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Desperately Seeking Banksy
Explore the geography of genius in Desperately Seeking B**ksy, a pocket-sized, smaller sibling of Wheres B**ksy that illuminates the interaction between artist and space. Where its predecessor featured in-depth analysis of each piece displayed, Desperately Seeking B**ksy offers accessibility and brevity for the more casual fan. The maps are streamlined, and analysis has been replaced by individual quotes that offer insight into the inspiration behind each piece. The artwork selection is up-to-the-minute, featuring 2017s Bridge Farm Primary School and The Walled Off Hotel. With a size and price point perfect for gifting or impulse buying, it makes Banksy's work available to a wider audience than ever before. Like the other titles in the Desperately Seeking series, Desperately Seeking B**ksy looks at a major cultural icon from a brand-new perspective, providing context for his work and legacy.
- GenresArtNonfiction
136 pages, Hardcover
Published March 15, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 15, 2021
I’ve read my share of Banksy cash-ins and have enjoyed every one of them, and this is no exception. This reminded me just how onto it Banksy is, and how politically astute much of his work can be, and yet the class of moneyed morons and parasites who he often ridicules are the very clowns who are clambering over themselves to acquire and collect his work, commodifying it and turning it into just another investment or vanity piece to show off to their fellow awfuls.
Whether he’s exposing the excesses of petty local authorities savouring their petty power or calling out the latest stage crafted BS from the multi-nationals, or even just laughing at the middle-classes for their hypocrisies, Banksy is fine company, and always has something valid and relevant to say in a creatively engaging and memorable way, that forever makes him stand out from the rest.
July 16, 2018
This is a mini-anthology of Banksy’s most famous and recognizable international graffiti works in a small paper format. Some of them are thought-provoking and subversive, some others just satirical and witty.
Every image is juxtaposed to a short text that includes the subject it depicts, its original location (as most of them are today sold in Galleries’ auctions or on his personal website), a brief description of the political events and the economic-social context by which the drawings were inspired.
During my studies at the Law school, I came across this poetic expression in a boring document about the administrative decentralization in the EU: The world is like your home, except that it has few more walls..
To me, the essence of Banksy's art incarnates this quote for it humanistic and internationalist.
Banksy is an English artist from Bristol... and that’s all we know.
He remains anonymous and is still hiding his real identity, like the awesome guys from the Daft Punk. He is internationally praised for having revolutionized the graffiti art, like the DP has did too with the Electronic Dance music genre in the mid-90s. However, the two french djs used to mix at parties with uncovered faces whereas Banksy has never painted or appeared in public.
Well, anonymous unless the recent surprising revelation by an investigative journalist turns out to be true.
Craig Williams has published in the Daily Mail an article with a surprising revelation that is based on a long investigation. Williams claims that Robert 3D Del Naja, member of the famous Massive Attack band, is the guerrilla graffiti star because art keeps appearing near their gigs in different countries.
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/www.dai...
If this revelation turns out to be true, than I'll add it to the many other reasons behind my love and admiration for this band:
1-Their avant-garde Electro music
2- the remarkable and amazing appearances of immensely beautiful and talented actresses/models in the creative music videos of their latest album :
~ Rosamund Pike (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElvLZ...
~ Kate Moss ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhI5T...) who btw also happens to be painted by Banksy in a Warholish artwork (https://goo.gl/images/4l2sRh) ...hmm, could it be just another coincidence?
~ And the divine Cate Blanchett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r31D...)
More recently, a new article by The Independent seems to approve this hypothesis. It's all in the headline:
Banksy identity 'accidentally revealed by Goldie' during interview. Fans and media claim the slip up proves the artist is a member of the band Massive Attack.
[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...]
However, Goldie could also be referring to Robin Gunningham, which was the claim of a «scientific» study conducted by academics at the Queen Mary University of London in 2016. This study relies on “Geographic profiling” (Geotagging), a technique used to catch serial criminals:
~ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inde...
~ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...
Gunningham was first pinned by the Mail on Sunday as the elusive artist back in 2008.
Most journalists are inclined to believe that Robin Gunningham is really the mysterious ‘graffiti bomber’, moreover since it is believed that he was caught on camera a few months ago
https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co...
The attempts to unmask his identity are numerous but none of the claims is confirmed and the saga of Banksy’s mysterious identity still goes on..
What i find irritating is how the artist's nickname, Banksy, has become a generic term, overused as a label and as an attribute. It is tossed off by most journalists every time the subject is related to the graffiti art. It is like making an analogy between my 3 years old niece's paintings with Picasso's cubism every time she draws straight lines.
Very often, you will read articles about the Banksy-likes:
+ There are the 'Young Banksys', such as the 10 years old Solveig
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pictu...
+ The 'Rightwing Banksy', like 'Sabo', an American Republican Street artist based in LA
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...
+ There are the 'female Banksys':
-A graffiti artist called Aiku
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/www.ind...
+ And of course Bambi, the most famous one:
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/s/amp.t...
On the other hand, Banksy has inspired many female artists to get involved in this form of art:
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/s/m.mic...
Of course, in our capitalist mass-consumerist society, everything ends up being commercialized and measured by its money value. Art is no exception, as its creation for autotelic reasons by the artist seems to be an ongoing myth. Of course, I don't mean that an artist must work for free like those who consider that Art is a disinterested activity.
I meant to point out the catastrophic monopoly exercised today by the art galleries in the nauseating market of Arts, pricing the artists' artworks (the one million dollars question: what are the criterias?) and appointed as the high authority who decides for the public what is good art and what is not (Exhibit A: that pseudo-artist by the name of Jeff Koons)..
Most often, It's some clueless tasteless snobs who buy and sell these paintings as safe long-term financial investments (In the past century, the aristocrats used to finance the greatest artists (like the impressionists), but that's a long story), instead of having them displayed for the public in the more and more financially powerless museums. Anyway, that is another long debate..
The auctions at the prestigious Galleries that are featuring Banksy's artworks has no doubt tainted his reputation as a guerrilla-artist.
Btw, The book description on GR has to be updated, the prices of his artworks exceeds 45k by far, this one https://goo.gl/images/r79ZDM was sold for the modest amount of one million and a half dollars.
Banksy is a street artist. Basically, street art is defined as a visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues (..) Street art is often motivated by a preference on the part of the artist to communicate directly with the public at large, free from perceived confines of the formal art world. Street artists sometimes present socially relevant content infused with esthetic value, to attract attention to a cause or as a form of "art provocation”.
- [Wikipedia]
In 2015 Banksy has created a huge dystopian park called Dismaland (obviously lampooning Disneyland) in which he has installed huge creepy artworks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wruE....
Banksy's art takes always the form of urban activism.
He proved it again recently in 2017 with his new project, the Walled Off Hotel in Betlehem. It's an hotel packed with his artworks and with a horrible view on the concrete slabs of the separation wall
* https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglis...
* https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
Banksy's creations and epigrams are purposed, transgressive, provocative and subversive.
The political messages and symbols that his drawings and murals deliver are powerful, particularly those on the Palestinian side. He has even sneaked undercover in 2015 to the war-torn Gaza and painted a series on the rubbles and ruins of the demolished buildings in the devastated areas.
~ Some of his works in Gaza during the Israeli strikes in 2008.. Unfortunately, they are still relevant today:
https://goo.gl/images/mWZAd3
https://goo.gl/images/WyeJnJ
Again, what does Bambi paint?
Brad Pitt, for example, is alleged to have bought Bambi’s wedding portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for £60,000 as a gift for Angelina Jolie, before commissioning portraits of his own family. Other works by the street artist have fetched upwards of £100,000.
- [The Guardian]
This says it all, she is a prominent artist worthy of Banksy's legacy because Brad Pitt thinks so. Or is it the other way around, he bought her 'amazing' works because an Art gallery has said they are?
Anyway, I'm not interested in the evaluation of her artworks, my point is to show how ridiculous the analogy is between her and Banksy.
Every image is juxtaposed to a short text that includes the subject it depicts, its original location (as most of them are today sold in Galleries’ auctions or on his personal website), a brief description of the political events and the economic-social context by which the drawings were inspired.
During my studies at the Law school, I came across this poetic expression in a boring document about the administrative decentralization in the EU: The world is like your home, except that it has few more walls..
To me, the essence of Banksy's art incarnates this quote for it humanistic and internationalist.
Banksy is an English artist from Bristol... and that’s all we know.
He remains anonymous and is still hiding his real identity, like the awesome guys from the Daft Punk. He is internationally praised for having revolutionized the graffiti art, like the DP has did too with the Electronic Dance music genre in the mid-90s. However, the two french djs used to mix at parties with uncovered faces whereas Banksy has never painted or appeared in public.
Well, anonymous unless the recent surprising revelation by an investigative journalist turns out to be true.
Craig Williams has published in the Daily Mail an article with a surprising revelation that is based on a long investigation. Williams claims that Robert 3D Del Naja, member of the famous Massive Attack band, is the guerrilla graffiti star because art keeps appearing near their gigs in different countries.
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/www.dai...
If this revelation turns out to be true, than I'll add it to the many other reasons behind my love and admiration for this band:
1-Their avant-garde Electro music
2- the remarkable and amazing appearances of immensely beautiful and talented actresses/models in the creative music videos of their latest album :
~ Rosamund Pike (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElvLZ...
~ Kate Moss ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhI5T...) who btw also happens to be painted by Banksy in a Warholish artwork (https://goo.gl/images/4l2sRh) ...hmm, could it be just another coincidence?
~ And the divine Cate Blanchett (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r31D...)
More recently, a new article by The Independent seems to approve this hypothesis. It's all in the headline:
Banksy identity 'accidentally revealed by Goldie' during interview. Fans and media claim the slip up proves the artist is a member of the band Massive Attack.
[http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ent...]
However, Goldie could also be referring to Robin Gunningham, which was the claim of a «scientific» study conducted by academics at the Queen Mary University of London in 2016. This study relies on “Geographic profiling” (Geotagging), a technique used to catch serial criminals:
~ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inde...
~ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...
Gunningham was first pinned by the Mail on Sunday as the elusive artist back in 2008.
Most journalists are inclined to believe that Robin Gunningham is really the mysterious ‘graffiti bomber’, moreover since it is believed that he was caught on camera a few months ago
https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co...
The attempts to unmask his identity are numerous but none of the claims is confirmed and the saga of Banksy’s mysterious identity still goes on..
What i find irritating is how the artist's nickname, Banksy, has become a generic term, overused as a label and as an attribute. It is tossed off by most journalists every time the subject is related to the graffiti art. It is like making an analogy between my 3 years old niece's paintings with Picasso's cubism every time she draws straight lines.
Very often, you will read articles about the Banksy-likes:
+ There are the 'Young Banksys', such as the 10 years old Solveig
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pictu...
+ The 'Rightwing Banksy', like 'Sabo', an American Republican Street artist based in LA
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddes...
+ There are the 'female Banksys':
-A graffiti artist called Aiku
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/www.ind...
+ And of course Bambi, the most famous one:
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/s/amp.t...
On the other hand, Banksy has inspired many female artists to get involved in this form of art:
https://www.google.com.lb/amp/s/m.mic...
Of course, in our capitalist mass-consumerist society, everything ends up being commercialized and measured by its money value. Art is no exception, as its creation for autotelic reasons by the artist seems to be an ongoing myth. Of course, I don't mean that an artist must work for free like those who consider that Art is a disinterested activity.
I meant to point out the catastrophic monopoly exercised today by the art galleries in the nauseating market of Arts, pricing the artists' artworks (the one million dollars question: what are the criterias?) and appointed as the high authority who decides for the public what is good art and what is not (Exhibit A: that pseudo-artist by the name of Jeff Koons)..
Most often, It's some clueless tasteless snobs who buy and sell these paintings as safe long-term financial investments (In the past century, the aristocrats used to finance the greatest artists (like the impressionists), but that's a long story), instead of having them displayed for the public in the more and more financially powerless museums. Anyway, that is another long debate..
The auctions at the prestigious Galleries that are featuring Banksy's artworks has no doubt tainted his reputation as a guerrilla-artist.
Btw, The book description on GR has to be updated, the prices of his artworks exceeds 45k by far, this one https://goo.gl/images/r79ZDM was sold for the modest amount of one million and a half dollars.
Banksy is a street artist. Basically, street art is defined as a visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art venues (..) Street art is often motivated by a preference on the part of the artist to communicate directly with the public at large, free from perceived confines of the formal art world. Street artists sometimes present socially relevant content infused with esthetic value, to attract attention to a cause or as a form of "art provocation”.
- [Wikipedia]
In 2015 Banksy has created a huge dystopian park called Dismaland (obviously lampooning Disneyland) in which he has installed huge creepy artworks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wruE....
Banksy's art takes always the form of urban activism.
He proved it again recently in 2017 with his new project, the Walled Off Hotel in Betlehem. It's an hotel packed with his artworks and with a horrible view on the concrete slabs of the separation wall
* https://www.facebook.com/ajplusenglis...
* https://www.theguardian.com/world/201...
Banksy's creations and epigrams are purposed, transgressive, provocative and subversive.
The political messages and symbols that his drawings and murals deliver are powerful, particularly those on the Palestinian side. He has even sneaked undercover in 2015 to the war-torn Gaza and painted a series on the rubbles and ruins of the demolished buildings in the devastated areas.
~ Some of his works in Gaza during the Israeli strikes in 2008.. Unfortunately, they are still relevant today:
https://goo.gl/images/mWZAd3
https://goo.gl/images/WyeJnJ
Again, what does Bambi paint?
Brad Pitt, for example, is alleged to have bought Bambi’s wedding portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for £60,000 as a gift for Angelina Jolie, before commissioning portraits of his own family. Other works by the street artist have fetched upwards of £100,000.
- [The Guardian]
This says it all, she is a prominent artist worthy of Banksy's legacy because Brad Pitt thinks so. Or is it the other way around, he bought her 'amazing' works because an Art gallery has said they are?
Anyway, I'm not interested in the evaluation of her artworks, my point is to show how ridiculous the analogy is between her and Banksy.
March 17, 2019
“Remember it’s always easier to get forgiveness than permission.”
April 22, 2022
Banksy is arguably the most popular street artist in the world – perhaps with credit to the 2010 documentary, Exit Through The Gift Shop, his outlandish stunts like “Girl with the Red Balloon” getting frame-chewed, or maybe from his viral Instagram account. For relative Banksy amateurs (like me) this is a little reference guide attempting to catalog every Banksy work that still exists – plus many that have since been buffed or painted over. It’s not exhaustive nor unbiased but there are plenty of images you likely haven't seen and it’s nicely cataloged by date, location, and current status with an attempted interpretation of each one.
May 15, 2026
Il libro Cercasi Banksy disperatamente di Xavier Tapies è un saggio curioso e scorrevole che prova a ricostruire il mistero attorno a Banksy, tra arte urbana, provocazione e cultura contemporanea. La narrazione alterna aneddoti, ipotesi e riflessioni sul fenomeno mediatico legato all’artista. Nel complesso è una lettura interessante e leggera, più affascinante per il tema e la figura di Banksy che per reali rivelazioni.
March 22, 2019
This easy to read volume provides a brief insight into the symbolic meaning behind Banksy's street art. Loved some of the quotes, and it is a shame that much of the street art pieces have also disappeared.
November 13, 2018
Una raccolta tascabile dei più celebri lavori di Banksy, dagli esordi fino ai lavori più recenti.
January 6, 2019
Con due parole sulla mostra organizzata al Mudec in accompagnamento: http://capitolo23.com/2019/01/06/bank...
August 24, 2025
Magnifique introduction à l'œuvre du génial Banksy !
L'auteur fournit des clefs d'interprétation qui permettent de mieux savourer l'humour de l'artiste et d'appréhender la portée de ses messages.
On suit Banksy à travers la planète : la Grande-Bretagne, bien sûr, les USA et aussi la Palestine, souvent. Outre l'intelligence du commentaire et l'intimité de l'auteur avec l'œuvre de Banksy, on peut admirer le travail des photographes. Certaines œuvres ont une existence raccourcie par décision des pouvoirs locaux. D'ailleurs, il est amusant de constater la différence d'attitude entre des municipalités qui s'empressent d'effacer les œuvres sauvages, et celles qui, au contraire, protègent et valorisent le cadeau que leur fait le Picasso de la rue.
L'auteur fournit des clefs d'interprétation qui permettent de mieux savourer l'humour de l'artiste et d'appréhender la portée de ses messages.
On suit Banksy à travers la planète : la Grande-Bretagne, bien sûr, les USA et aussi la Palestine, souvent. Outre l'intelligence du commentaire et l'intimité de l'auteur avec l'œuvre de Banksy, on peut admirer le travail des photographes. Certaines œuvres ont une existence raccourcie par décision des pouvoirs locaux. D'ailleurs, il est amusant de constater la différence d'attitude entre des municipalités qui s'empressent d'effacer les œuvres sauvages, et celles qui, au contraire, protègent et valorisent le cadeau que leur fait le Picasso de la rue.
September 10, 2024
Non c'è molto da dire sul noto Banksy. Questo è un'atlante del lavoro poliedrico di Banksy, dove viene raccontata tutta la sua carriera artistica con un'attenta analisi di ogni opera citata. Consigliato per chi vuole conoscere sotto vari aspetti le opere dell'artista cosmopolita.
July 21, 2018
Simple overview of Banksy’s work - nice to read over a cuppa and gain a small amount of insight to the chronology and locations of his works.
October 6, 2020
Banksy 🖤
Das Buch ist sehr übersichtlich gegliedert und der Hintergrund zu jedem Werk verständlich und interessant erleutert, ich bin begeistert.
Das Buch ist sehr übersichtlich gegliedert und der Hintergrund zu jedem Werk verständlich und interessant erleutert, ich bin begeistert.
library-to-read
March 26, 2022okc metro has several items about Banksy
February 2, 2025
Io AMO Bansky
May 20, 2018
A brief look at his works around the world from 2002 and the political environs that inspired most of them.
June 28, 2020
Una bellissima raccolta delle più celebri opere di Banksy accompagnata da riflessioni che aiutano a comprendere e contestualizzare le opere stesse.
May 9, 2021
♥
Krásně zpracovaný přehled.
Krásně zpracovaný přehled.
May 28, 2025
A good overview / introduction to Banksy and his most famous pieces. Wish there was more relating to exhibitions and interventions.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews