BANKSY

BANKSY

Banksy is the pseudonym for an anonymous British artist known for his grafitti, street art and dark humour. We have absolutely no information about him : nobody knows where or when he was born. I really appreciate this artist's work because he doesn't do these caligraphic horrors that I call vandalism. These so called pieces of arts contribute nothing to the scenery or the street that they're painted on. His most famous art piece has to be the Flower Thrower painted in 2003. This piece of art has been reenacted by the band Thirty Seconds To Mars in their music video Kings and Queens released in 2009.                                                                                                                                                  

I think Banksy is one of my favorite artists even if I'm not that much of an expert in the art world. He converys a message in each and everyone of his street art, he isn't afraid to make fun of any form of power or authority and even religion. For example in August 2004 he printed a large amount of £10 bills but he replaced Queen Elizabeth's head with the face of Princess Diana and substituted "Bank of England" with "Banksy of England". I think that even if we don't know who he is, he tries to make a change, in his own way of course. The same year he went to Palestine and painted 8 pieces on the wall that seperates Palestine and Israel. About the third picture, an old man said to Banksy "You paint the wall, you make it look beautiful" he thanked the man who then replied "We don't want it to be beautiful, we hate this wall. Go home". Banksy is truely an international artist. He's left his mark in San Francisco, Paris where he managed to put one of his paintings in the Louvre for an unkown duration of time, Barcelona ,New York City and many other places.
There are so many other things that could be said about the artist like the controversy around him, the fact that everyone wants to find out who he really is. But I don't ever want to know who he is, I want Banksy to stay anonymous so I can be proud to say that I lived in the time of an incredible artist who did his work without ever feeling the need to reveal his identity.

"When you go to an art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionaires."