Who is Banksy?
THE true identity of artist Banksy has never been revealed.
But for years, he has created complex street art using the cover of darkness to keep his anonymity.
Who is Banksy?
Banksy is an anonymous English-based street and graffiti artist as well as a political artist.
His work has been spotted around the south of England, including London, Brighton and Bristol, although his art has often popped up in prominent international locations
Has his identity ever been revealed?
Banksy has never been unmasked and it is believed his refusal to reveal himself started as a way of avoiding prosecution for vandalism.
The elusive artist is believed to have given a glimpse of his identity in a 2003 interview ahead of his Turf War exhibition.
The two-minute report, by ITV News correspondent Haig Gordon, features the artist speaking for 35 seconds.
He is wearing a baseball cap and has a T-shirt pulled over his lower face, but his eyes, eyebrows and forehead are visible.
“I’m disguised because you can’t really be a graffiti writer and then go public,” he tells Gordon, who has since retired.
“The two things don’t quite go together.”
Names in the frame – who is Banksy?
- Robin Gunningham was an early candidate to be “revealed” as the man behind Banksy in 2008. Years later researchers at Queen Mary University of London used “geographic profiling” to match the locations of Banksy paintings to a pub, playing fields and residential addresses with links to Gunningham. Representatives for the artist have denied the theory.
- Robert Del Naja was touted as the anonymous artist in 2017 when Bristol DJ Goldie appeared to name the Massive Attack member, a personal friend, in an interview. He said: “No disrespect to Rob, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over.”
- Liverpool pub sighting – A photo showing a man wearing a high-vis jacket appearing to start work on a painting of a giant white rat on the White Horse pub in Liverpool in 2004 sparked speculation Banksy had finally been unmasked.
- Bethlehem pictures – William Kasper, from London, believed he had unmasked the graffiti king with pictures captured in 2007. Members of the public later identified the painter as James Ame – aka Ame72 – a UK painter who lives in Israel.
- Bristol video footage – Grainy 47-second clip shows a man in a hoodie and a painter’s face mask using stencils and cardboard to spray fresh graffiti in an underpass in Bansky’s native Bristol in 2010.
- Dismaland sighting – In 2015, fans were convinced they spotted a man who they thought might look like Banksy outside his Dismaland installation in Weston-super-Mare. But to their disappointment, it was later revealed to be a parking attendant from the local council.
- A collective of artists – Another theory is that Banksy is not one person but a team of street artists. In 2016, Scottish journalist Craig Williams claimed that Del Naja was a member of the group.
How did Banksy get started?
He first burst into prominence in the early 1990s as a graffiti artist in the group DryBreadZ Crew.
Banksy used his works to highlight the corruption and inequality in society with a smattering of humour.
Along with his group, they created works around Bristol.
How does Banksy make money?
Banksy is believed to make money from selling his art.
From the late 90s, reports claim Banksy had an agent, called Steve Lazarides who helped him sell his pieces.
He and his other group of artists created the website, Pictures On Walls (POW), a website that provided customers with affordable artwork.
The artist has dabbled in the world of film, releasing the “street art disaster movie” Exit Through The Gift Shop.
And in 2015 he opened Dismaland, a large scale installation in Weston-super-Mare lampooning Disneyland.
Banksy has also made money by selling his artwork at auction.
In October 2018, his artwork titled Girl With Balloon sold for £1million at Sotheby’s in London.
But a secret shredder caused the painting to self-destruct after the sale, with art experts believing it now to be worth double.
In 2013, Forbes said the £14million ($20million) artist did not want his art to be worth anything.
In 2018, The Richest estimated his worth as £61million ($50million).
What famous art has Banksy created?
Banksy has left his memorable mark all over the world but has been most prolific in the UK.
The guerrilla artist is known to have created more than 120 works spanning three decades.
- In 2002, There is Always Hope – possibly the artist’s most famous work – appeared on the South Bank in London
- Devolved Parliament, Bansky’s 13ft wide painting of chimpanzees in the House of Commons, hit the headlines in October 2019 when it sold at auction for £9.9million
- GCHQ Government Spies Telephone Box was created in April 2014. The piece in Cheltenham shows three men wearing sunglasses and using listening devices to snoop on a phone box
- In May 2020, Banksy unveiled new artwork Game Changer, which was painted on the wall of a ward at Southampton General Hospital in Hampshire
Graffiti in Tokyo?
A drawing bearing resemblance to a famous Banksy painting “Umbrella rat” was spotted at a monorail station in Tokyo in January 2019.
It is not clear when the work was sprayed on to the door but officials said they had known about it for a while, the BBC reported.
In a tweet, the capital’s Governor Yuriko Koike called the artwork a possible “gift to Tokyo”.
The door has now been removed and placed in storage to prevent any damage to it, officials said.
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