The Art of Banksy

Banksy is an English Graffiti Artist, yet pseudo-anonymous. He is a native of Yate, near Bristol. He was born and brought up in Bristol, England in 1974. In the beginning he started as a freehand artist of graffiti. As a beginner, he always used stencils. His first work that attracted attention of many artists from Ohio and the UK was "Walls on Fire. " By 2000, he decided to work with stencils because this art was less time consuming than others were.

Banksy's identity will forever be unknown to the world. But his work is very prolific, witty, and subversive. This makes it not so easy to forget his paintings. This graffiti artist decorates walls, zoos, and bridges of cities and towns across the world. His art works portray political, ethical, and cultural aspects of the society, often reflecting irony. His vandalism began in Paris in 1981, where he combined graffiti writing with exceptional stenciling technique like that of Blek le Rat.Banksy's stenciled graffiti's have humorous and attractive images, and sometimes with slogans as well. He always conveys a message through his images.

They are usually pro-freedom, anti-war, anti-establishment or ant-capitalist related. The subjects of his graffiti are often rats, monkeys, elderly, children, police officers, and soldiers. He also designs stickers and makes sculptors. He was also responsible for Blur's 2003's album 'Think Tank's' cover art.

Banksy's work have also been exhibited and bought by celebrities like Christina Aguilera. He has stenciled Mona Lisa in green with paint that dripped from her eyes. This mater piece was sold for 57, 600 pounds. In the year 2007, Banksy made a new record by selling his work, 'Space girl and bird' for 288, 000 pounds.

Besides these, there are many other art pieces that are high profile and classic art pieces of Banksy.
• At London Zoo, he painted, 'We are bored of fish' in a penguin enclosure, which had a height of seven foot.
• At Bristol zoo Banksy wrote, 'I want out. This place is too cold. Keeper smells. Boring. Boring. Boring' for the elephants.
• Banksy's nine paintings on the Israeli West Bank barrier were exceptionally different.Some of Banksy's images rose controversies also.
• Banksy's painting of Mona Lisa with a smiling face in yellow, was hung by Banksy in at Louvre in Paris.
• Diane Shakespeare and Peter Gibson of Keep Britain Tidy said that Banksy's street paintings were nothing but vandalism.
• Banksy's portable toilets made of plastic that resembled Glastonbury Festival's Stonehenge rose controversy.

Although Banksy's paintings and images have arose controversies, art books of his images have been published. 'Banging your head against a brick wall', 'Existencilism', 'Cut it out' and 'wall and piece' are few books that display his paintings. Every day you take a narrow lane with nothing but walls. But one fine day if you notice an image of a nude man hanging from a window, you ought to notice that. This has bought fame and money to Banksy. Who does not want that? Yet, he is anonymous.