Banksy 'Banksquiat' (Grey) Print Up For Auction

Artist: Banksy
Title: Banksquiat (Grey)
Medium: 2 Color Screen Print on Card
Size: 69.8 x 75 cm
Edition: 300
Price: Up For Auction

 

*one of my favorite Banksy prints is up for auction at Koller

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Banksy is a British street artist, political activist, filmmaker and absolute legend whose identity remains one of contemporary art’s most closely guarded secrets. Active since the early 1990s, he began as a freehand graffiti writer in Bristol before developing a signature style of stencilled images that combine dark humour with trenchant social commentary. His works appear overnight on walls, bridges and buildings around the world, addressing themes such as war, consumerism, surveillance and the hypocrisy of the art market itself.

Iconic pieces include Girl with a Balloon, a small child reaching towards a heart shaped balloon that has become one of the most reproduced images of the 21st century; Flower Thrower, depicting a rioter hurling a bouquet instead of a Molotov cocktail; and Devolved Parliament, a vast canvas showing chimpanzees occupying the House of Commons, which sold for over £9 million in 2019. Each image is cut from layered stencils, sprayed in high contrast black and white, then accented with selective colour to amplify the emotional punch.

Banksy’s interventions extend beyond walls. In 2015 he opened Dismaland, a temporary dystopian theme park that critiqued media spectacle while attracting international headlines. More recently he funded the Louise Michel, a rescue vessel painted hot pink that has saved hundreds of refugees crossing the Mediterranean. His works have been hacked out of walls, auctioned for millions and even shredded moments after being sold, an act that doubled the hammer price and underlined his ongoing assault on the commodification of creativity.

Despite global fame, Banksy continues to operate outside traditional systems, producing art that is free to view, impossible to ignore and instantly recognisable, proving that a single stencil can still speak louder than entire advertising budgets.