Banksy

Graffiti

Street art

Biography

Difference

Artist or Vandal

Self-destruction

Who Is Banksy?

Banksy's Identity?

The two names most often suggested are Robert Banks and Robin Gunningham. Pictures that surfaced of a man who was supposedly Banksy pointed toward Gunningham, an artist who was born in Bristol in 1973. Gunningham moved to London around 2000, a timeline that correlates with the progression of Banksy's artwork.

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Writing or drawings scribbled, scratched, or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place.

Artwork that is created in a public space, typically without official permission.

Graffiti

Street art

Definitions

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what is the difference between graffiti and street art?

An exact, black-and-white answer might be difficult to pinpoint.

Artists themselves may also have varying personal definitions for the two terms based on how they prefer their work to be categorized, or even intentionally create public art installations that have characteristics of both graffiti and street art.

Much of UK-based street art icon Banksy’s work is the perfect example of this. Known for his political and anti-war street art, the artist creates all of his work illegally while working under the alias of “Banksy” to avoid arrest. This alone would classify his creations as graffiti, but consider the fact that much of his work is also image-based, with the specific intention of engaging and speaking to the general public, and the lines are quickly blurred.

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On Friday, auction house Sotheby’s sold a painting by British graffiti artist Banksy for $1.4 million. The piece was a copy of one of the artist’s most famous works, an image of a girl releasing a red balloon, and moments after it was sold, the painting self-destructed, shredding itself while onlookers watched.

In a video, Banksy explained that he had secretly installed a shredder in the frame of the painting, titled “Girl with Balloon,” to destroy it if it ever went up for auction. The anonymous artist is known for creating satirical and subversive political art, and by shredding the painting, he essentially turned the auction itself into a work of art, quoting artist Picasso in an Instagram post: “the urge to destroy is also a creative urge.”

Banksy’s paintings self-destructed

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