Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Who is Banksy?

78 replies

saddilema · 19/02/2023 08:19

Is it common knowledge in the Art world who Banksy is?

Is part of their appeal that their identity is a mystery?

Just curious.

OP posts:
xJoy · 19/02/2023 10:20

And if it does make money, how would the creator get any of it? so not sure what the business side of things could be

Ice1 · 19/02/2023 10:22

My school mate’s mum’s best friend’s bank manager’s dog walker’s boyfriend knows someone whose sister’s stepmom lives in the next street from Banksy.

lol at you lot.

skilpadde · 19/02/2023 10:27

There was an academic research team that used geographical profiling to identify him.

dlab.epfl.ch/teaching/spring2020/cs727/papers/hauge2016tagging.pdf

Using a technique - normally used for tracking terrorists and criminals - to identify an elusive artist seems pretty creepy to me.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

BootCampSucker · 19/02/2023 10:28

xJoy · 19/02/2023 10:20

And if it does make money, how would the creator get any of it? so not sure what the business side of things could be

It's big business! He has various agents, business managers etc and makes money from official prints and other merch, books, exhibitions etc

hekissedmybottom · 19/02/2023 10:30

WeAreTheHeroes · 19/02/2023 08:36

I'm Banksy!

I'm Banksy and so is my wife.

louise5754 · 19/02/2023 10:30

I don't believe a word of this....
My husband has been military 22 years. Not army navy or raf. At our wedding there was an older guy DH worked with when he first joined. Another guy at the wedding said he was banksy and often had other ex colleagues with him travelling. He isn't on social media but he joined the SBS then retired early so that could be why. DH has known him years they have reunions every couple of years. DH said it's not true. Just a story that popped into my head just now.

mynameiscalypso · 19/02/2023 10:33

My DH has a very important job and definitely knows who he is.

CPL593H · 19/02/2023 10:33

Whoever he is, there's an open invitation for him to use our gable end if he's around! Grin

WeAreTheHeroes · 19/02/2023 10:41

hekissedmybottom · 19/02/2023 10:30

I'm Banksy and so is my wife.

I was going for "I'm Spartacus", but no one continued the theme!

unclebuck · 19/02/2023 10:45

He's a very rich man and loads of people know who he is - he was exposed years ago. He copied Blek le Rat's work - totally ripped him off, it's shameful. He's no King Robbo that's for sure, and he is deeply uncool - a fraud.

catandcoffee · 19/02/2023 10:56

So how does this person manage to paint a wall and nobody see a thing ?

Doesn't make sense to me. 🤔

WandaWonder · 19/02/2023 10:58

hekissedmybottom · 19/02/2023 10:30

I'm Banksy and so is my wife.

But is he a very naughty boy?

mumof1or2 · 19/02/2023 11:04

Sandra1984 · 19/02/2023 08:59

I have an ex who I have a good relationship with that works in a very big known airport in Europe, he’s a cop (border control) who stopped this British woman some months ago was coming into the country (not UK) with all these banksy paintings and original stencils, she was an artist travelling with her 3 female assistants and told my ex (the border officer) she had an art opening. This raised his suspicions so he investigated the whole thing before letting her inside the country. He found out she was Banksy. He may or may not be wrong but he’s never lied to me.

Banksy is 100% not a woman!

kenne · 19/02/2023 11:05

MirabelMax · 19/02/2023 09:29

I thought it was Robert Del Naja from massive attack

Yes, Goldie outed him accidentally in an interview, apparently. I remember that.

There was an early masked interview with Banksy by a tv journo. I'll try to find it. He's definitely a man.

mumof1or2 · 19/02/2023 11:07

MollyRover · 19/02/2023 09:47

I think that the widely held belief that he's Robert Del Naja makes sense. Their politics align, pieces have shown up in places that Massive Attack had recently played and having such a lucrative main gig affords him the freedom to not have to make a living from his art.

He is good friends with Massive Attack. They all grew up together.

kenne · 19/02/2023 11:15

Here's the video of him.

CrinkleCutChips · 19/02/2023 11:20

Here’s my plan to find out who it is:

  1. Do a crap mural on the side of my house
  2. Point blank insist that it’s a Banksy and do numerous interviews with high quality media outlets such as the Daily Mail and Take a Break
  3. Wait for the morons to turn up at my house and charge them £200 a photo

Then, either the real Banksy will have to admit who he is to expose me or I’ll sell my ‘Banksy’ to some pretentious twat for loads of dosh.

Simple.

CrinkleCutChips · 19/02/2023 11:23

BootCampSucker · 19/02/2023 09:46

@Sandra1984 I've referred to him as a "he" because I know he is Robin Gunningham. As per my earlier post I grew up in the same area (Stoke Bishop, Bristol) and know his family. It's not even really a secret around these parts.

Tbh I would hope that the works might be a bit more interesting if Banksy were a woman!

It’s Stokes Croft not Stokes Bishop. There’s Bishopston if that’s where you mean?

Rockbird · 19/02/2023 11:24

ToffeeNotCoffee · 19/02/2023 09:30

What's the big deal with this Banksy Graffiti vandal anyway ?

Why the glee ?

No idea. I really don't get it either, it totally leaves me cold.

Snooks1971 · 19/02/2023 11:30

catandcoffee · 19/02/2023 10:56

So how does this person manage to paint a wall and nobody see a thing ?

Doesn't make sense to me. 🤔

I’ve always wondered this too!

BootCampSucker · 19/02/2023 11:34

@CrinkleCutChips I definitely mean Stoke Bishop - it's a suburb of North West Bristol. He went to Stoke Bishop (Cedar Park) primary school and then Bristol Cathedral School for secondary.

Andante57 · 19/02/2023 11:49

catandcoffee · 19/02/2023 10:56

So how does this person manage to paint a wall and nobody see a thing ?

Doesn't make sense to me. 🤔

This has always puzzled me - a bit like crop circles.

Viviennemary · 19/02/2023 11:51

I think it's more than one person.,

megletthesecond · 19/02/2023 12:07

I think he was spotted painting one in the early hours of the morning last summer. It must be ladder, stencils, in and out quickly.

JoonT · 19/02/2023 12:17

He’s a tedious, smug, sanctimonious little twerp called Sebastian or Charles, or something like that. He grew up in a detached house, and went to a private school, but quickly realised that that wasn’t cool, and began to rebel. He went to Warwick or Durham, but dropped out to study art (which seemed a cool and rebellious thing to do). He also embraced left-wing politics. He hates Britain and is ashamed of its past (even though his great grandfather was an officer who bravely led his men off the beaches at D-Day).

That’s what I imagine, anyway. I imagine a sarky, huffy, sulky, sneering, tutting, humourless, rude, sanctimonious twerp, with no grasp of what real life is like for real people, or the real consequences of his left-wing beliefs. The more angry he gets (or claims to be), the happier he feels. He loves being outraged about food banks and the migrant crisis and that sort of thing. To him, every single migrant is a genuine refugee, everyone on disability benefits is genuinely ill. Above all, he hates NIMBYs (who are also uncool).

As for his ‘art’, it’s laughable. True art is deep, profound, unsettling, ground-breaking. It challenges us to re-think. It also presents multiple points of view, never allowing us the comfort of a simple answer. Banksy’s ‘art’ has all the intelligence and subtlety of a Disney cartoon. Everything is reduced to simplistic black and white.

Mawkish, mindless drivel.