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Hello hello, hello and welcome to English Learning for Curious Minds by Leonardo English, the show where you can listen to fascinating stories and learn weird and wonderful things about the world at the same time as improving your English.
I'm Alastair Budge, and today we are going to be talking about Banksy.
He's one of the most famous modern British artists, known for creating works that sell for millions, yet no one knows his real name.
So in this episode we are going to talk about the history of this anonymous artist, how he came to prominence, his impact on British society and some of his most famous and controversial works.
Okay then, let's get right into it and talk about Banksy.
Sotheby's is one of the oldest and most prestigious auction houses in the world.
It has sold works by Pablo Picasso, Monet, Andy Warhol, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, you name it.
And, as you might imagine, the prices are often eye-watering.
Amedeo Modigliani's New Cochet went for a whopping $157 million back in 2018.
And that is a record that might well be broken by the time you listen to this episode.
Billionaire American financiers, Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern royalty jet into London to observe the auction and fly away the next day with a new piece of art to add to their private collection.
And in October of 2018...
Sotheby's was hosting an auction that was meant to be like any other.
One of the works up for grabs was a painting called Girl with a Balloon.
It is a black stencil drawing of a young girl looking up at a red love heart shaped balloon.
Now, versions of this painting had been painted on walls all over London.
You might well have seen them yourself.
And prints had been sold at auction before.
But this painting was an original, from back in 2006, not a print.
The auctioneer introduced the work, suggested a started bid, encouraged the audience to up their bids, said the famous lines of going once, going twice and then bang went the gavel, the special hammer, to indicate that the sale was complete.
The final price for the work was 104 million pounds, something like 15 million euros when adjusting for inflation.
It was a record price for the artist at the time, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for Sotheby's.
But just as the hammer came down to indicate the sale was final, something unusual started to happen.
An alarm went off. and the painting started to slide down out of its frame.
The room erupted in gasps as the painting began shredding before their eyes like a classified document being destroyed.
This was some kind of trick.
This work of art that had just been sold for literally over a million pounds a life-changing amount of money for the artist was being destroyed immediately in front of its new owner.
It was a bold statement, but was yet another example of an artist sticking two fingers up at the art establishment.
In the case of this artist, it was not unexpected.
The artist was, and still is, only known by his pseudonym, Banksy.
Banksy's story begins in the city of Bristol, in the southwest of England.
As you may know, Bristol is a relatively small city, but it's known for its vibrant cultural and music scene and, most importantly, for our story, its graffiti culture.
Graffiti just in case you didn't know, the word is street art often sprayed or painted on a wall without the permission of the owner.
It was in the 1990s that a young Banksy began his journey into the world of street art.
Nobody knows his exact age or background, but it's widely believed that he was born in the early 1970s and grew up in the Bristol area.
Like many street artists of the time, Banksy was drawn to graffiti as a way of making a statement of rebelling against authority and of turning the dull grey walls of a city into something vibrant, alive and thought-provoking.
He started as part of a graffiti crew that would dash around the city at night spraying tags, murals and large big letters that boldly proclaimed the names of the artists.
But Banksy was not your run-of-the-mill graffiti artist.
Something about his work was different.
His art was more than just a name on a wall.
It was pretty clear that he wanted it to tell a story, to get people to stop and think.
One of his first iconic works was called The Mild Mild West, which shows a teddy bear throwing a Molotov cocktail at riot police.
This was thought to be a statement against police cracking down heavily on rave culture, big illegal dance parties and warehouses, and with Banksy's way of saying that even hippies and otherwise non-confrontational types of people can fight back against authority.
If you've seen some of Banksy's works, you'll know that the police is a recurrent theme.
Police officers often doing unexpected things or being in unexpected situations.
And if you've seen a Banksy, you will know that they are almost always inimitable.
They are unquestionably him.
And it isn't just the content or message of the art that is unmistakably Banksy, but the style.
While many graffiti artists would start from scratch, armed with just a can of spray paint against a blank wall, almost all of Banksy's works are done using stencils.
Stencils are the cut-out shapes that you can place onto something.
Spray everywhere, then remove and you are left with your desired shape.
He would later say that he got this idea after running away from the police one night and noticing a stenciled plate on the truck he was hiding under.
If he could use the same technique with his graffiti, it would massively reduce the amount of time it took to put up a mural and therefore reduce the risk of getting caught.
And just in case it needs underlining, like in most countries, in the UK, graffiti is illegal.
You cannot do it without the permission of the person who owns the building.
But through the use of stencils, Banksy's murals appeared overnight, transforming black walls before sunrise, leaving police none the wiser.
And by the late 1990s, Banksy's art was popping up all over Bristol.
The style was inimitable.
It was clearly him.
But they weren't signed.
There was no tag, no nothing.
It was Banksy.
But who was Banksy?
Nobody knew.
This anonymity was wasn't just a choice, of course, it was a necessity.
Street art is illegal, and if his identity were revealed, he could be prosecuted.
But over the years, this anonymity has added to his mystique.
Who is Banksy?
I've been referring to Banksy as he, because there have been multiple interviews with a masked man who says he is Banksy and Banksy's agent refers to him as he.
But over the years, this has been questioned.
If he is a man, who is he?
And what if he isn't a man, but a woman, or even a collection of people working together as Banksy?
It is a closely guarded secret, and this mystery has only fuelled the public's fascination with his work.
By the early 2000s, Banksy's work had started to appear beyond Bristol.
His unique style, witty, satirical and deeply political, could be found in cities all over the UK.
And here, it's important to emphasise that his art was public.
It was street art, done specifically in public places to be consumed by the public.
It wasn't confined to galleries or museums.
It was on walls, bridges and streets, often in places you wouldn't expect.
And these murals carried powerful messages.
They made people stop, think and sometimes laugh.
One of his early famous works, Kissing Coppers, was painted on the side of a pub in Brighton.
Now, copper is a British slang term for a police officer.
And Brighton is a city known for being open-minded and inclusive and is often named as the UK's gay capital.
And this work Kissing Coppers showed two policemen, two male police officers, passionately kissing in their full police uniform, complete with helmets, batons and handcuffs.
Now, what made Banksy's work stand out wasn't just the quality of the art, it was the way it challenged society and got people to stop and think about whatever message the artist was trying to send.
His murals were political, satirical and often critical of those in power.
He mocked consumerism capitalism, war and even the art world itself, which would be especially evident in the case of the self-destructing million-pound painting we heard about at the start of the episode.
To make these statements, he would travel all over the world and address issues much larger and more delicate than the police presence in Bristol.
In 2005, for example, Banksy travelled to the Middle East and painted several images on the wall that separates Israel from the West Bank.
One of these works depicted a small girl being lifted into the air by balloons, as if floating over the wall to freedom, and another depicted a hole in the wall looking through to an idyllic beach scene.
These works were not just art.
They were political statements set against one of the most politically charged backdrops in the world.
Whether you think it is right for a Bristolian graffiti artist to be weighing in on these kinds of issues is another question.
But what is undeniable is that making these kinds of political statements was turning Banksy into a global phenomenon.
His works began appearing in cities like London, New York and Los Angeles, each one stirring up discussion and debate.
People began to actively seek out his murals, turning them into tourist attractions.
And it raised questions about who owned the art.
Banksy used other people's property, their houses, offices and shops, as his canvas.
So he didn't own the art, whoever owned the building did.
And as his fame grew, so did demand for his work.
People started cutting his murals out of walls and selling them at auctions for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of pounds.
This presented a strange contradiction.
Banksy's art was meant to be for everyone, accessible on the streets, unfiltered by the art world.
But as his fame grew, the demand for his work skyrocketed, and pieces that had once been painted for free on public walls were being removed, sold and locked away in private collections.
Banksy had always criticised the art world for being elitist and overly commercialised.
Yet that very same art world seemed unable to resist him.
It wasn't just his art that they wanted, it was his rebelliousness, his mystique.
The more he mocked the art establishment, the more it embraced him.
Banksy, however, seemed to be fully aware of this irony and wasn't afraid to make fun of it.
In one episode in 2013, he set up a stall in New York's Central Park where passersby could buy original pieces of his work for just 60 a pop 60 each.
The catch?
The stall was unmarked, and the person working there gave no clues about who had created the pieces.
Of the tens of thousands of people who walked past that stall, only a handful bought anything, unaware that they were walking away with genuine Banksy works worth tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars.
The Central Park stunt wasn't just a clever joke. it was a perfect demonstration of his philosophy.
It showed that art's value is often determined more by the name attached to it than by the piece itself.
Without the brand of Banksy.
His work was just another street vendor's offering, ignored by most passers-by.
And sometimes the stunts were even larger in scale.
In 2015, he unveiled Dismaland, a satirical theme park in Weston-super-Mare, a small seaside town in the west of England quite close to Bristol, where he's thought to have grown up.
It was advertised as a bemusement park, as a family theme park unsuitable for children.
Now, just in case you didn't get the puns there, it is bemusement instead of amusement and it is called Dismaland because he has swapped Disney for dismal, meaning very bad.
The park featured sculptures, installations and pieces from over 50 artists, but everything about it was designed to feel dystopian and unsettling.
Each element challenged the visitors' expectations of a traditional theme park.
There was a grim Cinderella's Castle complete with a crashed pumpkin carriage and paparazzi snapping photos of the wreck, like they did with Princess Diana.
There was a fake payday loan shop for kids where children could get an advance on their pocket money at a 5000 interest rate.
And there were fake security cameras everywhere, a not-so-obvious criticism of the constant surveillance of the British state.
What's more, Staff members were deliberately unhelpful and rude, as if mocking the forced cheerfulness of traditional theme parks.
And tickets were only £3 for the day a tiny fraction of what it would cost to go to the real Disneyland.
It was funny, yes, but it was also a sharp critique of consumer culture, the media and the police.
That was back in 2015.
But Banksy is still active today.
People are still waking up to find that their walls have been redecorated with a new piece of art.
Sometimes the messages are obvious.
Sometimes they're not, with journalists rushing to have their say on what Banksy might be trying to tell us.
In terms of its impact.
First and foremost, Banksy has completely changed the way we think about street art.
What was once considered vandalism or graffiti has been redefined as legitimate art worthy of public admiration, academic study and, as a consequence, eye-wateringly high price tags when sold at auction.
But much of his art has never been sold or removed from its original location. has remained public.
And by taking art out of the galleries and creating it on the streets, he democratised it.
Banksy has given art back to the people, creating pieces that are free to view, often in places where you'd least expect them.
His art doesn't require an understanding of fine art history or a degree in modern art.
It appeals directly to emotions and common experiences.
It speaks to people directly.
Whether you agree with his politics or not, it is easy to understand.
It's often funny, it's clever, and it's deeply emotional.
A child reaching for a balloon, young boys searching for freedom, a pair of policemen in a tender embrace.
These are images that anyone can understand and they stick in your mind long after you've seen them.
Banksy has also sparked debate about what art even is.
Is it still art if it's painted illegally, or does this illegality add to its power?
Does art lose its meaning when it's cut out of a wall and sold at auction?
When it's done completely against the artist's wishes?
Can a shredded painting still be considered valuable?
These questions don't have any easy answers, and Banksy seems to enjoy keeping it that way.
By staying anonymous, he's shifted the focus away from the artist and back to the art itself.
Banksy, in many ways, is a paradox.
He is a famous artist who has chosen to remain anonymous.
He's critical of consumerism and capitalism, yet his works sell for millions.
He creates art that belongs to the streets.
Yet it's often cut out and sold to private collectors.
And perhaps this paradox is exactly why Banksy is so fascinating.
He doesn't fit into any neat categories.
He refuses to play by the rules.
And in doing so, he's changed the game entirely.
So the next time you see a blank wall, perhaps you'll wonder if it's waiting for a Banksy.
And the next time you see a Banksy, you'll know it's much more than just a piece of art.
It's a story, a statement, and maybe even a little bit of history.
Okay then, that is it for today's episode on Banksy.
I hope it's been an interesting one and that you've learned something new.
As always, I would love to know what you thought of this episode.
Had you heard of Banksy before?
If so, what do you think of him?
Do you think that street art is as worthy of acclaim and praise as other forms of art?
And are there similar Banksy-type characters in your country?
I would love to know, so let's get this discussion started.
You can head right into our community forum, which is at communityleonardoenglishcom, and get chatting away to other curious minds.
You've been listening to English Learning for Curious Minds by Leonardo English.
I'm Alistair Budge.
You stay safe and I'll catch you in the next episode.
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