Street artist Bansky has been surprising the world since the 90’s. From then on Banksy’s silkscreen prints and stencil paintings were racking up record-breaking sales in storied art auctions such as Sotheby’s and Bonham’s of London. These successful sales marked Banksy’s entry into the commercial art world.
For this article, we are sharing Banksy’s less mainstream paintings and prints mostly dating in the 90’s and early 2000’s.
Unveiled in London on 1 October, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon (Diptych) (2005, estimate: £2,500,000-3,500,000) will highlight Christie’s 20th / 21st Century: Evening Sale Including Thinking Italian, London on 15 October 2021. A poignant two-part version of what is perhaps Banksy’s most iconic image, Girl with Balloon (Diptych) is a vision of innocence and hope. The work consists of two canvases, each on an intimate 30 x 30 cm scale. In one stands a small girl, stencilled in black against the white background, with her hand upraised; in the other, a red, heart-shaped balloon drifts away into the sky. Created in 2005, one year after the Girl with Balloon motif appeared on London’s South Bank, the diptych heightens the simple pathos of Banksy’s composition: the balloon has escaped from one panel into another, and the space between the two is palpable. In 2017, Banksy’s Girl with Balloon was voted the nation’s favourite artwork.
The Prints & Multiples and ‘Banksy: I can’t believe you morons actually buy this sh*t’ online sales realised a total of £4,879,125/$6,734,926/€5,694,
Banksy: I can’t believe you morons actually buy this sh*t’ is cheekily titled in homage to the artist’s Morons screenprint. The source image of this work is a photograph of the record-breaking sale of Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers at Christie’s in 1987, with van Gogh’s canvas replaced by Banksy’s text.
Banksy’s satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. This particular style is usually recognised easily by people as his trademark. Most of Banksy’s pieces nowadays can be described as bold and striking with the abundance of blacks (and spot colours on occasion). His vibrant murals when he was just a starting freehand graffiti artist are lesser known to the public.
For this post, we’ve compiled a selection of Banksy’s earliest works created before he became famous for his stencil pieces.
Our friend Banksy just revealed his summer 2021 stunt. Entitled “A Great British Spraycation”, the Bristol-born artist unveiled a series of works on the streets of Gorleston, Great Yarmouth, Cromer and Lowestoft.
As usual with the British artist, he dropped a bunch of sweet stencils that will surely brighten up your day. Check out the newly released video which shows the artist riding his old caravan around the countryside.
Street artist Banksy has successfully trademarked two of his most well-known artworks in Australia. The artist registered the artworks in an attempt to stop them from being used for commercial purposes.
The elusive artist applied for the trademarks via a law firm based in Perth, and although the tactic ultimately failed in Europe, the Australian applications were successful and will be registered next week. The two iconic artworks covered by successful are “Love is in the Air”, a stencil of a masked man throwing a bouquet of flowers, and “Girl with Balloon”, a stencil of a child letting go of a heart-shaped balloon.
Aside Banksy’s street art, the British artist has been creating works for sale for more than 20 years. The earliest pieces at auction date from 1998, while his earliest commercial prints are from 2002. By the late 2000s, the art world had caught up with Banksy’s popular appeal. Now, there has been a series of record-breaking sales of all kinds of works by Banksy.
