There's more to Banksy than the painting on the wall: the first
in-depth investigation into the mysteries of the world's most famous
living artist.
Banksy is the world's most famous living artist, yet no one knows who he
is. For more than twenty years, his wryly political and darkly humorous
spray paintings have appeared mysteriously on urban walls around the
globe, generating headlines and controversy. Art critics disdain him,
but the public (and the art market) love him. With this generously
illustrated book, artist and critic Carol Diehl is the first author to
probe the depths of the Banksy mystery. Through her exploration of his
paintings, installations, writings, and Academy Award-nominated film,
Exit through the Gift Shop, Diehl proves unequivocally that there's
more to Banksy than the painting on the wall.
Seeing Banksy as the ultimate provocateur, Diehl investigates the dramas
that unfold after his works are discovered, with all of their social,
economic, and political implications. She reveals how this trickster
rattles the system, whether during his month-long 2013 self-styled New
York "residency" or his notorious Dismaland of 2015, a full-scale
dystopian "family theme park unsuitable for children" dedicated to the
failure of capitalism. Banksy's work, Diehl shows, is a synthesis of
conceptual art, social commentary, and political protest, played out not
in museums but where it can have the most effect--on the street, in the
real world. The questions Banksy raises about the uses of public and
private property, the role of the global corporatocracy, the
never-ending wars, and the gap between artworks as luxury goods and as
vehicles of social expression, have never been more relevant.
