Category Archives: Banksy art

Banksy art, Banksy record covers

Portraits by the Artist Known as Banksy.

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Banksy’s art contains many portraits of anonymous policemen, usually engaged in various nefarious activities, as well as smiling soldiers, and a multitude of rats and monkeys. But here I’m concerned with his recognisable portraits. Here represented by record. and book covers.

Banksy knows his art history–convincingly documented in Kelly Grovier’s book How Banksy Saved Art History. Banksy knows his Warhol as evidenced by his series of prints of Tesco soup cans and his 2005 series of portraits of Kate Moss, portrayed in a similar manner to Warhol’s early Marilyn paintings and prints, and in a similar array of colour variations, begging the question “is Kate Moss the twenty-first century’s Marilyn?”

Kate Moss by Banksy on Dirty Funker’s Let’s Get Dirty 12″ vinyl record.

Otherwise, formal portraits are rare occurrences in Bansy’s oeuvre, I have only been able to find a handful. In 2003, Banksy’s portrait of Nick Cave was the cover image of the first edition of Nick Cave’s The Complete Lyrics 1978–2001.

Later updated editions of the book dispensed with this portrait, though the original Italian version had the same cover image, but without the spray-painted name.

Banksy designed the covers for Blak Twang’s 2002 album Kik Off and the singles and EPs taken from it with portraits of Blak Twang (real name Tony Olabode) himself in various poses; sitting in an armchair, standing and together with Estelle (full name Estelle Fanta Swaray).

Banksy’s portrait of Busta Rhymes (Trevor George Smith Jr.) is on the cover of a 2006 compilation album Busta Rhymes Originals.

In 2004, Banksy portraited the nine-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc in his Napalm Girl print mocking both capitalism and war in a single work. She appears on Final Prayer’s 2006 album Right Here, Right Now.

The oonly other recognisable portrait that I’m aware of is from his Queen Vic print from 2003 that reappeared on a much counterfeited 12-inch cover of Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now from 2007.

It seems that these seven portraits are anomaies among all the hundreds of images Banksy has produced. The Kate Moss, Nick Cave, Blak Twang and Busta Rhymes portraits are what I would call “formal” portraits. The others are satirical images.

Banksy art, Banksy exhibitions, Banksy. Building Castles in the Sky, Stefano Antonelli

An Authoritative Book on Banksy’s Art.

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There is a cultural organisation in Italy called Azzociatione Metamorfosi that arranges educational art exhibitions ranging from Michaelangelo to Caravaggio and most recently the artist known as Banksy. Metamorfosi have engaged art experts Stefano Antonelli, Gianluca Marziani and the British gallerist Acoris Andipa to curate an unauthorised exhibition of the Banksy’s art currently called Banksy: Building Castles in the Sky. The organisers are careful to point out that the exhibition does not involve Banksy himself nor does it include works removed from buildings or public spaces.

The exhibition was first shown at the Palazzo Cipolla in Rome in 2016 when it was called War, Capitalism and Liberty. The current exhibition opened in Genoa in November 2019 and was called The Second Principle of Banksy. It moved to several Italian cities during 2020 and thereafter to Basel and finally to Lugarno in Switzerland metamorphosing into its present form as Banksy: Building Castles in the Sky. The exhibition opened at the former Institute of Photography, 250 Bowery, New York, on May 28th 2022 and will run until the end of the year.

The catalogue from the Banksy: Building Castles in the Sky exhibition, 2022.

In 2021 Antonelli and Marziani published their book Banksy in Italian and published it in English in May 2022 to coincide with the opening of the New York exhibition. The book, Simply entitled Banksy is published by Rizzoli/Elektra (ISBN 978-0-8478-7276-3).

It is, as far as I know, the first authoratative and critical analysis of Banksy’s art produced by independant art experts. It runs to 240 pages and is profusely illustrated in colour. All the best-loved Banksy images are, of course, included along with many less well-known ones. There’s Girl With Balloon, Rage: Flower Thrower, Monkey Parliament all arranged along a timeline so the reader can follow the artist’s progression. It’s reasonaby priced at £29.95 / $40.

Banksy art, Banksy exhibitions, Banksy. Building Castles in the Sky, Robert del Naja, Unused cover art

Banksy’s Cover Art for a Massive Attack Album That Was Never Used.

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There’s a wonderful (unauthorised) Banksy retrospective in New York at the moment. It’s called Banksy — Building Castles in the Sky and includes paintings, prints, posters, a sculpture, books and a selection of record and CD covers showing the many facets of Banksy’s art. It’s at 250 Bowery, on the Lower East Side, until December 31st 2022.

But there is one piece in particular that I’ve never seen before. It’s an early painting on board that was intended to be used as the cover art for a Massive Attack album (for Mezzanine I wonder?) However, it was never used.

This piece, 71 x 74 cms is dated 1998-1999 and is one of the first works one sees when entering the exhibition. It portrays Robert del Naja as a DJ in front of a circular saw. The sky background — reminicent of Yoko Ono’s cover for John Lennon’s Imagine album or the cloud on the cover of the Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace in Toronto 1969 album — is painted while Del Naja is stencilled onto the background.

The star that Del Naja seems to be staring at recurs on Banksy’s Zapatista footballer from 2001.

Thus, the Cloud DJ image should be added to a discography of Banksy art on record, CD or cassette.