Anonymous street artist Banksy first turned to graffiti as a miserable fourteen year old disillusioned with school. Inspired by the thriving graffiti community in his home city, Bristol, Banksy's works began appearing on trains and walls in 1993, and by 2001 his blocky, spray-painted works had cropped up all over the United Kingdom. Typically crafting his images with spray paint and cardboard stencils, Banksy is able to achieve a meticulous level of detail. His aesthetic is clean and instantly readable due to his knack for reducing complex political and social statements to simple visual elements.
His graffiti, paintings and screenprints use whimsy and humour to satirically critique war, capitalism, hypocrisy and greed — with not even the Royal family safe from his anti-establishment wit.
2004 Screenprint, on wove paper, with full margins. I. 26.5 x 35.5 cm (10 3/8 x 13 7/8 in.) S. 49.8 x 69.9 cm (19 5/8 x 27 1/2 in.) Numbered 342/600 in pencil, an unsigned impression with the artist's inkstamp in red (there was also a signed edition of 150), published by Pictures on Walls, London, with the accompanying Certificate of Authenticity issued by Pest Control, unframed.
