Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #553 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Synopsis
Artistic genius, political activist, painter and decorator, mythic legend or notorious graffiti artist? The work of Banksy is unmistakable, except maybe when it's squatting in the Tate or New York's Metropolitan Museum. Banksy is responsible for decorating the streets, walls, bridges and zoos of towns and cites throughout the world. Witty and subversive, his stencils show monkeys with weapons of mass destruction, policeman with smiley faces, rats with drills and umbrellas. If you look hard enough, you'll find your own. His statements, incitements, ironies and epigrams are by turns intelligent and cheeky comments on everything from the monarchy and capitalism to the war in Iraq and farm animals. His identity remains unknown, but his work is prolific. Here's the best of his work in a fully illustrated colour volume - including brand material.

From the Publisher
The collected works of Britain's most wanted artist

About the Author
Banksy, real name unknown, was born in Bristol

Customer Reviews

Outstanding
This book is great! It's funny, artistic, intelligent, and emotionally harrowing (in places on the subject of third world hunger and war) all rolled into one. There isn't that much writing but I think this is a good thing as his work is brilliant and the minimalistic amount of text allows for reflection.

From the back cover:

"There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover" - Metropolitan Police Spokesman

Awesome and a good coffee table book/talking point as well.

My Nan think's he's ace!

Colourful, vibrant, real, hopeful!
Persecuted in our fast and modern ways we thought the happiness will emerge eventually out of the individualistic work and the enhanced personal security. But instead of happiness we became fearful of the person next to us in such a way we caused depression.

We thought of a million ways to overcome the walls of our communication. Then Banksy, simply and quietly, used the language the humans always knew: "art". Using the freedom we always envy: "our walls". Exposing the obvious where political correctness or personal gain make us go silent: "graffiti".

Enjoy the book.

Banksy - a great summary of his work
The book summarizes his work pretty good. The new book (Banksy's Bristol - Home sweet home) does contain a lot of background stories - but this book just contains much more images and niece pieces of art.

Definitely a must-have, if you are interested in (stencil) graffiti.