The Banksy Exhibition has been seen around the world and had finally arrived in London. It was held in an ex-warehouse ex-restaurant in Covent Garden. I wanted to see for myself ‘Girl with Balloon’, ‘Flower Thrower’ and ‘Rude Copper’.
From the Exhibition’s website
1. Banksy is reputedly worth a cool $50million, though that’s probably a conservative estimate.
2. Internet rumours persist that Banksy’s real identity is Robert Gunningham, but some suspect he may be Robert Del Naja, lead singer of Massive Attack or even James Ame, a British graffiti artist who lives in Israel.
3. When he started out, most of Banksy’s art was created freehand before he moved into the use of stencilling in the 1990s.
4. Banksy once paid tribute to French artist Monet, recreating his famous Water Lilies with the addition of a couple of shopping trollies and a traffic cone.
5. In 2004 Banksy printed a bunch of spoof £10 note. These ‘forgeries’ featured Princess Diana’s face and the words ‘Banksy of England’.
The Exhibition
Our booking at the COVID secure Exhibition was for 12.30. We arrived early and went straight in. I had to leave my camera bag outside but wonder of wonders could take my camera in and take as many photos as I liked as long as no flash was used.
There were only a handful of people in the Exhibition and we could easily linger to look at the many prints and ‘originals’.
Quotes
Banksy famously added to the exhibits in museums that went undiscovered often for weeks…
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One of the many Banksy Tesco references.
And the ones I wanted to see…
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Here are Banksy’s rats
And another Banksy that I wanted to see…
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And finally the signature rat . .
We walked around Covent Garden before heading to the Underground station to catch the Circle Line to get to Brick Lane.