Who is Banksy – British Street Art - Learn English with Story

Banksy – a discopyrighted artist Much like every country in the world, in England,

the copyright in a work of art arises from the  moment of its creation. But there is a very

famous and, at the same time, unknown artist  who does not have the rights to his work;

moreover, he states: ‘Copyright is for losers.’ Banksy is a genius street artist from England,

whose works everyone knows, but no one knows  anything about the artist or even seen his face.

The scale and social orientation  of Banksy's street graffiti

are striking and make you  follow his work. However,

the public can only see and discuss his  work because Banksy is hiding his identity.

Nobody knows if this is one artist or a collective  who works under his pseudonym. Therefore, we may

consider with confidence only his works and the  perception of his work by contemporary society.

Banksy began painting on the streets in the  late 1990s, since then his paintings have

been appearing in many different places: on the  walls of buildings, fences, doors, bridges, and on

asphalt. Certainly, his street paintings really  liven up and change the city's common space.

Over time, his drawings have acquired a deep  meaning. Banksy paints his graffiti in public

crowded places and often accompanies them  with commentary phrases, which gives his

graffiti a great public resonance. As the social orientation develops,

every day it becomes more difficult for him  to hide from the audience and the police,

so he works at night and uses stencils  in order to complete his works faster.

The artist has indeed produced many works  in response to public and social events

and sentiments. Banksy's resonant  graffiti became famous in the world,

and he became world-famous in 2007. Since that  time, celebrities have begun to buy his works.

He regularly devotes a significant part  of his work to peace issues, criticizing

military conflicts and political provocations. Such his works as "Armored Dove of Peace",

"Girl with a bomb", "Bouquet"  which are known worldwide.

Nowadays, Banksy continues to paint  works relating to social themes.

His graffiti "The Son of a Migrant from  Syria," featuring Steve Jobs, is painted

on the wall of a building near the refugee camp. One day on the door of a youth center in Bristol,

the graffiti "Mobile Lovers" appeared.  This work shows that people can no longer

be distracted from social media. An interesting fact about this work,

the photo of which was published by Banksy, was  not immediately found. While the fans were looking

for graffiti, the owners of the club removed the  door, installed it in the lobby, and showed it for

money, as they were on the verge of bankruptcy. The city authorities then took the work and

put it on display in the museum. Furthermore,  Banksy made a public appeal and, due to this,

the work was sold at auction and the proceeds  saved the youth center from bankruptcy.

Banksy has a series of paintings  depicting a supermarket trolley

in which they make fun of the consumer society.  In the "Trolley Shopping Falls" graffiti,

a woman is holding on to the cart so tightly that  she is ready to crash with it, but not let go.

When one of Banksy's paintings on  a wall in Bristol was painted over,

the townspeople regarded it as an act of  vandalism. Previously, homeowners were forced

to keep Banksy’s drawings under the pressure  of public opinion, but now his street drawings

significantly increase not only property value,  but also the value of neighboring real estate.

Although not everyone sees real art in  Banksy's paintings, his work has a long

history of being sold for millions of dollars  and has settled in private collections.

This most recognizable work of Banksy's "Girl  with Balloon" appeared on the bridge over the

Thames in 2002. Later the artist created  another copy of this street graffiti.

On the white canvas of the painting, a girl is  depicted in black paints, who sadly watches a

bright red heart-shaped balloon flying away. In October 2018, at Sotheby's, the author's

copy of the street graffiti "Girl with  Balloon" was sold for $ 1.4 million.

Immediately after the painting was bought,  a destructive mechanism in the frame was

activated and began to cut the painting right  in front of the people who were present.

Needless to say that they were shocked! Banksy himself explained this with a quote

from the Russian philosopher "the desire  for destruction is also a creative drive".

Fortunately, the mechanism was was only able  to cut half of the artwork into small strips.

As a result of this, the painting became a new,  more expensive, art object, which the new owner

gave the new name "Love in the Trash Bin" and  sold for $ 25.4 million three years later!

On eBay, a lot with information about  Banksy's real name was put up with a

starting price of $ 3,000. After the 38th  bid of $ 999,999, the lot was withdrawn.

Banksy is trying his hand as a film producer: in  2010 his film about the history of street artists

"Exit Through the Gift shop" was presented at the  Berlin Film Festival. Banksy himself appears in

that film, but his face is hidden by a hood. The  film grossed over $ 5 million at the box office.

By the way, Banksy donated one of his works  to the musicians, whose name of the band he

used for his film, as compensation. A halo of mystery, resonant social

works continue to stir up interest in  Banksy's work not only among art lovers.

But the Banksy phenomenon is not only  marketing - his works really reflect

the spirit of the modern world. At the  annual Webby Awards in 2014, he was named

‘Person of the Year’ because of the flamboyant  and highly social nature of his projects.

Instagram is the only social network where  Banksy regularly uploads his work. By the way,

he has more subscribers than the accounts of  the Louvre and the British Museum combined.

In Banksy’s Instagram account, followers can  track new items and see a variety of rats,

which are as unpredictable as humans.  This is another famous image of Banksy.

Dedicated fans are closely following his  work and are making attempts to establish

the identity behind Banksy’s pseudonym,  but all the guesses are not confirmed.

All that remains for us is to wait for the moment

when we know the name of the person  who wants the world to look better.