He's probably the world's best known artist, and yet nobody truly knows who he is. Banksy, the
revolutionary graffiti artist, is world renowned, and has produced works of graffiti everywhere from
his homeland of the UK to the United States and even Palestine. For his fame- and infamy- though,
nobody has yet been able to decisively pin down who exactly is the enigmatic artist. Or have they?
Banksy is known to have a juvenile record, and began his graffiti career in 1990. Despite
Britain's tough stance on graffiti, the young artist pulled off several risky graffiti stunts
at a young age, gaining him street cred and an invitation into the Bristol underground scene.
It was there that he met photographer Steve Lazarides, who would go on to not just document
his work, but sell it as he became his art agent. Graffiti is a painstaking affair though,
and nothing was worse than getting caught in the act or being chased off by the
bobbies (note to animators, these are cops) before your work was done. Thus one day while hiding
under a garbage truck from the local bizzies (note to animators, also cops), Banksy saw the stenciled
numbering on the truck and realized he could pull off complicated artwork relatively quickly if he
too turned to stenciling. In a very real sense, Banksy owes his entire career to a garbage truck.
Stenciling would prove revolutionary for Banksy, and allowed him to spread his artwork prolifically
across the UK. Yet Banksy was hardly bank...sy'ing from his artwork, earning a few hundred pounds
here and there for random pieces he managed to sell. All of this would change though when
Banksy's work took the leap from vandalism to true art- thanks to Christina Aguilera. She would buy
one of Banksy's original prints at auction for twenty five thousand pounds- which in non-Harry
Potter money is around $34,000- and just like that buying graffiti art was the in thing to do.
Banksy's art began going for tens of thousands of pounds a piece, which is rather ironic for someone
who's primary themes include anti-capitalism and the vapidity of modern culture.
Banksy's popularity would truly explode with the release of the documentary, Exit Through The Gift
Shop. The film was directed by Banksy himself, and featured the story of a French immigrant,
Thierry Guetta, who accidentally stumbles into the underground art scene in LA
and falls in love with it. It's a tragic tale of materialism over art, as Guetta goes from
awakening artist to full-blown sell-out. The film premiered at the Sundance Festival in Park City,
Utah, in 2010, and was accompanied by 10 street art installations by Banksy himself in Park City
in order to promote the film- which seems like a complete capitalist sell-out thing to do,
but nobody tell Banksy we said that. But ok, who exactly is Banksy, and has anyone
come close to unlocking Banksy's Clark Kent alter ego? Well, turns out science may have the answer.
Using geographic profiling, which is a scientific way of saying that researchers stalked somebody's
social media and real-life travel plans, it was believed in 2008 that Banksy was actually
Robin Gunningham, who was himself an artist. Banksy would go on to deny this, but then again
Batman would probably deny he was Bruce Wayne too. In 2018 Gunningham put up a piece of early artwork
he had made for sale, and many people saw striking similarities between it and early Banksy pieces.
For the researchers who concluded Gunningham was the real deal, their geolocation data is
enough evidence to prove who the real Banksy is. But the problem is that Gunningham is not the only
person whom geolocation data manages to implicate as a possible Banksy. A newer theory posits that
Banksy is actually one of the members of rock band Massive Attack- or possibly, all of them.
Banksy rose to fame along the same timeline, and the same place, as Massive Attack.
Growing up in Bristol, Banksy says that he was inspired by graffiti artist 3D, otherwise
known as Robert Del Naja, who happened to be a founding member of Massive Attack. Both Banksy
and Del Naja were active in the same city at the same time, and Del Naja even appeared in Banky's
Exit Through The Gift Shop. But this theory claims that Del Naja is only part of the Banksy identity,
as Banksy is not just one person- but several individuals led by Del Naja. The theory does
have some traction too, as careful analysis of appearances of Banksy artwork shows that it very
closely follows tour schedules for Massive Attack. The evidence includes six murals discovered on
May 1st, 2010 in San Francisco, after Massive Attack performed there just three days earlier.
A week after a Banksy mural was discovered in Toronto, Massive Attack was also performing there.
Lastly, on that same tour, Massive Attack played in Boston's Chinatown a day after
a new Banksy popped up on a local wall there. Previously in 2006, Massive Attack performed
in Los Angeles just a week before Banksy's well-publicized Barely Legal exhibition.
In 2008, 14 Banksies appeared in New Orleans to commemorate the third anniversary of Hurricane
Katrena, while at the same time Del Naja was co-writing the soundtrack to a Hurricane Katrena
themed documentary entitled Trouble The Water. With all these coincidences one of two things is
certain- either Banksy is a big fan of Massive Attack, or Banksy is Massive Attack, as the
theory posits that it's a team of individuals behind the famous artist, and not just one man.
There's been plenty of sightings of individuals working on Banksy pop-ups, and some have even
been captured on film, yet no solid identity has yet been confirmed in any of these cases.
With so many rumors speculating about the real identity of the world's most enigmatic artist,
it actually begins to make sense that Banksy is not just one lone individual,
but rather a group of individuals all coordinating to create artistic murals
in a short amount of time on city walls all over the US and the Uk. In the end,
the enigma is part of the Banksy charm though, and if his real identity was ever confirmed investors
fear that the price of a Banksy would plummet dramatically. If Banksy is truly as subversive
and anti-capitalist as he- or they- claim to be, then maybe that's his entire goal, although
at this point with the millions made off Banksy sales, we doubt the point would be well received.
So next time you see someone spray painting something that looks suspiciously Banksy-related,
snap a picture, because you just might help unmask the world's most enigmatic artist.
Also, London and Bristol have thousands of pounds worth of fines waiting to be handed out for
graffiti'ng on public and private property. Now for an extremely related video,
check out How do ‘dumb’ paintings sell for millions? Or click this other video instead!