Banksy’s “Yellow Lines Flower Painter” is shown after restoration. The Fine Art Restoration Company removed the graffiti covering the piece and placed the recovered wall in a large metal frame. The story of the restoration will be on view through March 31 at Meuse Gallery Aspen, 601 E. Hyman Ave.
Banksy has left the building. The question is: Was he ever here at all?
That query has been asked countless times over the years since the 1990s when his politically driven street art started appearing on streets in London and Bristol, tagged with the signature, “Banksy.”
What if Banksy isn’t even a he? What if Banksy is a woman? What if Banksy is a conglomerate of street artists? What if Banksy is a secret society created at London’s University of The Arts from the class of 1988? What if Banksy is a corporation?
The identity of Banksy is one of the great secrets of art in the 21st century. (For the purposes of this article, Banksy will be referred to as a he).
Banksy’s work is the focus of a new show “Banksy — Restored and Reclaimed” opening to the public on Saturday at The Meuse Gallery (601 E. Hyman Ave., No. 201). The show is free and open to the public through March 31.
Banksy’s first piece of street art appeared in his hometown of Bristol in 1997. The piece was called “The Mild Mild West” and featured police officers holding shields marching toward a teddy bear holding a grenade. The anti-authoritarian absurdity of the image announced a new talent who would rise to international fame.
Over the last 27 years, Banksy’s street art, created with stencils and spray paint, have shown up on walls, bridges, phone booths and any number of street canvases with his distinctive visual style, many accompanied by messages that are anti-war, anti-consumerism, anti-imperialism and existentialism. All of these pieces are imbued by his authentic signature, simply “Banksy.”
There are three kinds of Banksy shows,” Simon Bull, owner of The Meuse Gallery, explained. “There are official shows that Banksy puts on himself. Currently, he is exhibiting his stencil work.
“Then there are shows that are put together by collectors who show a variety of Banksy’s work. One of these shows is on a nationwide tour and recently passed through Denver.
“Our show is different because we are really focusing on how Banksy’s street art is restored from its original location and turned into fine art. We have several original pieces culled from their original locations in the exhibit.”
In 2011, Banksy directed the Oscar-nominated film “Exit Through The Gift Shop.” The premise is something like this: Art imitates life, which imitates art, which imitates life and then makes art for collectors that reach into their pockets to consume the work, many of whom wouldn’t know fine art from a fine pizza.
“Exit Through The Gift Shop” is a satire of art (including his own), artists and the people who buy it. It also blurs the line about documentary film, leaving the viewer wondering at the end, “Was that a true story or was it made up?”
Shepard Fairey is one of the great street artists of his generation, best known for his iconic Barack Obama “Hope” poster. While promoting “Exit,” he had this to say about Banksy in an interview with WNEW in New York City.
“Banksy is an artist who has put a lot of great work up in public and prefers to be anonymous both to give him the freedom to do what he wants to do and carefully control the way his message is put out. He’s important because he’s put really smart political commentary out on the streets that’s accessible, populist, while being both profound and basic.”
When asked what his favorite Banksy piece is, Fairy responded, “One of my favorites is the little girl that’s holding a red heart balloon that’s blowing away and taken by the wind. It speaks more to innocence and loss than any piece I can think of.”
“Girl With Balloon” was created by Banksy in 2005 as a series on 25 uniquely spray-painted canvases. It is considered his most iconic work.
In perhaps his most audacious move ever, Banksy received worldwide attention in 2018 when “Girl With Balloon” was auctioned for $1.2 million at Christie’s. As the gavel dropped, the piece was lowered and came out of the bottom of the frame and passed through a shredder that he had built into it — destroying the piece in front of a horrified crowd of art collectors.
However, the piece was only three-quarters destroyed. It was then renamed “Love is in the Bin” and sold in 2021 for $25.4 million. Such is the absurdity of the art world.
One of the original pieces from the “Girl With Balloon” series (#22) that was not shredded is included in the collection that will be on display at Meuse Gallery Aspen. The last “Girl With Balloon” piece sold for $3.85 million at auction at Christies in 2021.
A derivative version of Banksy’s iconic “balloon girl” is shown.
Every piece in the “Restored-Reclaimed” show is for sale. There are four other original Banksy pieces that were reclaimed and restored for the show. These pieces are one-of-a-kind originals that exist on the very walls on which Banksy spraypainted them.
These pieces are “Peace is Tough” which features a depiction of a helicopter from “Apocalypse Now”; a second helicopter piece called “Have a Nice Day” featuring the same helicopter but adorned with a pink ribbon; “Yellow Lines Flower Painter,” a street painter sitting on a paint bucket with his roller; and a wall covered with red graffiti that says “If Graffiti Changed Anything It Would Be Illegal” with his signature Banksy rat as the visual terrorist.
The “Graffiti” and “Have a Nice Day” pieces are facsimile representations of the walls themselves. The actual walls are in London and weigh over two tons so they were not transported to the states, but the originals are for sale and can be shipped anywhere in the world.
When asked what the prices of these original works will command, Bull said, “Prices are available upon request, but similar wall pieces have sold for numbers with many zeros at the end of them.”
There are pieces with less zeros and prints available for $750 for those who don’t want to break the Banksy. “I don’t imagine the prints will last long,” Bull said.
When asked about Banksy’s legacy, Bull responded, “In many ways Banksy is the world’s biggest marketing scam, while simultaneously being one of the most important artists of the 21st century.”
Creating art and scamming the art world while delivering his socio-political commentary might very well be Banksy’s driving motivation — stuffing wads of cash in his pockets all along the way.
‘Remarkable trees’ led art gallery owner to Aspen
Not long ago, Simon Bull came to Aspen to paint the turning of the Aspen trees. It wasn’t just the trees that caught his attention, it was the town itself that drew him in.
“My work is all based on my experience in the natural world,” Bull said in a recent interview. “The Aspens here are remarkable. While I was here, I got excited about the town and the galleries that are here. I thought it was an opportunity to expand my gallery network. I found a great spot (601 E. Hyman Ave., No. 201) and I moved to town.”
Bull opened the doors to Meuse Gallery Aspen on Nov. 23. The gallery displays both Bull’s original work and the work of other artists, including the street artist Banksy, whose show “Banksy — Restoration and Reclaimed” opens to the public on Saturday.
Bull owns Meuse galleries in Carmel-by-the-Sea and St. Helena in California. He is an internationally renowned artist whose work has been displayed all over the world.
He began as a printmaker and was recognized as one of the best. He then turned his focus to paintings which are mostly abstract and characterized by vibrant colors.
In 2006, Bull was invited to paint Muhammad Ali, who then invited Bull to chronicle his life through art. Ali commissioned Bull to paint Barack Obama as a personal gift from Ali to Obama to commemorate their relationship.
“It was interesting for me as an artist to take a person like Ali, whose pictures were all taken in black and white and tell their stories in color to a new generation who weren’t so familiar with him,” Bull said.
The Banksy show began as a collaboration between Bull and his son Chris who was working for an art restoration company in London. The company worked on pieces from the Mesopotamian era to abstract expressionist work.
The company restored a Banksy piece inside of a building that was spraypainted onto a toilet. The building was going to be demolished, and the group restored the toilet. The building was demolished, save for the Banksy toilet and the new building was built around the toilet, keeping it in its exact location.
“That experience was a big success,” Bull said. “It got us onto the idea of restoring more Banksys and bringing them to market.”
Since Bull announced the show, he has been approached by three different wall owners who have asked to be included in the exhibition.
“This show is going to tour,” Bull said. “We’re acquiring new pieces. It will grow and we’ll take to different locations, starting with my two galleries in California.”
Bull pointed out that it was important that the show be accessible to all people and decided to make it free to the public (the fee for a Banksy show in Denver cost $35).
“We could have done the show in London but we chose Aspen because it’s a small market where we can reach the right people,” Bull said. “The environment is perfect, you can ski in the day and buy a Banksy in the afternoon.”
For more information, visit meusegallery.com.
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