Banksy Art

23.01.2009

According to Tristan Manco, Banksy "was born in 1974 and raised in Bristol, England. The son of a photocopier engineer, he trained as a butcher but became involved in graffiti during the great Bristol aerosol boom of the late 1980s."ut Bansksy's private life.

There are the only things that people know abo

Moreover, these facts are still uncertain.

Banksy is a British graffiti artist who began to paint in the city of Bristol.

He is inspired by the freehand parisian artist Blek le Rat who worked in the 80's.

Nevertheless he didn't take from the Bristol underground scene which realised works

beetween artists and musicians. It tools are stencils as elements of his freehand pieces. Since 1992-1994, his stencils were in danger just one time, after he had hidden from the police under a train carriage. Stencils are traditionally hand drawn or printed onto sheets of acetate or card, before being cut out by hand

About his technique he 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".[

He quickly became famous around Bristol and London. Everybody can see his art in the streets. Infact, he never sells his photos, paintings and he has never done exhibitions in museums.

In 2003, he realised the cover of Blur's album Think Tank.

Sometimes, his works appaear in films like The Age of Stupid (2008), Shoot'Em Up, starring Clive Owen (2007) or Children of Men.

He loves painting in places like zoos. Indeed, he has left traces in a penguin enclosure

of London Zoo, "We're bored of fish", in seven high letters.

In the elefant enclosure of Bristol Zoo he painted the following inscription:

'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring, boring, boring.'

In August 2005, he painted nine images on the Israeli West Bank barrier as a little girl holding a balloon to the sky.

Banksy's messages are frequently anti-war, anti-capitalist or anti-establishment.

Recently, a book was published with most of Banksy's works.

We can note that his favourite images are monkeys, rats, cows and bees.

In my opinion, he's a writer as people say he's a graffiti artist. He adds quotations with most of his works, on his website, his book or walls.

With monkeys: "A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to"

With rats: "They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees"

With war and famine: "Sometimes I feel so sick at the state of the world I can't even finish my second apple pie".

In his book we have images of people like Queen Elizabeth II, Ronald Mc Donald, Mickey, Queen's guards, the Christ, Churchill, Mary... A full world of satiric views.

If you don't agree with his political opinion, you may enjoy his technique and his runnig of the urban architecture.

So, go to his website ....

.... or buy his book " Wall and Piece". (Wait Oxford trip if you can 'cause the English price is less expensive!)

Léa M. 2nde4