Committed artist

Banksy, the social revolutionary is a very committed artist.

Art terrorist

Banksy, social revolutionary or “art terrorist”, is a very committed artist. Most of his artworks are striking and humorous at the same time. He is in favor of freedom and justice, and against war and famine and all the scourges caused by man. Anti-capitalist and pro-freedom, he often includes powerful provoking slogans in his works.

He loves making use of rats and monkeys, which often seem to have strongly human traits when he illustrates them. His rats are, for example, usually represented with evocative slogans in significant places. Among his other subjects, we usually find police officers, servicemen, old people and children. These are however regularly associated with objects that are inconsistent, sometimes even absurd, depending on the context.

Banksy loves detonation and reflection and he represents it in a relevant way in his artworks. Among his masterstrokes, he traveled to the Israeli-Palestinian border (West Bank) in 2005, to paint on the wall of Gaza, between Israel and Palestine. He made nine paintings, most of which were very incisive. Children making sand castles, fantastic landscapes, a girl that is swept away by balloons. In his own way, he yells at injustice, and provokes reflection. His work became recognized worldwide as a voice denouncing unfairness and inequality, shouting up and strongly what millions of people think.

One year earlier, in 2004, he produced a large quantity of counterfeit banknotes of 10 pounds.

However, he replaced the Queen of England with Lady Diana and he changed the “Bank of England” for a significant “Banksy of England”. He allowed thus these banknotes circulate in the Notting Hill Carnival. He denounced with this act the confusing causes of the accident of the Princess and left some doubt on people’s imagination.

Although most of his artworks are claimants, some of them contain messages of hope, tinged with humor or derision. Therefore, he shows police officers hugging passionately, children who play and have fun in different contexts or poetic images such as flowers and crazy situations. Banksy also likes painting about his political views, what hurts him, what impresses him.

An excellent example is his little Vietnamese intoxicated and burned with napalm, accompanied by two eccentric characters. He softened the gravity of the original photo with a little touch of happiness, despite the fact that his first desire was clearly to reflect the atrocities resulting from wars. His rats are also a good example of this. They chant mostly significant messages and show unequivocal alertness. The artist left some doubt regarding his perception of rats, provoking again reflection and questioning. Banksy made a mark as an artist and reached a wide audience.

He refuses to be related to big companies of that world, simply for the sake of his peers, and his relationship with money or profits seems to be the least of his concerns. That we love him or not does not seem to change his life and that is what makes him the great artist he is.