A force of a generation always replaces the other, in the same domain, over time.
And Banksy is one of such forces of nature and a living legend not many people in Hyderabad know about, hence I decided to write about him.
Again, I can’t say if it’s a him or a her (Let’s just refer the protagonist as a HIM), now the reason I say this is because he’s the greatest living graffiti artist who never revealed himself. He’s done huge murals all over the world and in stunning- controversial places, yet no one knows how and what he looks like. His anonymity only adds to the mystery surrounding him.
Before Banksy, we had Jackson Pollock and before him we had Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, and prior to them we had Pablo Picasso. All of them being masters of their work and expressing their ideas in a way like never done before.
What I specially love about Banksy is that he comments a lot about Politics and the state of the current affairs, makes it fun to see and understand the sort of distorted reality we live in.
Let me give you an example…
I’m not certain where exactly he did this, but it does have quite a bit to say.
How about the next one? That for sure is one hell of a comment about the political situation in the Middle East.
And I absolutely love this one….
A lot of you might say that Graffiti is vandalism, but, what you fail to see is what people are trying to depict. Yes, careless graffiti with swear words and etc on the walls is truly just blatant vandalism, I wouldn’t disagree with that. There is so much more to Street Art than what we already know.
Banksy held an interesting showcase in New York, where he announced he was coming to New York and would do murals/art work everyday all across the city and would post pictures of it on Instagram.
The world went mad, cause everyone then thought they would get a glimpse of the genius!
Everyone across New York started to search for him aggressively all over but as he’s the master of anonymity, no one could find him, and yes he did his artwork everyday.
The only thing we know about Banksy is that he is English and came from somewhere around Bristol.
If you happen to find a Banksy, just leave it where it is, cause it is meant to be appreciated that way.
Now a days a Banksy can easily go for anywhere between £500,000 to £15 million, sometimes £50 million !
He’s a really smart artist because he always leaves the public in awe and shows them their sides they’ve never seen!
Banksy conducted a huge Amusement Park sort of theme and allowed artsits all around the world to be featured in his park and called it Dismaland. I assure you that you would love the sort of things Dismaland had!
Also, Banksy made a film, which is of much discussion whether or not if it was a Mockumentary or was it a real film, because that’s just how Banksy is. This film is the closest you’ll ever get to Banksy and his process, it is called Exit Through the Gift Shop, it is up on Youtube and I’ll leave a link right here if you’re interested to watch it at all…
Banksy- Exit Through the Gift Shop:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSz7kq0Qo7o
This is one of the top most documentaries of all time.
Alas, although there is much to say, I would only let you discover the man himself and get into the head of this guy…
Banksy is truly a genius of my time and I’m proud to have been in this generation.
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