Various exhibitions of Banksy’s work have taken place in art galleries, but until now no public museum has ever given the artist a solo exhibition.
The Italian culture museum in Milan, MUDEC – Museo delle Culture – is presenting for the first time a solo exhibition of elusive artist Banksy. The unauthorised retrospective titled ‘ The Art of Banksy. A visual protest”, curated by Gianni Mercurio, unites under one roof more than 70 works, including paintings, sculptures and prints by the artist, and accompanied by objects, photographs and video. For the first time a public institution takes a retrospective look at the work, socio-political context and philosophy of Banksy.
Stay tuned for further updates and behind the scenes access.
MUDEC “The Art of Banksy. A Visual Protest”
21 November 2018 – 14 April 2019
With the crazy art week and all the collectors gathered in London for the Frieze Art Fair and plethora of glamourous art events, a series of artworks by elusive artist Banksy were presented at prestigious auction house Sotheby’s, including his iconic Girl with Balloon for the evening auction of 5 October 2018.
Girl with a Balloon (2006) was the final lot of the night, and just as the canvas hammered at £953,829 ( totally 1,042,000 GBP after taxes) — exactly the same figure as the artist’s previous auction record, achieved in 2008 — an alarm was triggered inside the work of art. Onlookers turned just in time to see the canvas slip through its faux-gilt frame and be shredded into pieces.
Pics courtesy of Sotheby’s
“It appears we just got Banksy-ed,” said Alex Branczik, the auction house’s head of contemporary art, Europe, immediately after the sale. “He is arguably the greatest British street artist, and tonight we saw a little piece of Banksy genius,” he said, adding that he was “not in on the ruse”, although it is not clear whether other members of staff were. Some commented on the unusually thick frame, which could have easily concealed a shredding mechanism.
After a man dressed in black sporting sunglasses and a hat was seen scuffling with security guards near the entrance to Sotheby’s shortly after the incident, speculation mounted that the elusive artist had himself pressed the button that destroyed the work. According to the provenance, Girl with a Balloon was acquired directly from the artist in 2006.
“We are busy figuring out what this means in an auction context,” Branczik said. “The shredding is now part of the integral art work. We have not experienced a situation where a painting has spontaneously shredded, upon achieving a record for the artist.”
One potential outcome, according to a spokeswoman, is that the destroyed painting could be preserved as a document of the guerrilla tactic. “You could argue that the work is now more valuable,” Branczik said. “It’s certainly the first piece to be spontaneously shredded as an auction ends.”
Back in 2005, Banksy installed this ‘cave painting’ titled ‘Peckham Rock’ in one of the galleries of the British Museum without permission, and without anyone noticing.
He gave it a fake identification number and label, and it remained on the wall for three days before the Museum was alerted to the prank via Banksy’s website.
This time the British Museum has invited Banksy back to the Museum to ‘officially’ exhibit the hoax piece in the upcoming ‘I Object‘ exhibition opening on 6 September 2018, highlighting the history of dissent and protest around the world.
To conclude Banksy invasion of Paris, the elusive artist celebrated also the festive spirit of the French capital with a series of stencilled rats.
Popping champagne bottles while happy rats are flying high on top of cork bottles.
Location as always: Montmartre first, and then in the Marais district with a Bar called ‘Chez Marianne’, of course.
To complicate things further, Banksy returned several times on the same locations, updating the stencils in colours and shape as you can see on the little animations, giving them a lively feel, as they were getting stolen, repainted or covered under plexi .
In the overcrowded area of the contemporary art centre ‘Centre Pompidou’, the elusive artist returned to paint a bigger mischief rat holding a cutter.
Lastly the City of Love is celebrated with a little rat couple dressed in 19th century outfits, lovingly gazing at the Eiffel Tower in the background from under a bridge.
Continuing his Paris invasion, Banksy chose a poignant subject and spot on location.
A new stencil appeared on the exit door of the Bataclan theatre in the 11th district of Paris.
Extremely strong symbolic as it is this exact exit door where victims of terrorist attacks tried to escaped during mass shooting on 13 November 2015, leaving 89 dead and over 300 injured.
Painted on the black background of the exit door, a white stencil features a woman with a lace veil, which gives a mystical and protective aura like a Madonna.
Her face is inspired by a marble sculpture by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lombardi from 1869.
She is dressed in a uniform , reminiscent of the rescuers that did everything to save the victims that night.
The mourning woman is holding some files in one hand, maybe the victims reports and a delicate lace handkerchief on the other.
Using just a monochrome stencil, Banksy creates a strong moving memorial to the victims of terrorism in Paris, as well as a big up to the rescuer teams.
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