube System in the late 1970s and early 1980s. His art has appeared in cities around the world. [8] Banksy's work was born out of the Bristol underground scene which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy does not sell photos of street graffiti. [9] 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 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 . [11] The film was released in the UK on March 5 . [12] Contents 8 External links Career Naked Man image by Banksy, on the wall of a sexual health clinic [13] in Park Street, Bristol .

Following popular support, the City Council have decided it will be allowed to remain - (wider view). Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist 1992–1994 [14] as one of Bristol's DryBreadZ Crew (DBZ), with Kato and Tes. [15] He was inspired by local artists and his work was part of the larger Bristol underground scene . From the start he used stencils as elements of his freehand pieces, too. [14] By 2000 he had turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much less time it took to complete a piece. He claims he changed to stencilling whilst he was hiding from the police under a train carriage, when he noticed the stencilled serial number [16] and by employing this technique, he soon became more widely noticed for his art around Bristol and London. [16] Stencil on the waterline of The Thekla , an entertainment boat in central Bristol - (wider view). The image of Death is based on a 19th century etching illustrating the pestilence of The Great Stink .

[17] Banksy's stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. The message is usually anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment. Subjects include rats, monkeys, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. An Anarchist rat. In late 2001, on a trip to Sydney and Melbourne , Australia , he met up with the Gen-X pastellist, visual activist, and recluse James DeWeaver in Byron Bay , where he stencilled a parachuting rat with a clothes pin on its nose above a toilet at the Arts Factory Lodge. This stencil can no longer be located. He also makes stickers (the Neighbourhood Watch subvert) and sculpture (the murdered phone-box), and was responsible for the cover art of Blur's 2003 album Think Tank . 2000 The album cover for Monk & Canatella 's Do Community Service was conceived and illustrated by Banksy, based on his contribution to the "Walls on fire" event in Bristol 1998.

[18] [citation needed] 2002 On 19 July 2002, Banksy's first Los Angeles exhibition debuted at 33 1/3 Gallery, a small Silverlake venue owned by Frank Sosa. The exhibition, entitled Existencilism, was curated by 33 1/3 Gallery, Malathion, Funk Lazy Promotions, and B+. [19] 2003 In 2003 in an exhibition called Turf War, held in a warehouse, Banksy painted on animals. Although the RSPCA declared the conditions suitable, an animal rights activist chained herself to the railings in protest. [20] He later moved on to producing subverted paintings; one example is Monet 's Water Lily Pond, adapted to include urban detritus such as litter and a shopping trolley floating in its reflective waters; another is Edward Hopper 's Nighthawks , redrawn to show that the characters are looking at a British football hooligan, dressed only in his Union Flag underpants, who has just thrown an object through the glass window of the cafe.

These oil paintings were shown at a twelve-day exhibition in Westbourne Grove, London in 2005. [21] Banksy art in Brick Lane , East End , 2004. 2004 In August 2004, Banksy produced a quantity of spoof British £10 notes substituting the picture of the Queen's head with Princess Diana 's head and changing the text "Bank of England" to "Banksy of England." Someone threw a large wad of these into a crowd at Notting Hill Carnival that year, which some recipients then tried to spend in local shops. These notes were also given with invitations to a Santa's Ghetto exhibition by Pictures on Walls. The individual notes have since been selling on eBay for about £200 each. A wad of the notes were also thrown over a fence and into the crowd near the NME signing tent at The Reading Festival. A limited run of 50 signed posters containing ten uncut notes were also produced and sold by Pictures on Walls for £100 each to commemorate the death of Princess Diana.

One of these sold in October 2007 at Bonhams auction house in London for £24,000. A stencil of Charles Manson in a prison suit, hitchhiking to anywhere, Archway, London . 2005 In August 2005, Banksy, on a trip to the Palestinian territories, created nine images on Israel's highly controversial West Bank barrier. He reportedly said "The Israeli government is building a wall surrounding the occupied Palestinian territories. It stands three times the height of the Berlin Wall and will eventually run for over 700km—the distance from London to Zurich. The wall is illegal under international law and essentially turns Palestine into the world's largest open prison." [22] 2006 Banksy held an exhibition called Barely Legal, billed as a "three day vandalised warehouse extravaganza" in Los Angeles , on the weekend of 16 September. The exhibition featured a live " elephant in a room ", painted in a pink and gold floral wallpaper pattern.

[23] After Christina Aguilera bought an original of Queen Victoria as a lesbian and two prints for £25,000, [24] on 19 October 2006 a set of Kate Moss paintings sold in Sotheby's London for £50,400, setting an auction record for Banksy's work. The six silk-screen prints, featuring the model painted in the style of Andy Warhol 's Marilyn Monroe pictures, sold for five times their estimated value. His stencil of a green Mona Lisa with real paint dripping from her eyes sold for £57,600 at the same auction. [25] In December, journalist Max Foster coined the phrase, "the Banksy Effect", to illustrate how interest in other street artists was growing on the back of Banksy's success. [26] 2007 On 21 February 2007, Sotheby's auction house in London auctioned three works, reaching the highest ever price for a Banksy work at auction: over £102,000 for his Bombing Middle England.

Two of his other graffiti works, Balloon Girl and Bomb Hugger, sold for £37,200 and £31,200 respectively, which were well above their estimated prices. [27] The following day's auction saw a further three Banksy works reach soaring prices: Ballerina With Action Man Parts reached £96,000; Glory sold for £72,000; Untitled (2004) sold for £33,600; all significantly above estimated values. [28] To coincide with the second day of auctions, Banksy updated his website with a new image of an auction house scene showing people bidding on a picture that said, "I Can't Believe You Morons Actually Buy This Shit." [6] In February 2007, the owners of a house with a Banksy mural on the side in Bristol decided to sell the house through Red Propeller art gallery after offers fell through because the prospective buyers wanted to remove the mural. It is listed as a mural which comes with a house attached. [29] Banksy on Pulp Fiction again.

In April 2007, Transport for London painted over Banksy's iconic image of a scene from Quentin Tarantino 's Pulp Fiction, with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta clutching bananas instead of guns. Although the image was very popular, Transport for London claimed that the "graffiti" created "a general atmosphere of neglect and social decay which in turn encourages crime" and their staff are "professional cleaners not professional art critics". [30] Banksy tagged the same site again (pictured at right). This time the actors were portrayed as holding real guns instead of bananas, but they were adorned with banana costumes. Banksy made a tribute art piece over this second Pulp Fiction piece. The tribute was for 19-year-old British graffiti artist Ozone, who was hit by an underground train in Barking , East London, along with fellow artist Wants, on 12 January 2007. [31] The piece was of an angel wearing a bullet-proof vest, holding a skull. He also wrote a note on his website, saying: The last time I hit this spot I painted a crap picture of two men in banana costumes waving hand guns.

A few weeks later a writer called Ozone completely dogged it and then wrote 'If it's better next time I'll leave it' in the bottom corner. When we lost Ozone we lost a fearless graffiti writer and as it turns out a pretty perceptive art critic. Ozone - rest in peace.[citation needed] Ozone's Angel On 27 April 2007, a new record high for the sale of Banksy's work was set with the auction of the work Space Girl & Bird fetching £288,000 (US$576,000), around 20 times the estimate at Bonhams of London . [32] On 21 May 2007 Banksy gained the award for Art's Greatest living Briton . Banksy, as expected, did not turn up to collect his award, and continued with his notoriously anonymous status. On 4 June 2007, it was reported that Banksy's The Drinker had been stolen. [33] [34] In October 2007, most of his works offered for sale at Bonhams auction house in London sold for more than twice their reserve price.

[35] Banksy has published a " manifesto " on his website. [36] The text of the manifesto is credited as the diary entry of one Lieutenant Colonel Mervin Willett Gonin, DSO , which is exhibited in the Imperial War Museum . It describes how a shipment of lipstick to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp immediately after its liberation at the end of World War II helped the internees regain their humanity. However, as of 18 January 2008, Banksy's Manifesto has been substituted with Graffiti Heroes #03 that describes Peter Chappell's graffiti quest of the 1970s that worked to free George Davis of his imprisonment. [37] By 12 August 2009 he was relying on Emo Phillips' "When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realised God doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and prayed for forgiveness." A small number of Banksy's works can be seen in the movie Children of Men , including a stenciled image of two policemen kissing and another stencil of a child looking down a shop.

In the 2007 film Shoot 'Em Up starring Clive Owen , Banksy's tag can be seen on a dumpster in the film's credits. Banksy, who deals mostly with Lazarides Gallery in London, claims that the exhibition at Vanina Holasek Gallery in New York (his first major exhibition in that city) is unauthorised. The exhibition featured 62 of his paintings and prints. [38] 2008 In February, a stencilled graffiti work appeared on Thames Water tower in the middle of the Holland Park roundabout , and it was widely attributed to Banksy. It was of a child painting the tag "Take this Society" in bright orange. London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham spokesman, Councillor Greg Smith branded the art as vandalism, and ordered its immediate removal, which was carried out by H&F council workmen within three days. [39] Over the weekend 3–5 May in London, Banksy hosted an exhibition called The Cans Festival . It was situated on Leake Street , a road tunnel formerly used by Eurostar underneath London Waterloo station .

Graffiti artists with stencils were invited to join in and paint their own artwork, as long as it didn't cover anyone else's. [40] Artists included Blek le Rat , Broken Crow, C215, Cartrain , Dolk, Dotmasters, J.Glover, Eine, Eelus, Hero, Pure evil, Jef Aérosol, Mr Brainwash , Tom Civil and Roadsworth.[citation needed] Work on building in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, August 2008 In late August 2008, marking the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the associated levee failure disaster , Banksy produced a series of works in New Orleans, Louisiana , mostly on buildings derelict since the disaster. [41] A stencil painting attributed to Banksy appeared at a vacant petrol station in the Ensley neighbourhood of Birmingham, Alabama on 29 August as Hurricane Gustav approached the New Orleans area. The painting depicting a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan hanging from a noose was quickly covered with black spray paint and later removed altogether.

[42] His first official exhibition in New York, the "Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill," opened 5 October 2008. The animatronic pets in the store window include a mother hen watching over her baby Chicken McNuggets as they peck at a barbecue sauce packet, and a rabbit putting makeup on in a mirror. [43] One nation under CCTV . [44] The Westminster City Council stated in October 2008 that the work "One Nation Under CCTV", painted in April 2008 will be painted over as it is graffiti. The council says it will remove any graffiti, regardless of the reputation of its creator, and specifically stated that Banksy has no more right to paint graffiti than a child. [44] The work was painted over in April 2009. In December 2008 a Banksy image of a diver in a duffle coat in Melbourne Australia was vandalised. The image was protected by a sheet of clear perspex, however silver paint was poured behind the protective sheet and then tagged with the words "Banksy woz ere". It is thought the image has been destroyed.

[45] 2009 Queues for Banksy's Summer Show, June 2009 May 2009, parts company with agent Steve Lazarides. Announces Pest Control [46] the handling service who act on his behalf will be the only point of sale for new works. On 13 June 2009, the Banksy UK Summer show opened at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery , featuring more than 100 works of art, including animatronics and installations; it is his largest exhibition yet, featuring 78 new works. [47] [48] Reaction to the show was positive, with over 8,500 visitors to the show on the first weekend. [49] Over the course of the twelve weeks, the exhibition has been visited over 300,000 times. [50] In September 2009, a Banksy work parodying the Royal Family was partially destroyed by Hackney Council after they served an enforcement notice for graffiti removal to the former address of the property owner.

The mural had been commissioned for the 2003 Blur single " Crazy Beat " and the property owner, who had allowed the piece to be painted, was reported to have been in tears when she saw it was being painted over. [51] In December 2009, Banksy marked the end of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference by painting four murals on global warming. One included "I don't believe in global warming" which was submerged in water. [52] 2010 The world premier of the film Exit through the Gift Shop occurred at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on 24 January. He created 10 street pieces around Park City and Salt Lake City to tie in with the screening. [53] In February, The Whitehouse public house in Liverpool , England , is sold for £114,000 at auction. [54] The side of the building has an image of a giant rat by Banksy. [55] Notable art pieces Graffiti depicting graffiti removal by Banksy. Created in May 2008 at Leake Street in London, painted over by August 2008.

Notice the animals resembling cave art from Lascaux or Altamira . In addition to his artwork, Banksy has claimed responsibility for a number of high profile art pieces, including the following: At London Zoo , he climbed into the penguin enclosure and painted "We're bored of fish" in seven foot high letters. [56] At Bristol Zoo , he left the message 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.' in the elephant enclosure. [57] See also: Other Banksy works on the Israeli West Bank barrier In April 2006, Banksy created a sculpture based on a crumpled red phone box with a pickaxe in its side, apparently bleeding, and placed it in a street in Soho , London . It was later removed by Westminster Council . BT released a press release, which said: "This is a stunning visual comment on BT's transformation from an old-fashioned telecommunications company into a modern communications services provider." [63] In June 2006, Banksy created an image of a naked man hanging out of a bedroom window on a wall visible from Park Street in central Bristol .

The image sparked some controversy, with the Bristol City Council leaving it up to the public to decide whether it should stay or go. [64] After an internet discussion in which 97% (all but 6 people) supported the stencil, the city council decided it would be left on the building. [64] The mural was later defaced with paint. [64] In August/September 2006, Banksy replaced up to 500 copies of Paris Hilton 's debut CD, Paris , in 48 different UK record stores with his own cover art and remixes by Danger Mouse . Music tracks were given titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?". Several copies of the CD were purchased by the public before stores were able to remove them, some going on to be sold for as much as £750 on online auction websites such as eBay . The cover art depicted Paris Hilton digitally altered to appear topless.

Other pictures feature her with a dog's head replacing her own, and one of her stepping out of a luxury car, edited to include a group of homeless people, which included the caption "90% of success is just showing up". [65] [66] [67] In September 2006, Banksy dressed an inflatable doll in the manner of a Guantanamo Bay detainment camp prisoner ( orange jumpsuit , black hood, and handcuffs) and then placed the figure within the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad ride at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California . [68] [69] Technique ATM attacking a girl, Rosebery Avenue, London, January 2008. Asked about his technique, Banksy said: “ I use whatever it takes. Sometimes that just means drawing a moustache on a girl's face on some billboard, sometimes that means sweating for days over an intricate drawing. Efficiency is the key. [70] ” Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand.

Because of the secretive nature of Banksy's work and identity, it is uncertain what techniques he uses to generate the images in his stencils, though it is assumed he uses computers for some images due to the photocopy nature of much of his work. He mentions in his book, Wall and Piece, that as he was starting to do graffiti, he was always too slow and was either caught or could never finish the art in the one sitting. So he devised a series of intricate stencils to minimise time and overlapping of the colour. Identity Banksy's real name has been widely reported to be Robert or Robin Banks. [71] [72] [73] His year of birth has been given as 1974. [59] Simon Hattenstone from Guardian Unlimited 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". [74] In the same interview, Banksy revealed that his parents think their son is a painter and decorator.

[74] In May 2007, an extensive article written by Lauren Collins of the New Yorker re-opened the Banksy-identity controversy citing a 2004 photograph of the artist that was taken in Jamaica during the Two-Culture Clash project and later published in the Evening Standard in 2004. [6] In October 2007, a story on the BBC website featured a photo allegedly taken by a passer-by in Bethnal 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. [75] In July 2008, it was claimed by The Mail on Sunday that Banksy's real name is Robin Gunningham. [3] [76] His agent has refused to confirm or deny these reports. 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 word "Gunningham" shot on it was photographed in East London.

[77] This "new Banksy rat" story was also picked up by The Times [78] and the Evening Standard. Banksy himself states, on his website: “ I am unable to comment on who may or may not be Banksy, but anyone described as being 'good at drawing' doesn't sound like Banksy to me. [79] ” Controversy In 2004, Banksy walked into the Louvre in Paris and hung on a wall a picture he had painted resembling the Mona Lisa but with a yellow smiley face. Though the painting was hurriedly removed by the museum staff, it and its counterpart, temporarily on unknown display at the Tate Britain , were described by Banksy as "shortcuts". He is quoted as saying: “ To actually [have to] go through the process of having a painting selected must be quite boring. It's a lot more fun to go and put your own one up.

[80] ” Banksy's "Stonehenge" from portable toilets at the Glastonbury Festival , June 2007 Peter Gibson, a spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy , asserts that Banksy's work is simple vandalism, [81] and Diane Shakespeare, an official for the same organization, was quoted as saying: "We are concerned that Banksy's street art glorifies what is essentially vandalism". [6] In June 2007 Banksy created a circle of plastic portable toilets, said to resemble Stonehenge at the Glastonbury Festival . As this was in the same field as the "sacred circle" it was felt by many to be inappropriate and his installation was itself vandalized before the festival even opened. However, the intention had always been for people to climb on and interact with it.[citation needed] The installation was nicknamed "Portaloo Sunset" and "Bog Henge" by Festival goers. Michael Eavis admitted he wasn't fond of it, and the portaloos were removed before the 2008 festival.

In 2010, an artistic feud developed between Banksy and his rival King Robbo after Banksy painted over a 24-year old Robbo piece on the banks of London's Regent Canal. In retaliation several Banksy pieces in London have been painted over by 'Team Robbo'.

[82] [83] Bibliography Banksy has self-published several books that contain photographs of his work in various countries as well as some of his canvas work and exhibitions, accompanied by his own writings: Banksy, Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall (2001) ISBN 978-0-95417040-0 Banksy, Existencilism (2002) ISBN 978-0-95417041-7 Banksy, Cut it Out (2004) ISBN 978-0-95449600-5 Banksy, Wall and Piece (2005) ISBN 978-1-84413786-2 Banksy, Pictures of Walls (2005) ISBN 978-0-95519460-3 Random House published Wall and Piece in 2005. It contains a combination of images from his three previous books, as well as some new material.

[16] Two books authored by others on his work were published in 2006 & 2007: Martin Bull, Banksy Locations and Tours: A Collection of Graffiti Locations and Photographs in London (2006 - with new editions in 2007 and 2008) ISBN 978-0-95547120-9. Steve Wright, Banksy's Bristol: Home Sweet Home (2007) ISBN 978-1906477004 References banksy.co.uk People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you're not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you. You, however, are forbidden to touch them.

Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity. Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It's yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head. You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don't owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don't even start asking for theirs. taken from 'Brandalism' in the book 'Cut It Out' A lot of people think that scuttling around stencilling images onto buildings in the middle of the night is the action of a sad, frustrated individual who can't get attention or recognition any other way. They might be right, but I've done gallery shows and, if you've been hitting on people with all sorts of images in all sorts of places, they're a real step backwards, painting the streets means becoming an actual part of the city. It's not a spectator sport.

Tristan Manco. Stencil Graffiti The thing I hate the most about advertising is that it attracts all the bright, creative and ambitious young people, leaving us mainly with the slow and self-obsessed to become our artists.. Modern art is a disaster area. Never in the field of human history has so much been used by so many to say so little. taken from ADbusters magazine Some people want to make the world a better place. I just wanna make the world a better-looking place. If you don't like it, you can paint over it! Banksy[ [1] ] Bus stops are far more interesting and useful places to have art than in museums. Graffiti has more chance of meaning something or changing stuff than anything indoors. Graffiti has been used to start revolutions, stop wars, and generally is the voice of people who aren't listened to. Graffiti is one of those few tools you have if you have almost nothing. And even if you don't come up with a picture to cure world poverty you can make somebody smile while they're having a piss.

Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall Only when the last tree has been cut down and the last river has dried up will man realize that reciting red indian proverbs makes you sound like a fucking muppet. Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall People who get up early in the morning cause war, death and famine. Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall Also, "Wall and Piece" pg. 178 "There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover" - Metropolitan Police Spokesperson Wall and Piece back cover. Here's a mystery for you. Renegade urban graffiti artist Banksky clearly a guffhead of massive proportions, yet he's often feted as a genius straddling the bleeding edge of now. Why? Because his work looks dazzlingly clever to idiots. And apparently that'll do. Charlie Brooker on Banksy in The Guardian, 22nd September 2006 The artist Paul Klee said "drawing is like taking a line for a walk", but for me it's always been more like drowning a photocopier in a canal.

I never use sketchbooks in the way you imagine a "real" artist does - perched in a terrace cafe with a pencil capturing the essence of their muse. I tried that once when I was on holiday with a girl, but her nose came out so big in the drawing that she never let me touch her again. I pretty much use sketchbooks to note down great ideas of somebody else's I've just had. A good sketchbook means you don't actually need to bother with having a memory yourself. You can get away with a fair bit of substance abuse if you always carry a notepad and a sharp pencil around with you. All from "Street Sketchbook" by Tristan Manco The craft is finding a decent drainpipe to get access to the site as much as it is in the art...Van Gogh used short, stumpy brush strokes to convey his insanity - I use short, thin ledges above mainline train tracks.

Evening Post 2004 (taken from "Home Sweet Home - Banksy's Bristol" by Steve Wright) You could stick all my shit in Tate Modern and have an opening with Tony Blair and Kate Moss on roller blades handing out vol-au-vents and it wouldn't be as exciting as it is when you go out and paint something big where you shouldn't do. The Guardian 2003 (taken from "Home Sweet Home - Banksy's Bristol" by Steve Wright) [I first picked up a spraycan] the day someone ram-raided the Halford's round the corner from our house. Venue magazine (taken from "Home Sweet Home - Banksy's Bristol" by Steve Wright) External links

Question: Who has been quoted as saying People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish... but that's only if it's done properly?
Answer: Banksy