# Banksy Banksy is the pseudonym of an anonymous English street artist whose stencil pieces and staged art pranks made him a fixture of internet meme culture from the early 2000s onward. He is known for politically charged imagery, unsanctioned installations and viral stunts like the 2018 Sotheby's shredding of Girl with Balloon. ## Overview Banksy is the pseudonym of an anonymous English street artist whose stencil pieces and staged art pranks made him a fixture of internet meme culture from the early 2000s onward[1]. His trademark work is guerrilla stencil pieces on public walls in London, Brighton, Bristol and even along the West Bank barrier separating Israelis and Palestinians, and he counts collectors like Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera among his buyers[1]. The mystery of who Banksy really is has fueled tabloid speculation for over two decades[1]. The Daily Mail claimed in 2008 to have unmasked him as Bristol native Robin Gunningham, though the artist has never confirmed it and even his own agent has told journalists he is not certain of the identity[1]. Recognizable Banksy pieces include Girl with Balloon, a masked rioter tossing a bouquet of flowers, and a young girl frisking an Israeli soldier at the West Bank wall[2]. ## How It Spread Banksy opened a New York residency titled 'Better Out Than In' on September 28, 2013, launching the site Banksy NY to document a new city piece every day for the month of October[4]. The @banksyny Twitter account and matching Instagram feed went live on October 1 and pulled over 14,000 followers in the first week. On October 13 he set up an unmarked stall near Central Park selling original signed stencils for $60 apiece to unsuspecting tourists, then posted a hidden-camera video of the day to YouTube where it drew over two million views in the first 24 hours[4]. In June 2017 Banksy tried to intervene in the UK general election by offering a free print of a union-flag-shaded Girl with Balloon to any voter in six Bristol-area constituencies who could photograph a ballot cast against the Conservative candidate[3]. Avon and Somerset police opened an investigation and the Electoral Commission warned the stunt could invalidate the local results, so Banksy pulled the offer two days later with a mock 'product recall' notice on his site[3]. The Banksy stunt that broke through hardest online happened on October 5, 2018, when a framed print of Girl with Balloon sold at Sotheby's in London for £1,042,000[2]. Seconds after the hammer dropped, a shredder built into the frame started slicing the canvas into vertical strips as bidders watched, in a moment Sotheby's contemporary head Alex Branczik summed up on the floor as 'it appears we just got Banksy-ed'[2]. Banksy posted a photo of the half-shredded piece to Instagram captioned 'going, going, gone', and art broker Joey Syer told The Economist the shredded canvas may have doubled in value overnight[5]. ## How to Use Banksy is not a template meme, so 'using' Banksy generally means sharing photos of newly-appeared pieces on Instagram and Twitter, remixing his imagery in fan art, or referencing his stunts as shorthand for anti-establishment art humor[4]. When a new wall piece surfaces, tourists typically photograph it within hours before local authorities decide whether to shield the work behind Perspex or paint over it. Costumes based on the Molotov flower thrower and Girl with Balloon regularly show up on subreddits like /r/pics, and the shredded frame moment gets re-shared on art anniversaries every October[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Banksy? Banksy is the pseudonym of an anonymous English street artist known for stencil graffiti, politically charged imagery and elaborate art pranks staged around the world[1]. ### Where did Banksy come from? Banksy started as a freehand graffiti artist in Bristol in the early 1990s before switching to stencils around 2000 and launching his own site Banksy.co.uk on March 4 of that year[4]. ### What does Banksy mean? Banksy is a pseudonym for the artist himself, with one persistent rumor claiming his real name is a play on 'Robin Banks' and another naming him as Bristol-born Robin Gunningham[1]. ### How do you use Banksy? Fans photograph new Banksy pieces the moment they appear, share the images on Instagram and Twitter, and remix or cosplay his best-known characters like the Girl with Balloon and Molotov flower thrower[2]. ### Is Banksy still popular? Banksy pieces still command hundreds of thousands of pounds at major auction houses and his stunts keep making news, with the 2018 Sotheby's shredding of Girl with Balloon drawing worldwide coverage[2]. ### Who is Banksy really? The Daily Mail identified him in 2008 as Bristol-born Robin Gunningham, though the artist has never confirmed his identity and even his own agent has claimed uncertainty about it[1]. ### What is Girl with Balloon? Girl with Balloon is one of Banksy's most recognizable stencils, depicting a young girl reaching for a red heart-shaped balloon, and the same image was later reworked with a union flag heart for the 2017 UK election print[3]. ### What happened at Sotheby's in 2018? On October 5, 2018 a framed Girl with Balloon sold at Sotheby's in London for £1,042,000, then partially shredded itself via a mechanism Banksy had built into the frame in advance[2]. ### What was Banksy's 2013 New York residency? 'Better Out Than In' was a month-long October 2013 residency in which Banksy released a new NYC street piece each day, documented on the Banksy NY website and the matching @banksyny Instagram feed[4]. ### What was Banksy's 2017 election stunt? Banksy offered a free print to Bristol-area voters who photographed a ballot cast against the Conservative candidate, then withdrew it after the Electoral Commission warned it could invalidate results in six constituencies[3]. ### Did the shredded Girl with Balloon lose value? Art broker Joey Syer of MyArtBroker.com told The Economist the half-shredded canvas may actually have doubled in value after the Sotheby's stunt[5]. ## References 1. [https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1034538/Graffiti-artist-Banksy-unmasked---public-schoolboy-middle-class-suburbia.html]() 2. [https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/sothebys-gets-banksyed-at-contemporary-art-auction-in-london?locale=en]() 3. [https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jun/06/bansky-free-election-artwork-bristol-withdrawn]() 4. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/banksy]() 5. [https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/banksy-artwork-selfdestructs-moments-after-being-sold-at-sothebys-for-1million-a3955111.html]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/banksy Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library